Publish a Monthly E-mail Newsletter or E-zine

An e-mail newsletter may be one of the best marketing investments you can make.  Your e-mail newsletter provides a vehicle for ongoing communication with prospects who have expressed interest by visiting your site, but haven’t become buying customers.

There may be a considerable lag between a visitor’s first contact with your site and the purchase of your product or service.  Your e-mail newsletter keeps you top of mind allowing you to gently market to prospects every month.

An e-mail newsletter can help you:

• Maintain current customers
• Build relationships
• Educate prospects about your business
• Promote new products and services
• Promote special offers

Developing appropriate content for an e-newsletter requires time and effort, but the benefits can be substantial.  In general, your e-zine newsletter should be fairly short—about 500 words.  Content can include:

• Information about your business or industry
• New product information
• Columnist or analyst perspective on new developments
• Extracts from industry news
• Annotated links to relevant information
• Consumer education
• Answers to common questions

There are many sources of free e-zine articles.  Authors provide free articles to promote their own business through links back to their site.  To use free content you usually have to agree to include all links and author information.  Two sources of free e-zine articles are:

www.ezinearticles.com (45,000 articles)

www.ideamarketers.com (over 100,000 articles)

The disadvantage of free content is that readers may see the article elsewhere and devalue the content of your newsletter.  It is better to use free content as a supplement to your own original content.

A major benefit of publishing an e-mail newsletter is that you can repurpose and reuse those articles in several ways.  First, you can archive your e-zine articles on your site.  If you publish monthly, this will add twelve pages of relevant new Web content every year positioning you as an expert in your field.  This will enrich your content and boost search engine rankings.

You can also syndicate your articles with the same sources providing free Web content.  Your articles will be picked up by other websites and e-zine editors all providing a link back to your site.  Overtime this will enhance your reputation and your search engine rankings.

Formatting E-Mail is a Major Challenge

It is a major challenge to format e-mail which is consistently delivered and easy to read while effectively conveying your marketing message.  The two basic options are HTML and text.

HTML Format Generates a Significantly Higher Click Through Rate

Most marketers use HTML which allows you to select attractive fonts, colors and graphics.  Surveys indicate that e-mails formatted with HTML generate a significantly higher click through rate compared with text only—possibly two to three times greater.

However, HTML e-mails can result in the following problems for recipients using different e-mail programs, computer systems and applications:

·        Some popular e-mail programs such as Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 have a default setting which prevents graphics from being shown.

·        Some large corporations and government agencies strip out HTML and deliver only the text of e-mail messages.

·        The HTML file size is larger than text by a minimum of two thirds to more than twenty times requiring more time to download and more storage space.

·        HTML e-mail is more suspect than text and has a higher chance of being caught in spam filters.

Text Format is Preferred by Some Customers

Text can be formatted cleanly and provides the smallest file size for your e-mail.  Some recipients prefer text e-mails.  When offered a choice about 15% select text over HTML.

The text format presents the following problems:

·        The click-through rate is significantly lower than with the HTML format.

·        URLs embedded in text e-mails are frequently not “clickable” requiring the recipient to copy and paste the URL into their Web browser. 

·        Tracking is more difficult with text e-mail.

The Recommended Solution is a Hybrid Format

There is no ideal e-mail format.  Text is adequate for many customer service functions.  However, for promotional messages you probably should take advantage of HTML.

E-mail Service Providers (ESPs) can provide HTML designed templates using a hybrid format and other specialized techniques which minimize delivery problems.

E-Mail Service Providers (ESPs) are Worth the Investment

It’s risky to use Outlook or any other e-mail client for sending mass e-mails.  The fallout can hurt your company.  It’s worth a small investment to contract with an E-Mail Service Provider (ESP).

Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com) is one highly recommended ESP known for the simplicity and user-friendliness of their services.  The cost for Constant Contact starts at $15 per month.  Contracting with an ESP offers the following advantages:

Formatting and Design

SPAM filters and inbox clutter have become major obstacles inhibiting the delivery of e-mail with engaging formatting and graphics (see Formatting E-Mail).  ESPs base their reputation on sending beautifully formatted e-mail which passes through most filters.

Increase Delivery Rates

ESPs achieve delivery rates in the range of 95%.  They have staff who manage relationships with all major Internet Service Providers, ensure that all their network addresses are whitelisted, monitor changing rules that affect deliverability, and resolve spam complaints.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

Using an ESP is the best way to ensure that you are compliant with U.S. CAN-SPAM Regulations.  All e-mails sent by your company are subject to these rules outlined on the Federal Trade Commission website (www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm)

Tracking

Sending out a mass e-mail generates immediate feedback enabling you to test different messages and fine tune your marketing campaign.  ESPs provide detailed, real time reports tracking subscribes, unsubscribes, click through rates and bounces.

Database Management

ESP’s provide sophisticated database management solutions to keep all you contact data up to date.

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