As a business owner, you are certainly an expert. You keep up with industry trends, you understand the benefits of your products and services, and you have creative ideas.

So why not provide some of your wisdom to your customers – through an email newsletter?

Actually, with web services like Vertical Response and Constant Contact, it's fairly easy to set one up. But before getting started, let's take a look at some things that will help your efforts:

Content Is King: Yes, it's a cliché. Then again, it seems that newsletter writers spend lots of time on the design of the email, not the content. Don't fall into this trap. Instead, try to come up with content that your readers can't wait to read. Some ideas:

• Tips
• Recent experiences
• Innovative uses of your product
• Profiles of customer successes
• Industry statistics
• How-to pieces

Oh, and make sure you spell-check your email and have someone provide some editing.

Email marketing can be quite effective. According to a report from the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing returned $51.58 in sales for each dollar spent. This compares to $17.07 for newspaper ads and $15.64 for direct mail.

The good news is that there are cost-effective email marketing tools, such as from Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT).

But what are some useful strategies? Well, I had a chance to talk to Trynka Shineman, the senior vice president of North American marketing for VistaPrint (NASDAQ: VPRT). Let's take a look:

Getting Action: Try to cross-sell customers, such as through an order confirmation email. You can provide a special price and a link to a splash page to a relevant product offer.

"It's also important to create a sense of urgency," said Shineman. "Customers need to know not only that they are receiving something targeted to them, but a date encourages them to act quickly versus delaying the decision."