Most marketers will tell you the money is in your e-mail list. One of the easiest ways to create an e-mail list is by offering a giveaway that someone receives in exchange for their e-mail address. What you do with that e-mail address after that initial exchange can be the difference between cultivating a relationship and an eventual sale or losing a potential customer. If you ignore the people on your email list, you’ll never develop the kind of relationship that will drive sales.

Newsletters are one way to stay top of mind and to nurture your audience until they're ready to buy. You may be thinking, But aren't newsletters time consuming and difficult to write? Don't they require a lot of design work? Sometimes. There are many different types of newsletters, and they don’t all require hours of prep work.

In this article, we'll go over 12 formats so you can pick the one that best works for you and your ideal audience and that fits your time, your brand voice, and your audience’s attention span. Keep in mind, you don’t have to pick one. You can use several of these approaches in one newsletter.

You know the old adage, “It takes money to make money”? While that may be true, marketing and advertising don’t have to cost a fortune. In fact, some of the most effective ways to get your business noticed are either free or surprisingly affordable (especially with the technology available). Whether you’re just getting started or trying to grow on a tight budget, here are 15 creative and cost-effective ideas to boost your visibility and draw in customers.

If you’re like most businesspeople, finding ways to get names on your emailing list can be exhausting. We all want tons of fans and followers. There’s value behind a list of people who are interested in what you offer. Most businesses start their list with people they know. But if you want to turn your email list into marketing gold, you need to get strangers (who will become potential customers) interested in you. That’s no easy task.

It’s the kind of activity that most of us avoid because the thought of it seems so overwhelming.

As a business owner, you are well-served by collecting emails and running an email marketing campaign if for no other reason than to remain top-of-mind with your customers. When they’re getting emails from you with exciting news and great deals (who couldn’t use those these days?) they’ll get used to hearing from you and seeing your name.

But you want to do more than just be recognizable and remain top-of-mind. You want your emails to drive purchases. Even if you don’t sell online, emails are an excellent motivator and nurturer for in-person purchases—if you can get recipients to open them.

If you want to remain top-of-mind with your customers (as well as nurture people who are interested in your business, but not yet buying from you), you need to be able to stay in touch. While social media may seem like a good first step, you’re limited in how often your audience sees your posts. And you’re not in control of the algorithms that impact that so… You need to start building your email list.