Creating Newsletters
That Sell As Well As Inform
Running you own free Newsletter or Ezine can bring huge
benefits to your website and profits. Newsletters are one of the
most important components for you to drive traffic to your website
and build your online business.
The popularity of these newsletters is based on the need for
information. The main reason people are online is because they want
and need information and that is exactly what newsletters provide.
Newsletters are mostly delivered via email, some however are
delivered as HTML pages. Newsletters which are delivered as HTML
pages still utilize email, as the webmaster will email subscribers
notifying them that a new issue is ready.
There are many advantages of starting your own newsletter,
however newsletters do require a bit of work to get started and
maintain so they may not be for everyone.
The two main advantages are:
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Being able to maintain regular contact, and
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Being able to build a relationship with your subscribers
Newsletters allow you to maintain regular contact with your
website visitors, this is vital to success, because rarely do people
buy on there first visit, in fact people usually have to be exposed
to an offer several times before they actually buy. A Newsletter
allows you to keep the connection with your site visitors reminding
them of how your product is suited for them.
Newsletters give you the "excuse" to send potential customers
emails packed with articles and off course your sales message.
Newsletters are great for building trust and relationships online,
if your newsletter provides regular quality content which your
subscribers can really use, they will begin to trust your opinion
and also they will begin to feel that they know you. This is
important as developing relationships is vital for any business.
The other, often overlooked, advantage of having a newsletter,
is the income it can generate, not from selling your products and
services but from selling advertising space in it. You do need a
medium to large subscriber base before other businesses will be
interested in advertising but this is not that hard to achieve,
especially if it is regularly full of quality content. You can earn
a few hundred every month just from ads if you play your cards
rights.
Your online customers will eventually become your offline
customers if they trust the information you regularly send them. Put
simply, a newsletter is your way of helping people. If you help
people online, eventually they will buy from you.
However, running your own newsletter involves considerable
amount of work. It is vital that you regularly write a lot of
quality content before your next send-out. Besides, ideally a
newsletter should be sent out every week or at least every
fortnight. This is not always easy. In fact it's never easy; the
next thing that adds to your work load when it comes to newsletters
is maintaining your email addresses. Many of the email addresses may
be wrong. Maintaining a list of working email addresses is crucial.
Just as in the olden days, trust builds relationships, and
relationships build sales. Used properly, newsletters can help build
business relationships based on trust. And the key word is
trust--trustworthiness in content, subject lines,
mailing lists, regularity, and ability to quickly subscribe and
unsubscribe. Given below are some of the key advantages of
newsletters:
Newsletters demonstrate value
Newsletters deliver valuable information that solves the
day-to-day problems of readers, helps them stay on top of industry
trends, and saves time by distilling practical information such as
real-world best practices and industry advances from many sources.
They help in building trust
As stated earlier, the most crucial benefit arising out of
newsletters is building of trust. Newsletters can very easily become
customers’ trusted information source on business problems. Trust
helps you to position your company as a credible source, which in
turn retains your customer base.
Online business owners can portray themselves as a stable
source of information
Newsletters deliver accurate and timely information that is
vital to the success of your customers and visitors business at
regular intervals over time.
Newsletters serve as an
attention puller
Valuable and relevant information
can always prove to be a great attention puller. Most people dread
junk emails. However, once you build a sense of trust amongst your
potential customers, you can reinforce your value to your visitors
with each newsletter issue.
Newsletters offer better
prospects for closing a sale
Not only do newsletters make it easy for potential customers
to contact you, they also let you harvest the relationship built
around them and simplify sales for your sales team. The sales team
dreams of knowing about their prospects’ hot buttons prior to making
that first call.
Creating a successful newsletter can be extremely rewarding.
Subscribers and customers respond with glowing feedback, online
sales jump and your customer relationships and brand loyalty
deepens. Here are some useful tips that might help in creating a
successful newsletter.
Define Success
Ask yourself “What is the purpose of your newsletter?” A
newsletter is a substantial investment of company resources in terms
of time and energy, and you need to define in as tangible terms as
possible the purpose of your Newsletter.
Voice
and Personality
Establish a voice or editorial personality – whether newsy,
serious, gossipy or funny – that is synergistic with the image you
want to portray and connects with your audience. Remember
that email newsletters aren't email promotions designed to stimulate
immediate action. Sales and promotional copy don't suit
e-newsletters. Nor does the traditional tone of broadcast corporate
communications.
Think of your newsletter as a one-on-one conversation. Just imagine
sitting in a coffee shop talking informally with a customer. That's
the starting point for your approach--a more personable and
appropriate "human" voice will come naturally. Drop the jargon, drop
the sales pitch, be as honest as you can, and talk like a human
being.
You can have as much or as little personality as is appropriate.
Consider adding a brief editorial, a comment or two, an editor's
note, a couple of lines of commentary, a touch of opinion; adding a
little human element here and there. Sign editorials, give authors a
byline, or list some names down in the administrative section of
each issue to which your readers can relate to.
From Line
Whether a person’s name, name of the newsletter or company
name – determine what will resonate best with your readers and stay
with it.
Subject Line
“Vol. 1, Issue #8” or “Company News” are not enticing
subject lines. They are certainly consistent and simple, but they
don’t tell your readers anything that will motivate them to open
your email. Your subject line is your calling card - entice your
readers with the most interesting or intriguing information in your
Newsletter..
Style/Format
Establish a format and layout of your Newsletter that is clean
and simple, with elements of the Newsletter (table of contents;
“Tips”, subscription information, etc. located in the same spot each
issue).
Content
Figure out what your readers want and give it to them. Seek
continuous improvement by obtaining reader feedback and monitoring
click-through rates to determine what types of articles are most
popular.
Another dilemma that we all confront is too much information and too
little time. The newsletter’s job is to keep readers on top of
trends and the latest developments in the industry. Aim for articles
and feature stories to meet one of the following criteria by
including either: major industry occurrences, forward thinking
industry ideas, education on issues or new techniques, or business
opportunities.
Whether your customers work out of a corporate or home office,
employees need answers to questions and tips for improving business
activities. E-newsletters provide you with an opportunity to point
out work inefficiencies, and share relevant best practice. When you
create a newsletter, try changing your focus from selling products
and services to solving your customers’ problems. Think about what
they need and give options they don’t know exist
Frequency
Determine how frequently your readers want to hear from
you/receive your Newsletter – and what you can commit to. As a thumb
rule, a weekly newsletter is ideal. However, don’t launch a weekly
newsletter if you are not absolutely certain that you can distribute
a quality Newsletter every week. A fortnightly newsletter is a good
option too.
Timing
Test and pick a day and time that works best ...and stick to
it. Readers should almost be able to set their watches by the
receipt time of your Newsletter.
Make it
Viral
Provide information readers can act on or that stimulates
reaction – forwarding it to friends and peers, stimulating purchases
or requests for additional information. Make it easy for readers to
forward articles and information to peers and friends. Provide a
“Forward to a Friend” link that enables readers to forward the
Newsletter with a personalized note.
Search
Make it easy to find articles of interest and back issues.
Provide a table of contents and links to articles within the
newsletter and to resources and past articles on your site.
Printing
Consider providing “printer-friendly formats” on your Web
site.
Personalize
At minimum address the reader by name. The most successful
newsletters have a human being associated with them...and a
personality. If possible, your Newsletter should be “written by a
person” at your company...not the company.
Write in layman terms with simple vocabulary
Not everyone has the vocabulary that you and editors do. Use
words that are easy-to-understand, and if you do use technical
terms, provide a definition that people can relate to. There is
nothing more frustrating then a definition that makes less sense
than the word itself.
Test
Test the Newsletter on few email addresses to check for errors
and other issues – before sending to the entire distribution list.
If you lack experience in print media, seek out assistance if
you know someone in the field. If not, don't worry – the above
mentioned basic principles apply. Plan to research your material
thoroughly and avoid factual or editing errors, as they will make
you seem less credible.
Add hyperlinks and include updates on old material should new
information surface. The typical form of newsletter is a one-way
communication where you provide information to customers, such as
product updates and announcements. You have the option of formatting
your e-mail by including colorized text and a variety of fonts, but
not all e-mail software supports HTML mail. Consider writing your
newsletter in plain text or offer two mailing lists- one for plain
text mailings and the other for HTML e-mail.
Make sure you Include:
-
Table of Contents
-
Hyperlinks for customers who want more information for a featured
topic
-
Exciting secrets or tips related to your product or service
-
Contact information
E-newsletters can take up a good amount of time if not managed
correctly. The use of a list server (a piece of software that runs
on your Internet provider's computer or on your own web server) is a
good option. It will automatically manage a list of e-mail
addresses. Once you send your newsletter to the list server, it
distributes the letter to the stored addresses. For more information
on list servers, contact your Internet service provider. If you opt
to use another method, make sure you have a plan for handling
incoming and outgoing mail when your customer base increases.
Internet marketing with newsletters is probably one of the
most effect marketing strategies. However, the whole process of
devising and implementing a newsletter campaign involves
considerable amount of planning. Given below are a few guidelines
that would help you make your campaign a success.
Step 1: Determine what you can sell online, or how to monetize
your site.
Step 2: People use the Internet for information. Try to figure
out what information is unique to your business? Everybody is an
expert in his or her chosen field. This information is valuable to
others.
Step 3: Identify your target audience. Define your audience,
and then find out where they are going online for information. E.g.
which sites, newsgroups and discussions boards are the most popular.
This technique alone will greatly build your traffic as well as your
name. You’d be amazed at how many businesses still define their
audience as "all people" or "everyone needs my product". This is not
true. Contrary to popular business myth, the Internet is not a
mainstream medium. Communities are usually quite passionate about
their interests. Find your community and become an authority to
them.
Step 4: Your website and newsletter content is the information
that is your leverage. With proper content, the Internet can be the
most successful medium to propagate the essence of your business.
Content works in becoming your business’s USP. Your content will
mean the difference in your site being an online business or merely
a ‘brochure site’.
Step 5: Create and maintain your mailing list.
Step 6: Produce your newsletter. Email newsletters are great
because you can include ‘hot links’ that will open a webpage. Make
sure you include the http:// and almost all email software will
understand it to be an internet address, make it ‘clickable’, then
open the page in your internet browser.
Step 7: Make sure you have auto-responders in place to field
often-asked questions, and subscribe and unsubscribe your recipients
automatically. (You will always lose a few. Don’t take it
personally. Make it easy for people to off your list).
Step 8: Never SPAM. Spamming is the practice of sending
information to people who didn’t actually ask for it. It has been an
accepted practice in the offline direct marketing world but for some
reason has become a really sensitive issue online. Don’t even try
it. You could find yourself switched off by your ISP. They will not
hesitate for fear of being listed world wide as a SPAM server.
There are many different ways of getting subscribers to your
Newsletter. Obviously, the first place you should start is on your
website, doing this can get you an immediate flow of subscribers.
You should advertise your Newsletter and place a sign-up box on
every page of your site. Always use the sign-up box instead
of a simple email link when you can because the results are far
better. The top of the page is a better place for your sign-up box
as it gets more exposure but the bottom is still good. Always
include a privacy statement telling people exactly how you are going
to use their email address and how you will keep it private, with
all the talk about spam nowadays this is bound to reassure them,
which in turn will increase the number of new subscribers.
Offer an incentive to your visitors. You should
whenever possible offer them a free gift if they subscribe, such as
a free report or Ebook. There a hundreds of free Ebooks which you
can give away. You are bound to increase your sign-ups by doing this
provided you offer them something related to your site's theme.
Next you should submit your Newsletter to all the Newsletter
directories you can find, there a plenty of them on the net, and
some of them get really big traffic every month. If your articles
are good quality and informative then newsletter and website
publishers will be interested and your work could end up being
published in endless newsletter editions and hundreds of websites.
Not only will this increase your credibility, it could result in
1000's more visitors, this is because at the end of all your
articles which you allow others to publish will be a link back to
your site. Don't forget also if lots or your articles are published
on websites then your link popularity will improve drastically. This
will result in higher search engine rankings in Google and the other
engines which use link popularity as a ranking factor, which or
course means lots more visitors and profit for you.
Include details of your newsletter in your signature file.
This is the little bit of text that you attach to messages you post
on the Internet and the emails you send to people. You then can
promote your Newsletter through you signature when you post in email
discussion groups. Email discussion lists are great ways of
communicating with people who have similar interests as the topic of
your Newsletter. Contribute to the discussion by posting solutions
to problems. You can also mention "We have put together more
in-depth advice on xxx. Feel free to visit our website. You’ll find
loads of free information and resources."
This technique alone will drive much more traffic into your
site. It also begins to establish you, the author, as an authority
in your field. Once your online customers come to trust your
information, they will also trust you enough to buy from.
Similar mediums to email discussion lists are newsgroups and
online discussion forums. Remember that you cannot advertise your
newsletter directly in any of these mediums, but having a little
mention in your signature is perfectly OK (in most cases). The
amount of subscribers you get through your signature file will
depend on the quality of your post, if you post an interesting and
useful article people will think that your Newsletter will also be
useful.
Apart from these, Ad swaps are a very effective way of getting
subscribers. You should find other publishers with newsletters
similar to yours and trade ads with them. You run their ad and they
will run yours. This helps both sides, which is another plus. You
should swap ads with publishers no matter how many subscribers they
have. Another method of 'swapping' would be to have the other
webmaster recommend your newsletter in the confirmation email he or
she sends to people who have just subscribed and you in turn could
do the same for him.
We discussed earlier the advantages of having advertising
space in your newsletters. Similarly, advertising in other
companies’ newsletters is equally beneficial. By advertising in
other newsletters, you can reach an audience which is highly
targeted and cost effective. Moreover, you can never be accused of
spamming as all the recipients have subscribed to the newsletter.
There are so many newsletters out there covering so many different
topics that it's easy to find highly targeted ones to advertise in.
So if you've matched the newsletter to the product you're selling,
you've reached your target audience to a tee.
Almost all newsletters are archived, thousands of people read
these archives, and your ad will be seen by these people at no extra
cost. This can bring in exposure and extra sales on a long term
basis. Besides, newsletter publishers may have already developed a
trust between themselves and their readers. Just by placing your ad
in the newsletter, it's more likely to be read because it appears in
a publication they like and trust.
Newsletter advertising is not only effective, it's cheap as
well. A 5 line ad in a newsletter that goes to 3000 people will cost
you between $5 and $25 per issue. With so little risk involved, this
is definitely worth it.
Buying Ads in Other Newsletters
Just as you can sell advertising, you can also buy advertising
in newsletters. You can use those ads to promote your business or to
invite people who read newsletters to read your own.
Again, you have to pick your partners carefully. There’s no
point just picking a newsletter with the cheapest rates; you want to
make sure you choose an outlet that appeals to the same buyers as
you. You also need to think about where your ad is going to be
placed. In general, the higher the position the better.
And the more the merrier too. Don’t expect a huge response
from a single ad. It’s always best to think of advertising in terms
of a campaign. You’ll get a better deal—and better results—if you
reserve an advertising slot for four or five issues than if you buy
them one at a time.
As many webmasters are now discovering, making money with
affiliate programs can be hard work. It is not as simple as
uploading some banners then sitting back and collecting commission
checks. A more effective way to distribute this content is through
newsletters.
As a more creative approach, web savvy marketers are finding that
creating a “niche specific” email newsletter is one of the most
effective ways to boost profits with affiliate programs. For
example, a website about Pets could offer a free newsletter about
caring for a pet. The newsletter could include informative articles
such as “How to exercise with your dog” and “10 tips on keeping your
fishbowl clean”, etc. Pet products such as a dog leash, bowl, and
toy should then be included with an affiliate link to encourage a
purchase.
One of the main reasons why newsletters are a great way to
promote affiliate programs is because of the clickthrough rates.
Clickthrough rates for a targeted newsletter can reach anywhere from
10 to 15%. This can be significantly higher than banners and
buttons. Obviously if you receive more clickthroughs, you will have
a better chance of success.
Moreover, promoting affiliate programs through email allows
for the removal of some of those slow loading banners from a web
site. Instead, web sites can be filled with much stickier content
such as interactive bulletin boards, exclusive articles, chat rooms,
and voting booths.
Common sense dictates that featured affiliate products should be
related to a newsletter’s target market. If a newsletter is geared
towards senior citizens, this market is probably not interested in
the latest skateboard gear. Instead, a better fit would be to
feature an online greeting card service that pays a commission for
each free registration.
Besides, a newsletter should always be opt-it/opt-out. A
potential subscriber must request to be on the list and be given
instructions on how to unsubscribe. Benefits of an opt-in newsletter
include: higher response rates, fewer undeliverable emails, and time
saved on list management.
Blog (also known as Weblog) is traditionally a webpage where
pre-surfer or a blogger “logs” all pages he/she finds interesting.
In other words, it is a Web page that
contains brief, chronologically arranged items of information.
Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the
author.
Weblogs provide a series of annotated links to items such as
news stories, and often include personal rants. They are maintained
by one person, most commonly someone who is involved in Web design
or some other tech-related field.
A blog is often a mixture of what is happening on a particular
website and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid
diary/guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs
as there are people. Blogs can be used to introduce products to
potential customers.
People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but
the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated
published systems, most notably Blogger at blogger.com. Thousands of
people use services such as Blogger to simplify and accelerate the
publishing process.
Blog as a marketing tool
Blogs offer huge marketing potential. They are highly
strategic tools that can strengthen relationships, share knowledge,
increase collaboration, and improve branding. Besides, blogs can
represent the real voice of the website.
A weblog can take the form of a diary, a news service (or
summaries of and links to current news items on a topic), a
collection of links to other Web sites, a series of book reviews or
products, reports of activity on a project, the journal of an
expedition, and much more. Businesses can use this tool to
effectively advertise their products or services.
One of the most interesting ways to use a weblog is by
allowing it to function as a discussion forum for customers of your
products or services. In this case, the
webmaster can give posting rights to other people – visitors and
customers, and their posts may or may not be reviewed before they
are published to the Web page. Customers, in such a way can post
favorable comments about the websites offerings. Some weblogs
are set up in such a way that only the owner or the owner and
certain other people have posting rights, but anyone else can add
comments to the posts.
Weblogs when used with newsletters present immense marketing
opportunities:
-
Articles within newsletters can be linked to a blog, extending
life and creating a massive conversation.
-
You can offer a bidirectional forum to customers to get true,
personal opinions on your products and services.
-
Company experts can start a blog and become industry experts,
helping your company edge out competition and, through this
interactive forum, draw customers into another exchange of
information and thoughts.
-
The beauty of this interplay is you can layer your blog with
editorial controls.
How to create a Weblog?
The majority of weblogs are now created using software or
services designed specifically for this purpose. Some of the
software is free - and some of the organizations that provide weblog
software will also provide free server space to house a weblog so
that it is publicly accessible on the Internet. There are also
commercial versions of some of the free software; these commercial
versions often provide more features. Some weblog software is
available only as commercial software. Alternatively, bloggers can
create and maintain their weblog using free software or a free
weblog service, but use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to load the
resulting weblog to their own Website.
There are many blogging softwares available easily on the
Internet. One of the most popular weblogger is “Blogger” which can
be downloaded for free at http://www.blogger.com. Most webloggers
simplify the process of Website creation. However, they do require
basic knowledge of FTP, Website structures and a few technical
terms. Besides, creating an advanced weblog requires knowledge of
HTML.
Adapting Blog Concepts to Your Newsletters
Blogs as discussed earlier fit very well with newsletter
strategies. A blog is not intended to replace your newsletter. Its
purpose is to extend and complement a newsletter strategy, serving
customers and prospects in a way that extends your expertise and
leadership in the marketplace.
A blog communication is four or five sentences of direct,
informative content about a specific issue or bit of news. Think of
b-blog content as marketing to inform and educate. Besides, blogs
are ongoing. The flow of communication builds a knowledge-sharing
platform among a community of like-minded people. Soon, an extensive
base of information will develop that becomes important not only to
your company but also to the faithful readers who contribute to it.
Another advantage of blogs is that they can serve the purpose
of FAQs through newsletters. Blogs can be automatically archived by
age in days, weeks, or months. And they're searchable, allowing
readers to easily retrieve the information they need, when they need
it.
However, creating an effective blog requires careful planning.
Blogs should present as much information as possible while
representing the voice of your website. Here are a few guidelines on
how to plan and create a blog to go along with your newsletter.
-
Like all good communication vehicles, you want to establish goals
and objectives. Define your audience, what its needs are, and how
best to meet those needs.
-
Find someone who can step into the role of pundit, who's willing
to be the host. Keep in mind that over time, your blog will
develop a personality. Look for a thought leader who's just
waiting to be unleashed and empowered.
-
Search thoroughly for the right kind of tool to develop the Blog.
There are tools developed everyday. Look for ones that serve your
purpose.
-
Before you officially launch your blog, plan topics that will
start the initial discussion. Your readers and customers may be
shy about being first to share, so ensure that you or your
publisher posts information as needed to get an exchange going.
You'll want to include an easy way for readers to respond to the
content on your blog.
-
Use your newsletter to announce and promote the blog. Offer to
email it to subscribers or provide the option, through an icon or
link, to visit the blog directly.
-
Blog functionality should have the same analytical capabilities as
a newsletter. So as with your newsletter, make sure you know who
reads what, when, and where.
-
You'll want to periodically check in on discussions and see if
they flow the way you anticipated and if they meet your goals. If
not, as with any newsletter strategy, you may need to refine your
approach, depending on the feedback and analysis you receive.
Here are some other basic ideas that you can use to plan your
newsletter:
Interviews
These are great opportunities for joint ventures. You don’t
have to interview a competitor, but you can probably find people who
work in related fields or clients who have used your product in a
unique way. Just drop them an e-mail, ask if they want to
participate (and seeing as they’re getting free publicity for their
business, why shouldn’t they?) and then you can actually do the
interview by e-mail. Dead easy and lots of fun too.
News
You probably already read the newspapers and magazines that
relate to your businesses. They’re going to be full of great content
that you can use in your newsletter. Obviously you can’t just paste
them into your newsletter and send them out, but you can report what
other people are reporting, provided you give due credit. Heck, you
probably notice that they do it all the time. How many times have
you seen phrases like, “according to AP” or “Reuters reports that”
in the mainstream media? If it’s good enough for CNN, it’s good
enough for you.
Talk to Your Customers
One of the best ways to guarantee that your newsletter will be
read by your subscribers is to invite them to write in with their
questions. You could devote a section of the newsletter to a Q&A
column. You’ll have to be careful with privacy, and feel free to
edit what they write so that it flows better, but don’t be afraid to
let your subscribers speak straight to you. It’s the best way to
come across as an expert and provide advice that you know they’ll
find valuable.
You should also be creative in your advertising. Instead of
asking for cash in return for advertising space, you can ask for a
reciprocal promotion on a partner’s newsletter. As long as you’re
not competing, setting up joint ventures with complementary
businesses is a great way to increase your customer base—and boost
your sales.
For example, you could trade articles or interview other
‘experts.’ Or offer special deals on your partner’s goods.
I look at joint ventures in more detail in the next chapter,
but as you read that chapter, bear in mind that almost any joint
ventures you create for your business, you can create for your
newsletter.
As you build up your subscriber list, you’re going to find
yourself with a problem. Whichever mail program you’re using,
whether it’s Outlook or Eudora or something else, it’s just not
going to be set up to deal with the kind of mass mailing involved
with newsletters.
If you have more than 50 people on your list—and that will
probably take you less than a week—you’ll need to use a listserv.
Don’t even try to do this by yourself!
My hosting company organize this for me. They have a mail
server that handles all the mail. I just send them the newsletter
and they send it out. Alternatively, you can use a professional
listserv such as Microsoft’s List Builder or Sparklist.
There are free list servers available too. While you can use
these if you’re on a really tight budget, I don’t recommend it.
First, they stuff their own adverts onto your newsletter. That
doesn’t just reduce the effectiveness of your brand, it draws
attention away from your own ads—provided you can persuade people to
advertise on a newsletter like this. But their privacy policies have
also come under a lot of criticism lately and even some of the
biggest companies have been found to have used their clients’ lists
to market their own goods.
If you’re going to do a newsletter—and you should—it’s worth
investing in a professional service. That is, after all, what you’re
offering.
Newsletters then are one of the most effective ways to keep
customers, and keep your revenue flowing in. They remind people
you’re still out there, provide news about deals and bargains, and
give customers the confidence to buy. You can put them together in a
snap, or even pay someone a pretty small fee to do it for you. If
you sell advertising space on your newsletter, you’ll even find each
issue will pay for itself.
It was mentioned earlier that one of the ways to maximize the
revenue from your newsletter was to enter into joint ventures with
other businesses. That’s what we’re going to look at in more detail
in the next chapter.
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