Here Are The Goals:
You regularly send out relevant and anticipated email newsletters
to your ever-growing list. You have a form on your website that
asks people to sign up for your email newsletter. When someone
signs up, they give you their name and email address and they
receive a few automatic and customized emails that you previously
crafted while they wait for their first newsletter edition. You
have a database that stores each person's email address and you
have a way to send out regular emails to them all, including
beautiful HTML newsletters (e-zines). You watch the list grow
over time and watch readers turn into customers.
Here Are The Benefits:
* You are continually building a list of loyal readers that
grows over time.
* Your readers spread the word that your organization is
helpful, knowledgeable and experienced.
* Your readers are regularly reminded of your organization's
continued existence, growth and relevance.
* Some loyal readers will turn into loyal paying customers.
* You learn more about your customers and site visitors by
asking them to communicate with you through the newsletter.
* You generate a new income stream by selling advertisement
space.
* You'll have a regular source of fresh and original content
to add to your website which will help search engine rankings.
There are two distinct, but equally important aspects of starting
an email newsletter that need to be addressed for you to
accomplish the goals and gain the benefits listed above. First,
you need the infrastructure and functionality to make all this
happen, such as a database, an HTML form, a method for sending
out emails in quantity and so forth. Second, you need the content
that will be in each newsletter. This article will explain how to
do both.
The Needed Infrastructure & Functionality for an Email Newsletter
Does getting the infrastructure sound difficult? Does it sound
like you have to know a lot about programming? Neither is true.
This wheel doesn't need to be re-invented.
There are a number of websites that offer paid services that
provide the entire infrastructure for you. The cost is a fraction
of the cost of developing the infrastructure yourself. Two good
examples of this type of service are Constant Contact and Aweber.
I prefer Aweber and find its interface intuitive and easy to use.
I use Aweber for our company email newsletter and suggest it to
all our clients.
Using a browser I can log into my Aweber account and create text
or HTML email auto-responder messages for people to receive when
they visit our site or sign up for our e-zine. I can create a
simple HTML form that asks for people's name and email as well.
In fact, the html code for the form is created for me and all I
have to do is cut and paste it into my site. No programming
needed.
Each person's information is stored in a database on Aweber's
servers. I can manage my leads list in my browser and sort by
different ways. It also allows me to see how many of my auto-
responders have been sent already. And every email that we send
out has a personalized first name greeting.
There is a place in Aweber where I can manage my messages,
whether they are regular emails to part of the list or a
newsletter that's sent to the entire list. And there is a place
where I can enter my messages, edit them, check to see if they
will trip any sp@m filters, I can test the messages by sending
them to my own email address first, and finally I can send them
all out at once with one simple click.
The Needed Quality Content for an Email Newsletter
It's not good enough to just have the infrastructure and
functionality. You need content that makes people want to accept
and read your newsletters over and over again.
Your newsletter ought to be related to your website and
organization. Every person and organization has valuable and
unique knowledge and experience to offer others. And you'd be
surprised at how many people want your unique knowledge. Sharing
this knowledge and experience with your existing and potential
customers is what the Web is all about. People use the Web for
getting information. So make your newsletters about various
aspects of your business or organization, and make them
educational, so that your readers come away with more useful
information than they had before.
So if you're a Web design firm, write about Web design in your
newsletters. If you're a small local bookstore, write about how
to become an author, or how to start a local bookstore. If you're
a financial advisor, write about how people can make sound
investments. If you're a furniture builder and seller, write
about how to fix up old pieces of furniture on your own.
Newsletters that are just extended advertisements don't cut it.
If your newsletter only has announcements of new or improved
products or services, or specials that you're running, then
you're missing the boat completely. There is so much more you can
offer.
Creating newsletters that contain useful, relevant and
anticipated information for your readers is what to aspire to.
You want to give away ideas and concepts for free that can be
used to help improve some aspect of your reader's lives. You
obviously don't want to give away the whole farm since a lot of
your expertise is what you charge for in the first place. But
giving some information away for free is a win-win.
Most often, your readers don't care about you or your company or
your specific products or deals, they only care about what you
can do for them. If they take the time to open your email
newsletter and read it, it better provide them with some real
value or they won't bother again and your list will not grow, but
eventually wither away into oblivion.
In return for providing useful, original content, you develop a
constantly growing list of loyal readers who will spread the word
that you are an authority in your field. Your readers may
eventually buy from you if they haven't already. And you can use
your list to occasionally sell your products or services, but do
this very sparingly. You can use the newsletter for selling
advertisement space, but again, use sparingly. Finally, you can
use your list to learn more about your customers and site
visitors. You can ask the people on your list to fill out an
online survey, but be sure to offer them an incentive for their
time.
If you don't know any programming or HTML but want to send out
a regular newsletter, you can use Aweber to create text-only
messages. If you want to send out professional HTML email
newsletters, then either learn HTML and design (which is
obviously time-consuming, but certainly possible), or hire a Web
firm to do it for you. I would also suggest hiring a firm to help
you with writing the content as well if you're not comfortable
with writing.
But as you can see, you don't need much to get an email
newsletter going. If you can regularly create quality content,
just sign up for an online service like Aweber and away you go.
An internal customer email list is a very valuable asset for any
organization. Handle it with loving care. Never sell or rent your
list to anyone, try to offer value in your writing, and don't
overuse it as an advertisement medium.
Good luck and happy e-zining!
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