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The first thing I do when I take a marketing client is install a form
on the index page to collect e-mail addresses. The reason I only ask
for an e-mail address is it is a proven fact that the less information
you ask far the more response you get and the point is to develop the
largest newsletter address list you can. The willingness to do a
newsletter is the first test to see if the client is serious about
their marketing. As the old saying goes, "You can lead a horse to
water, but you can't make them drink." If the client is not willing to
do what it takes to succeed, walk away.
I have already heard all the excuses:
1. A newsletter will cost too much.
2. To write a newsletter should not take over 3 hours to write and 1
hour to format/send out. How much does e-mail postage cost...nothing.
The cost of collecting e-mail address is the the cost of getting a form
that collects one data field installed. The amount of time it takes to
open the e-mail and place the address in your newsletter address
directory is the monthly maintenance
3. No one else that sells what I sell has a newsletter.
4. A couple of things always come to mind. One is what all mothers
say,"If everybody jumped off a bridge, would you.?" The second thing
that comes to mind is the question, "Do you want to move forward or
not???"
I do not have anything to put in a newsletter.
Content can be anything. Recipes, Tech tips, Jokes. One newsletter I
subscribe to has the latest additions to the websites glossary with a
link to the glossary on his web site. If your web site is Ecommerce use
your newsletter just like brick and mortar use their sale fliers. Tell
about your latest products. Announce a sale. Consider that even if your
site is family web site you can still send out family updates and
announce new pictures posted to the website.
Newsletter Details:
Collect Only Email Addresses.
I cannot overstress that the only thing to ask for is the email
address. I realize that it would be nice to have the persons name, zip
code, city, state, left shoe size, name of first born and on and on. If
you want the maximum participation, ask for the least information.
Create a template.
All your newsletters should not be a carbon copy of each other, but you
do not want it to look like somebody different created your news letter
every month. Also a template will insure your remember the most
important element of the newsletter; the unsubscribe option at the end.
Elements of the newsletter should be constant. It may sound like a
small thing but I like jokes and if you put a joke on a newsletter I
get I will look for the joke next time and when it is not there I will
notice. I realize that it would be very easy to just take last months
newsletter and just cut and paste new elements into the newsletter. The
only problem is not losing track of what is this months and what is
last months. A template would have ***Joke goes here***, ***8 new
glossary terms go here***, ***New item for sale added here***, and so
on and so forth, this to can be cut and pasted with the ultimate of
ease.
Provide a way to unsubscribe.
It is just curtisy to have unsubscribe information. Also in California
it is law. It may be in other states but outside California I do not
know.
Short and Sweet, please!
If I open a newsletter and it goes on forever I delete it. Do not
overwhelm your reader. Two screens is the most a newsletter should be.
I want to be able to scan it in 3 seconds. I would not advise having
over 4 sections to the newsletter.
Plain Text or HTML???
This is a major decision. Not everybody has the ability to get html
email. AOL users have to be sent plain text newsletters. I believe
Earthlink email addresses have to be sent plain text newsletters. It is
best to start out with a plain text newsletter. If you do go with a
html news letter please remember to limit the file size. If the
newsletter is over 65K I will delete it. I am, as 88% of the households
in America on a 56K modem, my time is valuable, respect that.
Send it out on time.
You want to present a professional appearance. Set a date for the
newsletter to be emailed and stick to it. Start assembling the
newsletter a week before the due date. I would also not send the
newsletter out on the last day or first day of the month. Ideally you
want your newsletter to compete with the least amount of email for the
readers time.
Have Content!!!
A newsletter that is nothing but advertising is SPAM. I have gotten
newsletters in the past that had nothing but "Headlines" with links
back to the web site. My opinion is that some monkey threw this
together at the last minite and I will unsubsribe right then. The
ultimate goal of a newsletter is to be forwarded. Yes, I said
forwarded. Have you ever relayed a story you read to someone else? Have
you ever cut a article out of a magizine or newspaper? An email is even
easier to keep and/or forward. Why do magizines sit around a home for
months and years? Normally because there is an article that they want
to keep. You do not want people downloading your website, but you can
provide them with a piece of your website in the form of a newsletter
to store on thier home computer.
Point at your web site.
The point of a newsletter is to develope traffic and sales. If I did a
newsletter with the theme being the value of newsletters to a web site
I would put no more than half this page in the newsletter with a link
back to the rest of the article on my web site. If you have glossary
terms do not forget to point at the gossary on your website. Give your
readers something but not everything. Everything in your newsletter
should be a teaser to your web site. A couple of jokes pointing to your
joke page, a couple of recipies pointing to your recipe index, the
first 3 paragraphs of a story leading to the rest of the story. Give
them something, but bring them Home.
Add it to the web site.
Web sites need content. Your newsletter is an easy way of adding
content. Create a folder on the server and every month simply drop the
newsletter into the folder and create a link to a page that lists all
the newsletters you have written.
Review the website stats.
Did your newsletter do you any good? Do you need to make changes? Check
the website stats. Your website stats should specify the pages that
visitors used to enter your website. Did the pages that had links in
your newsletter have an increase in people entering your website
through them? These are things you need to look at and consider when
planning next months newsletter. If a story caused a jump in visits to
a specific page, consider doing another story along the same lines. If
a section of the newsletter resulted in no visits to the page that the
link pointed to consider putting the effort next month into a different
direction.
Register the new page with the search engines.
The newsletter page is no different than any other page of content you
add to your web sit. This is also a good reason to have a theme for the
newsletter. A newsletter page can have ranking too. The newsletter page
can address the lower ranking search terms. The goal is to get people
to visit your web site and if they enter on a newsletter page or the
index page is no matter as long as they find answers, they will stay.
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