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The Power of Newsletters
When discussing the possibility of creating a newsletter for one of my clients, he asked me, "How will a newsletter help me get sales?" "Great question," I replied. Here's how: A newsletter is a form of contact, just like a phone call, visit or direct mail postcard. Your business (or non-profit) and any messages you want to get across will be in front of your current and prospective clients each time you send out a newsletter. If you send out a newsletter several times a year, there is a good chance that you will reach your prospects at a time when they are ready to buy. Even if they're not ready to buy, they might be talking to a friend or business associate who needs your services ? so you might get a referral. To maximize your sales or donor opportunities, keep a few points in mind: 1. Focus content on what is beneficial to the reader. Good newsletters include a combination of information aimed at educating readers, sales messages and client kudos. 2. Decide on an e-mail newsletter or a printed newsletter. Besides your budget and access to e-mail or address information, your business or organization provides clues to the best choice. If you are a non-profit that wants to include a donor form in each newsletter, printed newsletters will be best for you. If you are a Web-based business, it makes more sense to create an e-mail newsletter. 3. Spend time on the newsletter's design and copywriting. Your newsletter design is a branding and image opportunity for your company or organization. Correct grammar and spelling are also important. Mistakes detract from your message and image. Spending time creating effective newsletters is well worth the time invested. Send out newsletters and watch your sales grow! Margie Fisher is President of Margie Fisher Public Relations. Learn more about her Pay for Results Publicity Program? and her free biweekly PRactical P.R. newsletter at http://www.margiefisher.com
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RELATED ARTICLES
10 Benefits Of Submitting Your Articles To Ezines 1. You'll brand your web site, business and yourself by submitting articles to ezines. You could include your name, business name, your credentials, web site address and e-mail address in your resource box. To find publisher you can submit your articles to, you can simply visit Google and enter a keyword phase that describes your target market (e.g. business owner) plus the work newsletter or ezine: +"business owner" +newsletter 2. You will become known as an expert on the topics you write about. This will give you and your business extra credibility which will help you compete against your competition. 3. Your article might also be placed on the publisher's home page. If they publish each issue on their home page this will give you some extra exposure. To make it easier for the publisher, provide also an URL to a web page with your article on it. The easier it is for the publisher to use your article, the higher the chances that they will do it. 4. You might get extra exposure if the ezine publisher archives their ezine on their site. People might want to read the back issues before they make the decision to subscribe. 5. You will get free advertising. This will allow you to spend your profits on other forms of advertising. You could buy advertisements in other ezines that don't publish your articles. 6. You might get extra income from people wanting to hire you to write other articles, books, or even ask to speak at seminars. This is a great way to multiply your incom^e. 7. You could allow ezine publishers to publish your articles in their free e-books. Since people give them away, your advertising could multiply all over the internet. 8. You will get your article published all over the web when you submit it to an ezine publisher that has a free content directory on their web site. They'll allow their visitors to republish your article. Another option would be to submi^t your article to article directories. To find article directories that you can submit your articles to, you can again simply visit Google and search for: "article directory" 9. You'll gain people's trust. If they read your article and like it, they won't be as hesitant to buy your product or service. You will then be able to increase your profits. 10. You could get your article guaranteed to run in an ezine. You could agree to run one of their articles in your ezine if, in exchange, they run yours in their ezine. It's a win/win situation. Tip: If your article recommends one of your own resources, offer the publisher a percentage of each sale for publishing your article. This could be done by using a special order link, or if you have an affiliate program, by allowing the publisher use his one affiliate link. Why Your Newsletter Must Get A Personality Today! Newsletters are becoming ever more popular. Not surprising ? since all editors know that they are a tried and tested method for both disseminating information and subtly (and quite frequently blatantly) promoting any product or service. In short, newsletters work for their owners. 10 First Rate Tips To Getting More Ezine Subscribers 1. Submit your ezine to ezine directories. Top 10 Reasons to Use a Blog to Publish Your Ezine Blogs are the hottest thing going these days when it comes to marketing on the Internet. A blog is a delivery medium. Here are 10 reasons why you should deliver your ezine articles via a blog. How to Grow Your Ezine Subscriber List Your ezine subscriber list is a very valuable group. They are interested in your product of service. They *want* to hear from you occasionally. They are interested in what's new with the subject and have asked to be kept in the loop. How Ezine Ads Explode Your Online Income - Part 2 Here's a big tip ? the secret to succeeding with smaller ads is to set it up like a campaign over a few issues. If you go for the top ad, run the same promotion for 3-5 issues testing different ad copy (we'll get to some good ad writing tips in a minute). Now, what this does is it builds a rapport with the readers so you become a familiar and trusted presence in the ezine. As I've said countless times in this course, you cannot expect all customers to buy first time round, and by appearing in several issues of an ezine you're overcoming this problem and giving them more chance to click on your link and find out what the fuss is about. I would also recommend as part of your campaign to get at least one solo ad in there as well to heighten your familiar presence even more ? again, use the same link and the same product so this familiarity really hits home. With a solo ad being the first ad in your campaign and following up with top placement sponsor ads, you will be setting yourself up nicely there for some affiliate commission. How to Make Your eZine Work for You Long After Its Published If you publish an email newsletter, do you convert the issues to HTML and archive them on your website? If you haven't been doing so, you should start now, today. Ezine As A Viral Marketing Tool A very popular method of marketing ezines and newsletters is by making them viral. If your newsletter contains information of value, such as tips, hints, news or tutorials, you'll find that subscribers will forward it on to others. How To Write Your Newsletter So how do you set about writing your own newsletter? 10 Reasons To Sell A Fee Based Subscription Ezine 1. You will create residual income. For example, if you charge a monthly subscription fee, you will get recurring income every month. Ezine Advertising Strategy Exposed-16 Tips to Boost Your Profit In my opinion, Electronic Magazine (Ezine) advertising is the greatest, untapped source of online advertising available today. Market Your Ezine Properly, So You Grab Every Visitor To Your Website When marketing ezines, most people use sign-up forms or pop-up forms on a current website. This may not be new to most people, but here's another spin on it. In addition to your pop-up or basic sign-up form on your site, why not add a page to your site, with a link on your home page, that does nothing but promote your ezine. Grow Your Business with a Newsletter You find a Web site or receive an email about an online store with cool products that you'd like to order, but not right now. Either you file the email or bookmark the Web site. How often do you proactively return to the email or Web site? For me, the percentage is miserably low and my bookmarks file is hey-uuuge. Dont Forget About Your Old Ezine Articles It's over. You've written your ezine article, sent it out to some ezine publishers, posted it to some article banks and announcement groups, and have even had it published in a few ezines. Pretty good, huh! Now it's time to forget about that article and move on to the next one. Or is it? 10 Ezine Advertising Strategies For Starters If you're like most ezine advertisers you wish to generate FAST Sales by sending your message in front of thousands ezine subscribers. What?s In Your Resource Box (SIG File)? One of the most important things you can do to improve your visibility and connect with customers or clients is to create a strong personal branding statement in your resource box. I'm not talking about adding your job title. I'm talking about including what it is you really do. Entrepreneurs - 3 Ways You Can Profit From Newsletters Without Writing Them Yourself I'm sure you have heard many online marketers touting the benefits of having a newsletter. I have used newsletters in the past for many sites. I've used them as a source of revenue by having advertisements embedded within the newsletter content. They are also effective as a means to keep a site sticky - to "anchor" clients and bring them back to the site. Newsletters can also be a great selling tool to provide free information, samples of your expertise or services, and as a taste of your full product/service. The lure of free content from newsletters can help you to turn casual surfers to potential customers and then finally paying customers. 3 Steps to Creating Your Own Ezine to Increase Web Site Traffic! What if I showed you a simple way to increase web site traffic that could sky-rocket your sales and make you an internet expert. How To Create Your Very Own Client Newsletter Using newsletters for business development improves your sales and marketing efficiency because they: Improve your prospecting by being more focused and personal than a newspaper ad; Generate referrals Ask your clients if there's anyone they can suggest who would appreciate receiving your newsletter, as it's much easier for someone to suggest an addition to your newsletter mailing list than to flat out give you a name to call; Build walls around present clients A newsletter keeps competitors away by repeatedly reminding your clients of your continued interest in them; Recover lost clients Many lost clients would like to revive their relationship with you, but don't know how, so add a personal note to a newsletter, and mail it to them; Enhance other practice-building techniques For example, when contacting a client you might mention something from a past issue that's applicable to his situation, and in seminars, speeches and client meetings, use appropriate issues of your newsletter as handouts or to explain certain points. Think of your client newsletter as an education tool, as well. It's a place to explain to your clients what they should know about your area of expertise, and how it relates to their situation. Look around at what other advisors are doing, and see what you think will work best for you and your clients. A little help from your friends When deciding on the type of content you are going to use in your newsletter, keep in mind that you don't even have to write it yourself. The internet is a vast source of all kinds of free content (e.g. EzineArticles.com) that you can cut and paste into your newsletter. Which format? Convinced of the power of this tool yet? Good. The next question is which type to use: a paper version to be mailed out to your clients by regular post or an electronic version to be e-mailed. If you decide on a paper-based newsletter, you may wish to also consider an e-mail version. Why? For starters, it's cheaper. Paper will cost you at least a dollar for each copy you have printed, folded, stuffed, stamped and mailed. But faxing or e-mailing as many as a thousand copies will cost you practically zilch (word of warning: I would suggest foregoing faxing altogether, as many people on the receiving end resent having their own paper wasted or their phone line tied up). An e-mail version is immediate and "in your face", whereas "snail mail" can take longer to cross the city than the ocean. As most of the benefits of a paper newsletter apply to an electronic one, why bother with a paper version at all? More people have postal addresses than e-mail addresses. A lot of your prospects and clients may not have fax or e-mail access or might just prefer a paper version. So go for both, but ease into your electronic version. Take a few months to get your routine established for consistent quality and delivery of your paper version before worrying about creating your electronic version. Bringing it to life When starting with your paper-based newsletter, keep it simple. When sending a monthly newsletter, I have always found one page to be enough - anything longer could end up in a pending file to be read later, maybe. Some advisors I know who send out a quarterly newsletter might put three or four pages together. Whatever your choice of length and number of issues per year is, start by sending your newsletter to your existing client list only. Include a cover letter with your first issue to announce what you're doing, why you're doing it and what to expect (i.e., no sales pitches!). Include phrases such as "let me know what you think of it," and a note to let your clients know they can be taken off the mailing list if they don't wish to receive future issues. Once your clients begin to receive it regularly (and you get up to speed on producing it), ask them if there is anyone else they know who would benefit from receiving your newsletter. The aim is to develop a relationship so recipients feel they know you as an expert in your field before you actually meet them. One important point to remember is to create a newsletter you can easily adapt to an electronic version. Then ask your paper-based subscribers if they'd prefer to have it e-mailed. Some may want both versions, which is great. They may want the paper version to take home, to file for future reference or even pass on to someone else. Always be consistent It's important that you establish a regular routine. Your delivery and quality of content can't be hit-and-miss, skipping some months because you were too busy or forgot about it. Your newsletter is a projection of you, so commit to getting it out on the same day every month (or three months, or whatever your timeframe may be), no matter what. If you don't do that, you'll just alienate your clients with your unreliable efforts. So get your preparation and distribution systems for your paper newsletter well established and working smoothly and consistently before you even think about transferring it to e-mail. E-mail requires the same regularity, but a totally different system. Make text look its best Here's another decision you'll have to make concerning your electronic version: Will your e-newsletter be plain text or HTML? HTML is what's used on the Internet and can be more graphically sophisticated that plain text. Some pros and cons of using HTML are: Pro: It looks better. Article Distribution: How Will Your Results Vary? It's not enough to just sit around and expect that your articles will bring you a good amount of traffic right after you submitted your articles for distribution.
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