Writing Enewsletters Tricks Of The Trade

Writen by Glenn Murray

Follow 10 simple rules of thumb, and you'll soon be writing great e-newsletters and reaping the rewards.

Company e-newsletters can be an amazingly successful marketing technique. Whether you want to up-sell or cross-sell, establish your brand or establish your authority, or simply reach a wider market, an e-newsletter can do the job for you. You just have to make sure you write it right.

Television, radio, and print advertising are often too expensive for many businesses to justify – especially small businesses. Fortunately, there is an alternative. Today's internet and email technologies make company newsletters a very inexpensive, yet surprisingly effective, form of advertising. When it comes to newsletters, big companies and small are finally competing on a level playing field.

So what is an email newsletter?

An emailed newsletter serves much the same purpose as a traditional company newsletter. Think of it as a short newspaper – but instead of relating to a town, city or country, it relates to your business. You can include articles on new products or services, awards, recent success stories and case studies, promotions, specials, share price rises, company events, research… And if it's a quiet month, you can simply write articles that might help your customers out.

10 Steps to Success

Follow 10 simple rules of thumb, and you'll soon be writing great newsletters and reaping the rewards…

1) Keep It New! Your readers won't waste time reading something they already know, so make it news they can use.

2) Keep it personal: Always use your reader's name. Make sure when someone signs up, you get their name, then use it in the subject line, in the greeting, and anywhere else you can.

3) Know your reader: Find out what your reader is interested in. Do some pro-active research, invite response, or find an email marketing solution such as Ezemail** that tracks the links your readers click on and keeps a history of their activity.

4) Let them know you: Let your personality shine through. Readers are far more likely to become loyal if they feel they know you. Always include a bit of you in the newsletter, whether it's humour, personal details, personal anecdotes, or personal views.

5) Subject is Headline: The subject line of an email newsletter is like a front-page headline in a newspaper. You need to draw the reader in, so make it engaging and relevant (maybe promise a benefit) but no more than 25 characters so your reader can see it all before opening the email.

6) Use a Title bar: Make the most of the title bar to add visual appeal and establish brand awareness.

7) Make it 'scannable': Most people don't read online – they scan. Make sure you use easy-to-read bullet points and sub-headings. Don't lose your reader's attention. Reading is physically more difficult online, so make sure you're concise. Use links to other places instead of writing long articles.

8) Use White space!: If your page is too busy, you'll lose your reader. Give them a chance to absorb valuable information by dedicating about 30% of your screen real estate to white space.

9) Easy unsubscribe: Make your unsubscribe easy to find. If it's obvious, they'll feel safe and can then appreciate the content. To many people, the ease of unsubscribing is an indicator of the integrity of your company.

10) Forward to a friend: Include a link to encourage readers to forward the newsletter on to their friends and colleagues. Find an email marketing solution which allows you to do this and sit back and watch your database grow!

** Ezemail enables you to create, manage, deliver and track your email marketing and sales communication. Email kathpay@ezemail.com.au or visit http://www.ezemail.com.au.

* Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and article submission and article PR specialist. He is a director of article PR company, Article PR, and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit www.DivineWrite.com or www.ArticlePR.com for further details, more FREE articles, or to download his FREE SEO e-book.

How To Bounce Back From An Ezine Disaster

Writen by Susan Daffron

Publishing an email newsletter or ezine regularly is a lot of work. And if you think that you'll never make a mistake, think again. Even experienced publishers can make mistakes because of technology or human error. It's all too easy to press the wrong button and have a disastrous "oops moment."

When the mouse is quicker than the brain or you pull a really bonehead maneuver, here are five simple tips for making amends to your readership:

1. Apologize. A little old fashioned groveling never hurts anything but your pride. In today's spam-phobic world, just a few irate readers can cause an entire ISP ban your newsletter or land your ezine on one of the many spam-blocking lists. So before anyone can accuse you of doing something wrong, beat them to the punch. Suck up your pride and send an "I'm sorry" email to your entire list. Make it humble, human, and heartfelt.

2. Hurry! Alert your entire mailing list about the mistake as soon as you can. This advice is especially important if you're struggling with a crisis, like a hacked list server that's cramming inboxes with multiple repeat messages. Showing readers and advertisers that you're paying attention and really working on the problem reestablishes their confidence in you (and keeps them on your list).

3. Get Personal. Customize the subject line of your apology so it demands attention. For example, an informative subject line like "Apology For Mistake In MyEzine" works better than "Read Immediately" (which sounds like spam).

4. Explain. Tell your readers and advertisers the reasons "why" the mistake happened. Whether it was human error, a bug in your mailing software, or bad luck, give your readers a few details. Just make sure you don't over do it trying to explain really technical problems or ramble on about your personal stress level.

5. Bribe. If your ezine blooper is threatening to send readers and advertisers packing, offer enticing perks to make up for the mistake. Maybe a free report, a coupon, some nice templates, or software can save your list and your reputation. Just make sure the freebie is good quality and original that people can't just pick up anywhere.

An ezine publishing mistake can threaten your list. So remember that prevention is the best medicine. Be sure to test every single mailing. Also invest in a quality list server and secure hosting, and always monitor everything that's automated.

Just in case, you also might want to use the tips above to develop your own ezine "disaster plan checklist." That way, when the Ezine Gods get cranky, you'll be one step ahead of them!

Susan Daffron is the President of Logical Expressions, Inc. (http://www.logicalexpressions.com) and is the author of more than 70 national magazine articles, 200 newspaper articles, two books, and online training courses. With hundreds of online articles to her credit, she regularly publishes ezines on computer tips (Logical Tips), pet care (Pet Tails), and other topics.

Achieving Success With Ezine Advertising

Writen by Valerian Dinca

Achieving success is clearly up to you, not to anybody else. In fact is a simple equation involving tools, work and goals.

Assuming that the goal have been set and you are ready for a hard work, let's talk a little about tools. Not about all tools, but ezine advertising.

Ezine advertising is the most affordable way of net advertising. There are about half million of ezines all around and the number is still increasing. If there are plenty of opportunities, doesn't mean it is an easy thing to do. On the contrary, you may choose ezine advertising only if you have good writing skills or if you afford to hire somebody to handle with your ads.

What will be next? Let's se step-by-step

1. First you must have clear in your mind the concept you want to promote. By 'concept' I mean not only the product/service but also things like market needs, target people, strong points, week points, opportunities and so on.

2. If your product is a new one, start first building an image writing some articles and distributing them for free all around.

3. Write the best ad you can. The headline is essential, it must capture attention like a hook and kill like a poisoned arrow.

4. Ask a friend/relative to read your ad and to say what s/he understand. That way you can eliminate some mistakes.

5. Choose the most appropriate ezines in deeply accordance with your target people and market needs.

6. Choose a high exposure using Solo and/or Top sponsor ads. Avoid ezines running more that 3-5 ads in the same issue.

7. Start with a small group of ezines. Evaluate results, make improvements, test again.When you think your ad is good enough start advertising in a large group of ezines.

8. Be patient. Sometimes reactions doesn't come very quick.

Golden rule: Never think your ad is perfect or people are stupid. Everytime evaluate, make improvements and try again.

Valerian Dinca is editor of Morning Co~free Newsletter. This is not like other ezines, you get what you need when you need it. http://www.valerianplanet.com/ezine.html