Does your company have a newsletter? It’s one of the typical questions yours truly asks when networking with other business owners. The typical response is “what can I expect for a return on my investment?” Rather than reel off the typical, “it depends” answer, here’s a better response.

When somebody scores a goal in hockey, they not only give an assist to the person who passed the puck, but the player who passed to the guy who passed to the goal scorer. Your newsletter can be the second assist guy.

How? First, let’s operate under the premise that what’s in the newsletter is newsworthy (e.g. a new product or service; an old product or service improved, etc.). By sending your newsletter to your existing client base, you’re doing more than informing them. In a sense, you’re making them sales agents. Pass number one.

With this information, the client/customer now has information about your company. Perhaps they need the new and improved product or service? Maybe they were about to call you for additional help and your newsletter just jogged their memory?

Even better, maybe they know somebody who might need this product or service? Now they have something to forward to gauge whether there is interest. That’s a far cry better than passing along a cold lead your customer may or may not have thought to give you. Your newsletter just reminded them. Pass number two.

Score!!!!!!

Similarly, a newsletter can be an effective tool for your sales force. Whether it’s an e-newsletter like this one or a traditional hard copy one, providing your sales force with leave-behinds is a critical part of staying front-of-brain with your customers. And that’s a major assist in increasing sales.

If you don’t have an e-newsletter, Constant Contact is an easy and affordable way to get started. For a free, 60-day trial membership, click here.

Who hasn’t, out of morbid curiosity, done an Internet search on your name or business name? If we could see a show of hands, it’s probably a good bet that everybody raised them. That’s what makes it slightly perplexing why people do not use Google alerts.

For those of you who may not know, Google, Yahoo and other Internet search sites offer a free tool where you submit a keyword or keyword phrase and you will be notified by e-mail when that word or phrase appears on the Internet.

For example, we could choose an alert for “HiRoad Communications”. Then we can determine whether we want to be notified when “Hiroad Communications” is mentioned anywhere on the Web or just on News sites. You can even determine how often you want to receive the e-mail–as it happens, once a day or once a week. Pretty cool.

As a business that offers PR services, HiRoad Communications uses Google alerts to see if the releases we put out for clients are picked up by news sites as well as traditional sites. While not as effective as a clipping service, the price is right-free. Yes, you may miss an occasional clip, but you get the big ones and that’s what’s really important.

PR aside, it’s just a good idea to create one for your name and business. On the business side, it’s nice to know what people are saying about you or your company. On a personal side, it offers some nice benefits, too. For example, I set one up for my children’s names. Now, if they should happen to make honor roll or if there’s a story on one of their sports teams, I get a notification.

So, if you’ve ever been in one of those curious moods and decide to Google your name, take it one step further and set up a Google alert. Just click here and you can get started today.

Was going to call this “Five things that saved my backside in 2009” but thought that might be a little extreme. Still, 2009 would not have been the same, and not in a good way, without:

Vocus – While they offer a wide range of services, Vocus’ calling card is in press release distribution. Compared to another company that shall remain nameless (hint: it’s former name is made from pigs), Vocus makes sending out releases a breeze. Even better, it makes personalizing those releases just as simple.

Constant Contact – I know what you’re thinking, you’re living in the Dark Ages? What about blogs? Tweets? Social media? When you get right down to it, Constant Contact is a darn effective tool in communicating with your existing client base. Not that every recipient reads every word. It’s just a nice way to let your clients-current, former and future-know you’re still kicking.

TweetDeck – Okay, so who didn’t attempt some sort of social media in 2009? And if it took you half of 2009 to get Twitter, TweetDeck made it that much easier. Even better, it made it possible for you to post your tweets on Facebook as well.

FreeConferenceCalling.com – Besides the free part, this service enables you to record your conference calls. Call me a babe in the woods, but that’s a service that came in pretty handy for an important interview, but we’ll talk about that in future Changing Lanes.

PDFonfly.com – Not sure exactly what PDF stands for. When a large part of your business is getting your client in the newspapers, nowadays online, you want to get that coverage to them asap. This free service enables you to convert HTML Web pages to PDF PDQ.