Anyone purchase any marketing guru materials?

They like it because it is fairly interesting and gives facts/stories pertanent to the associated month. I know we all want to bombard them with carpet facts that we find insightful (see impress them with our knowledge) and that we think would be helpful to them, but this is probably not what the majority of them want to read. We use the face time in front of them when we’re cleaning their house to impress them. We use the newsletter as something they look forward to each month/quarter to read. We think our newsletter’s main purpose is to get our name in front of them in a positive light. Think about the “junk mail” you receive daily. Which pieces do you look at? I imagine many of you are like me and due to our occupation, we read everything, but think about the ones you would truly want to read if you were an everyday joe. I used to receive a quarterly post card from a dentist I went to once. What did the postcard say each time? I have no idea, all I know is that I viewed it as an inconvenience and another piece of junk mail I had to throw away because it just put his/her name in front of me and did not connect with me in any other way. We have only had one customer ever ask to be taken off the newsletter mailing list. Below are some examples of the stories/facts on a November newsletter. I’m not saying this is the end all be all of newsletters and that everyone should sign up for it. What I do think people should do is evaluate their own newsletters if they are creating it and decide “what is the purpose of the newsletter and is it fulfilling this objective?”, and also if it is something that your customers would really like to read. Give it to friends/family and get their honest opinions. Like I said, we use our’s mainly as a way to keep our name in front of our customer and maybe enlighten them in the process. Some of you may want to educate your customer on carpet care, and that is perfectly fine if that is the purpose of your newsletter. Overall, I think something is better than nothing and highly recommend sending your regular customers something on a regular basis to keep your name in front of them.

Thanksgiving: The U.S. Census Bureau released these pertinent holiday facts and figures last year:
Turkeys: There were 269 million turkeys raised in the United States last year — nearly one for every American. The turkey industry grosses $2.7 billion a year; Minnesota and North Carolina are the top two producers.

Cranberries: More than 580 million pounds of cranberries were grown, with Wisconsin the lead state at 305 million.

Sweet Potatoes: Sweet potato production reached 1.3 billion pounds. North Carolina, California, Mississippi, and Louisiana, respectively, are the top producers.

Pumpkins: More than 790 million pounds of pumpkins were grown, with Illinois accounting for nearly half that, followed by California, Pennsylvania, and New York.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
The first Macy’s parade was organized on Thanksgiving Day in 1924 by the immigrant employees of the department store who wanted to celebrate the American holiday with a European-type festival. They marched from 145th Street to 34th Street in Manhattan dressed as clowns, cowboys, knights, and sheiks. Marching bands played, and horses pulled floats; 25 animals — including camels, goats, elephants, and donkeys — were borrowed from Central Park Zoo. Ten thousand onlookers attended.
Three years later, the live animals were replaced with balloons. By the mid-1930s, the tradition was firmly in place. A million people lined the parade route. It took a “patriotic pause” for three years during War World II, with Macy’s donating the helium and rubber to the war effort. The parade was first televised nationally by NBC in 1948; today, nearly 35 million American households tune in and watch the parade.

Cinnamon for Health
Cinnamon, long used to treat high blood pressure and poor blood circulation in traditional Asian medicine, is drawing attention from Western researchers. In a recent study, diabetics who consumed between one and three grams of cinnamon daily showed a significant drop in their blood glucose levels and cholesterol. Cinnamon, which comes from the bark of an evergreen tree, contains manganese, iron, fiber, and calcium.

U.S. Marine Corps Birthday, Nov. 10
This day commemorates the establishment of the U.S. Marine Corps in 1775. It was originally part of the Navy, but became a separate service in 1789. With 172,000 Marines on active duty, the Corps is one of the smallest of the U.S. armed forces.
Since 1921 the birthday of the Marine Corps has been officiall celebrated each year on 10 November, since it was on this date in 1775 that Continental Congress resolved, “That two Battalions of Marines be raised….” Over the years the Marine Corps Birthday has been celebrated in a wide variety of ways, depending on the location and circumstances of the Marine units. The celebration involves the reading of an excerpt from the Marine Corps Manual and a birthday message from the Commandant; the cutting of a birthday cake by the commanding officer; and the presentation of the first and second pieces of cake to the oldest and youngest Marines present. Recently, the ceremony for the observance of the Marine Corps Birthday by large posts and stations has been incorporated into written directives.
Why Marines are called “Devil Dogs”: In the Belleau Wood fighting in 1918, the Germans received a thorough indoctrination in the fighting ability of Marines, which they could have used to forewarn their axis partner, Japan, in 1941. Fighting through supposedly impenetrable woods and capturing supposedly untakeable terrain, the men of the 4th Marine Brigade struck terror in the hearts of the Germans. The persistent attacks delivered with unbelievable courage soon had the Germans referring to Marines as the Teufelhunden meaning “fierce fighting dogs of legendary origin” or as popularly translated “Devil Dogs.”

Corp. used to do a newsletter that we could purchase and send out to our customers. I was doing that about every 3 months. Unfortunately that stopped doing that, i think due to lack of response. I had many positive feedback about it. They all loved the recipes that were on there.

I have never done a newsletter but am very interested in doing it. I have a couple of questions to post to all though:
1) Do you send it to your businesses that you clean?
2)Where do you get your information to put in? This has been one of the drawbacks for me. Having to come up with 2+ whole pages of information each month seems like it would take me a week just to research it out.