If you’ve ever wondered whether sending a regular email to your customers is actually worth the effort, you’re asking the right question. Plenty of businesses start a newsletter, send three, and quietly give up. Others never start because they’re not convinced it does anything. It’s the same question we hear from most Kitchener-Waterloo businesses before they hand their email newsletters to us.
Here’s the honest answer, and what to know before you decide.
First, a telling sign of the problem
We looked at 100 small business websites across Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge to see how active local businesses actually are online. One finding stood out: 80% published nothing on their website in a full year. No new page, no blog post, no update. Nothing.
That number is about websites, but it points to something bigger. A business that never updates its site is usually a business that has gone quiet everywhere, including with the customers who already know them. And that silence is one of the most expensive marketing mistakes a local business can make, mostly because almost nobody notices they’re making it.
The customer you already won is the one you stop talking to
Think about the last customer who was happy with your work. They trusted you enough to pay you. They’d probably use you again. They might even refer you.
Then what happened? For most businesses, nothing. No follow-up, no check-in, no reason to remember your name. Six months later that customer needs the thing you sell, can’t recall who did the work last time, and searches Google or asks a friend. The job goes to whoever stayed visible.
You didn’t lose that customer because you did poor work. You lost them because you went quiet. A newsletter is the simplest way to not go quiet.
So are they worth it? The math is simpler than you think
This is the real question, so here’s the straight answer. You don’t need a newsletter to blow up or go viral. You need one customer to come back. One referral to land because someone remembered you at the right moment. For most local businesses, a single piece of repeat work covers a year of staying in touch several times over.
Every marketing dollar you spend chasing new customers is fighting an uphill battle: they don’t know you, don’t trust you, and have no reason to pick you over the competition. The customer who already trusts you needs none of that convincing. Winning a new customer costs far more than keeping an existing one, and existing customers tend to spend more and refer more over time.
The list of people who already know you is the cheapest, highest-return marketing asset your business owns. A newsletter is just how you use it. That’s what makes it worth it.
What a good newsletter actually looks like
Being worth it depends on doing it right. A newsletter that’s worth sending doesn’t mean spamming anyone or turning into a marketer. For a local business it’s simple:
- A short note a few times a year, or monthly if you’ve got more to say.
- Something useful or human: what you’ve been working on, a seasonal tip, a piece of news, a heads-up they’d actually want.
- Sent in your voice, so it sounds like you and not a corporate blast.
- Consistent, so your name stays familiar instead of fading.
The goal isn’t to go viral. It’s to be the first name they think of when they need you next.
Why almost nobody does it (even though it works)
If staying in touch is so valuable, why do so many businesses go quiet?
It’s not that owners don’t understand the value. It’s time. Writing a newsletter every month means sitting down, thinking of something to say, drafting it, making it look decent, and actually remembering to send it. For a business owner already stretched across sales, operations, and delivery, “email the customer list” is the task that never makes it to the top of the pile.
So it doesn’t happen. Not because it isn’t worth it, but because there’s never a free afternoon to start. If that’s the only thing stopping you, it’s a solvable problem, and a done-for-you newsletter service exists precisely for it.
The bottom line before you start
Email newsletters are worth it when they reach people who already know you, sound like you, and go out consistently. They’re not worth it if you start with enthusiasm, run out of time, and let them fizzle after a couple of sends. Consistency is the whole game, and consistency is exactly where good intentions usually collapse.
That’s the part we handle. We set it up on a platform you own, pull the content from you in about ten minutes, write it in your voice, send it to you for approval, and get it out the door. You stay in front of your customers without it becoming another job.
If you’ve decided it’s worth it but know you won’t keep it up alone, that’s the fix. See how our newsletter plans work, or book a 20-minute call and we’ll build you a sample of what your first one would look like.
