Newsletters
Newsletters (whether called eNewsletters, ezines, email newsletters or electronic newsletters) are an effective way to build goodwill and keep in touch with potential customers. Of course, you must provide a form for customers’ opt-in (ask for you to email them the free newsletter on a regular basis). Through the combination of a little public relations, image-building and selling, you can provide your readers (customers and potential customers) with information they will appreciate and find useful. However, information is the key word here.
Through a newsletter (which can also be sent via snail mail) you can inform current and potential customers about different topics while subtly promoting your products/services. Your newsletter must contain a main story, which is informational, and then the secondary stories can target your products and services.
Newsletters, when used as an opt-in/opt-out program, are a great tool for bringing customers to your website, cultivating repeat business and building customer loyalty.
A good newsletter is entertaining, while providing valuable, worthwhile information. It must be attractive, well written and relevant. Newsletters that are informative and rich in content can be just the reminder needed to remind customers to revisit your website.
Before taking on the task of writing a newsletter you should ask yourself — do I have the time, aptitude and resources or the staff necessary to write a regularly scheduled newsletter? If the answer is yes, start your research. Find other newsletters that have the style and content that you like; read and study them until you know why each particular newsletter is effective.
Write your newsletter to a target audience. If your website serves a specific niche market, then you have no problems. However, if you have a more generalized website, dig into your customer data to find a specific subject your customers will find of interest, and which provides enough material for a regularly scheduled newsletter.
Once you have your target audience in mind and the niche subject matter, don’t waiver. Stick to that particular subject matter; don’t ramble. If your subject matter is collectible Barbie dolls, don’t try to work in collectible Hot Wheels. That is another subject. What you could do is a survey and ask how many readers are also interested in other forms of collectibles, if you get a favorable response then start another newsletter for that niche market.
For example, you can review a new book and give links to sites with other reviews on the book and sites where you can purchase the book. Remember your readership wants a newsletter that informs, educates or helps them in their daily lives, not an “in your face” product brochure.
Create an easy-to-locate newsletter archive on your website so that your customers can find any back issue they might need. Have links to your archive pages throughout your website.
In each new issue of your newsletter refer in some way or the other to a back issue; this will lead readers to your archive pages and conversely to your products/services. Additionally, these back issues can help build traffic to your site if you are diligent in registering each issue with the search engines.
A newsletter is a good tool, especially for the small web-based businesses.
Incorporate your newsletter into your overall marketing plan. If you produce a high quality, informative newsletter, and let other websites know about it, they will happily provide a link to your newsletter pages. You can also trade your newsletter for links, especially to other websites serving the same niche market (this will help build readership and, in turn, traffic to your site).
Benefits of publishing a newsletter, other than the obvious ones set out above are:
• Your newsletter is distributed via the one item everyone on the Web has in common - an email address. Email is easy, free, and works without a hitch. Readers can look at it at their leisure, print it out, save it, file it, and refer to it when needed.
• You can send potential customers emails (the newsletter) chock-full of informative content about a subject the receiver has shown an interest in (along with a little promo for your website and its products/services).
• You promote not only your website but also its products/services. It is vital that you subtly, but relentlessly, reinforce your website and its products/services brand(s).
• You build trust since familiarity fuels the comfort index. Every time your readers receive your newsletter wherein you have shared valuable information, you build and reinforce their trust.
• A newsletter can become an additional source of revenue. You can sell ads in your newsletter, but you first must build your readership to at least 5000 to make ads attractive to other businesses.
Finally, ask your customers for feedback and always include an opt-out link in each newsletter.
Newsletters (whether called eNewsletters, ezines, email newsletters or electronic newsletters) are an effective way to build goodwill and keep in touch with potential customers. Of course, you must provide a form for customers’ opt-in (ask for you to email them the free newsletter on a regular basis). Through the combination of a little public relations, image-building and selling, you can provide your readers (customers and potential customers) with information they will appreciate and find useful. However, information is the key word here.
Through a newsletter (which can also be sent via snail mail) you can inform current and potential customers about different topics while subtly promoting your products/services. Your newsletter must contain a main story, which is informational, and then the secondary stories can target your products and services.
Newsletters, when used as an opt-in/opt-out program, are a great tool for bringing customers to your website, cultivating repeat business and building customer loyalty.
A good newsletter is entertaining, while providing valuable, worthwhile information. It must be attractive, well written and relevant. Newsletters that are informative and rich in content can be just the reminder needed to remind customers to revisit your website.
Before taking on the task of writing a newsletter you should ask yourself — do I have the time, aptitude and resources or the staff necessary to write a regularly scheduled newsletter? If the answer is yes, start your research. Find other newsletters that have the style and content that you like; read and study them until you know why each particular newsletter is effective.
Write your newsletter to a target audience. If your website serves a specific niche market, then you have no problems. However, if you have a more generalized website, dig into your customer data to find a specific subject your customers will find of interest, and which provides enough material for a regularly scheduled newsletter.
Once you have your target audience in mind and the niche subject matter, don’t waiver. Stick to that particular subject matter; don’t ramble. If your subject matter is collectible Barbie dolls, don’t try to work in collectible Hot Wheels. That is another subject. What you could do is a survey and ask how many readers are also interested in other forms of collectibles, if you get a favorable response then start another newsletter for that niche market.
For example, you can review a new book and give links to sites with other reviews on the book and sites where you can purchase the book. Remember your readership wants a newsletter that informs, educates or helps them in their daily lives, not an “in your face” product brochure.
Create an easy-to-locate newsletter archive on your website so that your customers can find any back issue they might need. Have links to your archive pages throughout your website.
In each new issue of your newsletter refer in some way or the other to a back issue; this will lead readers to your archive pages and conversely to your products/services. Additionally, these back issues can help build traffic to your site if you are diligent in registering each issue with the search engines.
A newsletter is a good tool, especially for the small web-based businesses.
Incorporate your newsletter into your overall marketing plan. If you produce a high quality, informative newsletter, and let other websites know about it, they will happily provide a link to your newsletter pages. You can also trade your newsletter for links, especially to other websites serving the same niche market (this will help build readership and, in turn, traffic to your site).
Benefits of publishing a newsletter, other than the obvious ones set out above are:
• Your newsletter is distributed via the one item everyone on the Web has in common - an email address. Email is easy, free, and works without a hitch. Readers can look at it at their leisure, print it out, save it, file it, and refer to it when needed.
• You can send potential customers emails (the newsletter) chock-full of informative content about a subject the receiver has shown an interest in (along with a little promo for your website and its products/services).
• You promote not only your website but also its products/services. It is vital that you subtly, but relentlessly, reinforce your website and its products/services brand(s).
• You build trust since familiarity fuels the comfort index. Every time your readers receive your newsletter wherein you have shared valuable information, you build and reinforce their trust.
• A newsletter can become an additional source of revenue. You can sell ads in your newsletter, but you first must build your readership to at least 5000 to make ads attractive to other businesses.
Finally, ask your customers for feedback and always include an opt-out link in each newsletter.