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email marketing

Why we love email marketing and communications

Rae Hostetler · Sep 10, 2019 ·

email marketingI was thinking about writing this blog and then (moments ago) I received an email from a client with the subject line, “Phones are going NUTS!!!!!” (yes, caps and five exclamation points). So I thought, well now is the time to write this and share it.

I love email newsletters as a communications tool. They’re relatively easy to set up, add/maintain contacts, brand and use to communicate. Most of our clients have email communications in their strategic plans. They all have various reasons why that ties to a goal.

Here are uses and results.

  • The client noted above with their phone going NUTS right now runs a local, family operated heating, cooling and plumbing business. Their brand is personal and customer driven. We email information to educate customers and remind them of services. Today’s email was simple… don’t forget to call us to schedule your fall furnace tune up. The people who received the message subscribe to a maintenance agreement program and have paid for the service already. So wow… one email made the phones ring, schedule fill and get trucks on the road. Trucks on the road means more branding because you’ll see the Howald Heating, Air Conditioning and Plumbing logo around Indianapolis.
  • We work with the Stutz Artists Association. The group is a non-profit that’s a members association. During our planning assessment, we were given access to their email newsletter, which was set up already. We quickly noted that there were not a lot of member email communications being sent via their newsletter system. There were emails that were forwards from personal email addresses with bits and pieces of information. Over 90 days, we’ve started a consistent emails campaign for membership and they’re seeing the impact. The last email open rate was over 80% among members. The benefit: the more in-the-know members, the better engagement for association events.
  • Another client, Cargo Services, uses email communications to support their sales team. The company is a freight forwarder, think importing and exporting (and yes, tariffs). Each member of the team has an email list of clients and prospects segmented in the system. Emails are sent from a customer’s sales rep (meaning the email has the sales rep’s name on it). Their communications program is “thought leadership” driven. That means the client has articles on industry topics to support their brand: Customer Driven, Creative Solutions, Community Focused. Topics range from their community program supporting foster youth in Indiana to articles with tariff updates, industry changes, regions of the world for manufacturing and more. A day or so after an email is sent, we give sales reps the information about who has opened the email and clicked to the full article on their website. We’re seeing more email opt ins (about 20 in August alone) and more website traffic. In turn, that is driving client conversations and sales.

If you’re interested in creating a strategic communications program that includes email marketing, contact us to start the conversation.

Return on the investment in messaging–A true testimonial

Rae Hostetler · Aug 9, 2013 ·

Late last night I received an email from an Indianapolis public relations client. I happen to download email into my iPhone (I know a no-no) and was thrilled to read these words from one of the sales reps at a client company:

Thought u (sic) guys and Rae would like to know how (this prospect) found us, and his opinion of our web site.

We are a small company located in Indiana and are looking for a reliable and trusted (company like yours) to (partner with).  I came across your company name on the a website and after visiting your website was quite intrigued by the message there.

The key word here is “message.” The client message did not just happen. We worked a process that derived the company story to ensure its authentic and compelling. Compelling enough for a prospect to reach out to a sales rep on a Thursday evening to set a meeting time generating ROI. Here’s how we did it.

The client called me a few years ago (then prospect) saying we’ve met a few times and now we need you. There are three owners at the company, an independently owned and operated mid-sized, growing company in Indianapolis. The owners thought they knew their company “story,” but didn’t know how to translate it to their marketing. We met as a group and talked through their company story “hypothesis.” I recommended this process to determine if they were right:

1) Immersion: Tell me all about your company, your staff, your long term goals and how you got to where you are today. Tell me what you think your story is.

2) Interviews: Let’s talk to people who work for you, with you and around you asking a similar series of questions to discover their experiences and interactions with your business. Will they say the same thing?

3) Download: After all interviews are completed, we drafted a topline report that revealed what people think. In this case, clients loved the company for its customer service, community relations and expertise of the staff.

4) Story telling: Draft the company message around the feedback people provided.

5) Marketing plan: Now that the company knew what to say, we created a marketing plan. It’s ongoing to this day.

It’s because of this process and plan that the prospect found the client company online. You see, that prospect didn’t just “happen” upon the website link. He’d been receiving personal email marketing with our messaging from the sales rep (our marketing), clicked to the link we provided in the email and returned to the website. It’s due to the website development with strategic messaging that this guy was intrigued. And its the ROI we love to hear about to know our clients are getting what they need from communications planning coupled with ongoing public relations work!

 

We look forward to helping you communicate your image!

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