Archive for May, 2010

Summary:

Follow 10 simple rules of thumb and you’ll soon be writing great newsletters
and reaping the rewards. Company newsletters can be an amazingly successful
marketing technique.

Whether you want to up-sell or cross-sell, establish your brand or establish
your authority, or simply reach a wider market, a newsletter can do
the job for you. You just have to make sure you write it right.

Here are 10 simple rules …

Television, radio, and print advertising are often too expensive for many businesses
to justify – especially small businesses. Fortunately, there is an alternative.

Today’s internet and email technologies make company newsletters a very inexpensive,
yet surprisingly effective, form of advertising. When it comes to newsletters,
big companies and small are finally competing on a level playing field.

So what is an email newsletter?

An emailed newsletter serves much the same purpose as a traditional company newsletter.
Think of it as a short newspaper – but instead of relating to a town, city or country, it relates
to your business. You can include articles on new products or services, awards, recent success stories and case studies, promotions, specials, share price rises, company events, research …
And if it’s a quiet month, you can simply write articles that might help your customers out.

10 Steps to Success

1) Keep It New! Your readers won’t waste time reading something they already know,
so make it news they can use.

2) Keep it personal: Always use your reader’s name.
Make sure when someone signs up, you get his or her name,
then use it in the subject line, in the greeting, and anywhere else you can.

3) Know your reader: Find out what your reader is interested in.
Do some research, invite responses, or find an email marketing solution
that tracks the links your readers click on and keeps a history of their activity.

4) Let them know you: Let your personality shine through.
Readers are far more likely to become loyal if they feel they know you.
Always include a bit of you in the newsletter, whether it’s humor,
personal details, personal anecdotes or personal views.

5) Subject is Headline: The subject line of an email newsletter is like a front-page headline
in a newspaper. You need to draw the reader in, so make it engaging and relevant (maybe promise a benefit) but no more than 25 characters so your reader can see it all before opening
the email.

6) Use a Title bar: Make the most of the title bar to add visual appeal
and establish brand awareness.

7) Make it ‘scannable’: Most people don’t read online – they scan.
Make sure you use easy-to-read bullet points and sub-headings.
Don’t lose your reader’s attention. Reading is physically more difficult online,
so make sure you’re concise. Use links to other places instead of writing long articles.

Use White space!: If your page is too busy, you’ll lose your reader.
Give them a chance to absorb valuable information by dedicating about 30%
of your screen real estate to white space.

9) Easy unsubscribe: Make your unsubscribe easy to find.
If it’s obvious, they’ll feel safe and can then appreciate the content.
To many people, the ease of unsubscribing is an indicator of the integrity of your company.

10) Forward to a friend: Include a link to encourage readers to forward the newsletter
on to their friends and colleagues. Find an email marketing solution which allows you
to do this and sit back and watch your database grow!

Jan Tallent of Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance has been the editor of her own ezine,
Rim Digest eZine for Marketers and Small Business Owners for 10 years.

And if you decide to start your own ezine, she can do your proofreading and editing for you
and even do the research for your articles, jokes, freebies, etc. that you might have as content.

Learn how you can Increase your eZine‘s readership.
For more information visit us at our website today!

You Have Won!

Hold an ongoing prize drawing in your eZine.

The prizes should be something of interest or value to your subscribers.
Most people who enter will continually read each issue for the results.

100% Original

Give your subscribers content they can’t read anywhere else.
I’m not saying all your content has to be 100% original,
but a portion of your eZine should have original information.

People will usually read information they haven’t read before.

Was I Right?

Give your subscribers a quiz or a series of trivia questions.

Publish the correct answers in your following issue.
The people who participate will want to see if they were right.

Read All About It!

Supply news stories related to your eZine’s topic.

People want current and up-to-date news.
If you can be their first source, they will become loyal readers.

The Polls Are In!

Hold an interactive poll in your eZine.

Ask subscribers a poll question.
Have them e-mail their vote or opinion.
People love to give their 2 cents worth.
They would also like to read the results in your next issue.

Become A Jester

Give your subscribers a little humor now and then.

Don’t be so serious, tell them a joke.
If they associate your eZine with being happy
they will want to read every issue.

The Information Free-way

People love to get free stuff.

Tell readers were to get free stuff online or offline.
It could be software, services, sample products, e-books, etc.

The freebies should be related to your eZine’s topic.
Keep the freebies coming and your subscribers will keep reading!

Mini-Yahoo

Tell your subscribers about Web sites related to your eZine’s topic.

The web sites should be interesting and helpful.
Become your readers’ miniature “Yahoo”, after all,
you know how many readers they get.

12 useful ezine publishing tips to help you increase your subscriptions
and make more money with your ezine.

1. Post testimonials for your ezine on your site.

You’ll be able to increase your ezine’s credibility by sharing
how your ezine has benefited your readers.

2. Include a few testimonials for your business in each issue.

In addition to using testimonials for your ezine, use testimonials
for your products within your ezine that share your customers’
favorable feedback.

3. Write articles.

Your articles can help you to share your expertise
with your readers and add your voice to your ezine.

They can also help you to increase your subscriptions
by building up more targeted traffic to your site.

4. Swap ads.

You’ll create a win-win situation as both you and the
other ezine publisher will get valuable free promotion
of each other’s ezines.

When possible, swap for multiple issues as repetition
will increase your ad’s response.

5. Swap a recommendation within your ezine.

Simply plug another publisher’s ezine in your ezine
(i.e., in your editor’s or publisher’s note)
in exchange for that publisher doing the same for you.

6. Swap “thank you” page ads or recommendations.

You’ll be able to get valuable ongoing promotion of your ezine
as everyone that fills out your swapper’s subscription form
or box will see your ezine’s ad or recommendation.

7. Offer a bonus.

For example, you could offer ebooks, an email course
or access to your “subscriber only” membership site
as a bonus for joining you.

8. Run “subscriber only” deals on your products
and on advertising in your ezine.

You’ll get more first time buyers and also repeat business.

You’ll also be able to show your readers that you value them
by providing them with sales and promotions that are just for them.

9. Write product reviews.

You’ll be able to benefit your readers by giving them the lowdown
on products you use or have tried.

You’ll also be able to increase your commissions
by publishing your positive reviews with your affiliate links.

10. Recommend affiliate programs.

After you’ve gained your readers’ trust, a powerful way
to increase your commissions is to endorse products
in your ezine that you’ve found to be valuable
and you believe will help your readers.

11. Promote your ezine in your sig file.

Use your signature file that promotes your ezine
in your day to day emails and also, when appropriate,
in your posts to forums that you’ve joined
and participate in.

12. Have your readers forward your ezine issues.

Get valuable word of mouth promotion for your ezine
by asking your readers to forward your issues in their
entirety to their friends and colleagues that might be
interested in the content and/or niche of your ezine.

Niche marketing is finding a small area of a big market
and selling products or services to that small area.

I want to take niche marketing a step further
and show you a little secret I have stumbled on
with creating eZines for niche markets.

By creating eZines in different niche topics,
you can make your niche marketing efforts
even easier! You can put your whole entire
niche marketing system on autopilot.

The Auto-Pilot Niche eZines course goes more in depth
on the subject of profiting from niche markets
than any other course I have seen online.

I have loved being the editor of my own eZine, Rim Digest eZine,
for over ten years AND believe that it helped me gain the experience,
exposure and the desire to pursue all of my ventures since I started
with my eZine.

eZine publishers today use any one or more of the 3 most commonly used eZine formats
which I am about to describe to you in this article.

Ultimately, you can decide which format is the best choice for you, though each winning format has its pros and cons.

The text eZine is the most commonly published. The advantage of this format is that other than writing, you do not require any special skill to use a Word or Notepad program.

While the HTML eZine format requires a certain degree of HTML skills on your part, you can add more sophisticated features to your eZine issues, making them more appealing to your subscribers which increases your readership value, something that text eZines do not have.

You can decorate your eZine format, change your fonts, include pictures and more. However, the drawback often faced by HTML eZines is that they often get trapped into spam filters before they reach their subscribers’ inboxes.

The third and least used among the 3 formats is the PDF eZine. Publishing your eZine in PDF format can consume a lot of time and effort on your part but often makes up for the time and effort in quality readership.

Due to the commitment, PDF eZines are usually published on a monthly basis. The great part, though, is that you can put your affiliate links in your PDF eZine issue and allow your subscribers to pass the eZine issue around.

Given the choices, however, you do not have to necessarily choose strictly one eZine format,
as some eZine publishers today do publish in more than one manner.

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