Newsletters are one of the most popular marketing tools used to market small businesses today. Whether you’re sending a printed newsletter via snail mail or an electronic newsletter via email, it’s a win-win for everyone. For the subscriber, they benefit from receiving up-to-date information about your business; helpful articles, promotions and giveaways. For your small business, this is your opportunity to stay in touch with your audience. The beauty of the whole thing is, they’ve given you their permission to market to them!
In this post, we’re gonna focus on electronic newsletters, also known as the sophisticated and sleek-sounding “eZine” or the regular old email newsletter.
An eZine is a really great tool for many reasons:
- It’s cheap. No commercial printing with a hefty price tag involved.
- You can send one out almost instantly. You don’t have to wait 7-10 days for it to be printed, then another 3 days to prepare the mailing, then another 7-10 days for the recipient to receive it via snail mail depending on whether you mailed it 1st class or bulk mail, and again, no postage required.
- It works. It’s the ideal opportunity to keep in touch, gain feedback from your subscribers, customers, and potential customers, and to gain new subscribers…a new audience for your business.
Now just hold on a second. Before you decide to jump on the newsletter bandwagon, there are a few crucial elements to consider. Even if you already have a newsletter, you should be following these tips so consider this a refresher and if you’re not doing the following, then make it a point to rework your publication so your readers get the most value.
Tips to be the best you can be-Zine:
- Stand out: People receive tons and tons of email every day and there’s a lot of junk to wade through. If you want your electronic newsletter to get opened, your email subject line better catch your reader’s attention in an instant because if it doesn’t, it’s never getting read.
- Size Matters: HTML emails can be great…unless you’re using font size 4. You’re not sending a newsletter to a 13 or 20 year old in most cases. Be sure to use fonts that are easily readable for all of us and at size that is appropriate for everyone.
- Build it like Cliff Notes: No one has time to read everything that comes into their inbox, especially if it’s the length of a Stephen King novel. Your newsletter should allow subscribers to easily scan the document to determine which parts they are really interested in. Your text should not be crowded, paragraphs should be spaced and headings should be easily noticeable with larger text and/or a different color.
- Personalize It: Lose the business or corporate tone and have a real conversation with your subscribers. Kind of like I do here with my blog. The way I write to you is the way I would actually speak to you face-to-face. Make your newsletter fun to read, interactive, and involve your reader by asking questions or for participation. They’ll make yours the newsletter they’re sure to read every time it arrives.
- No News is Better than Fluff and Sales: If you don’t have anything to say, then skip it all together. If all you’re doing is broadcasting how great you think you are, or your entire newsletter is nothing but buy this and buy that, you’re better off utilizing your time doing something else. All you’re doing is talking and never listening and your subscribers know the difference. They won’t be fooled with all your sirens of “only the first 10 people who purchase,” or “get this but only for the next 2 hours.” They’ll unsubscribe faster than you can say “My friend, so and so, is offering my subscribers the world for only $19.95.”
- Lighten Up: Skip the oodles of images and media and give them what they want…great content. If you have an audio or video, link it back to your website.
- Full Disclosure: Your subscribers want to know their email is safe in your hands. Be sure you have clearly stated your privacy policy and they know where to find it. Also make it easy for them to unsubscribe by making it easily visible at the bottom of your newsletter.
- Plano Text: If you’re intent on having an eZine design that is dependent on tons of images, be sure to always include a text version as well. Not everyone turns images on in their email client and some opt to receive text only emails just to keep things nice, tidy, and neat.
Last but not least, you need a good distribution company to deliver your newsletter and so you can track your subscribers as well as who is opening what messages and clicking on what links.
We’ll talk about that in detail another time. Until then, I hope you’ll take what I’ve given you today and apply it in your own newslettering!
Ciao ‘til Thursday!
