In a previous blog post, I talked about the benefits of publishing an ezine for your business:
- Creates a positive relationship with your customers
- Provides an inexpensive advertising medium for your products/services
- Drives traffic to your website and/or blog
- Generates leads
Here are a few rules to remember when starting a business ezine:
1. Choose a delivery method.
To avoid getting your email dumped into your customer’s spam folder, pick a reliable email marketing solution provider, such as Constant Contact or iContact. These companies offer several benefits to you including:
- Tracking capabilities – reports allow you to see bounce rates, forwarded, delivered/undeliverable and sent emails, as well as conversions, click-throughs and more.
- Design templates – a wide variety of styles and colors are available to suit many different industries, or you can import your own HTML page
- Attachment abilities – you can add pictures, sound files, background images, and the ability to subscribe/unsubscribe from your ezine
2. Set a format and schedule. Be consistent.
Decide what types of information will be featured in the ezine, and how often you plan to mail it. If this is a monthly ezine – send it the same time every month, so your readers can rely on it. Also, try to keep the same categories each time, with a little variety here and there. If you provide content your readers like, they will look forward to reading each new issue – wondering what new tidbit you’ll provide next.
3. Review other ezines in your industry.
If you’re still stumped for ideas about what to include in your ezine, read ones that are published by other companies in your industry. It should help you decide what to include, or leave out of your own product.
4. Keep the subject line relative to the content.
Don’t use your subject line to sell your company’s product or services. The subject line should indicate the ezine’s title, plus a few words describing one of the featured articles to attract interest. If your customer sees right away what the email is about, she’ll be more likely to open it. But if your subject line implies something else, there’s a greater chance the ezine will be deleted before it’s even opened.
If you have any other questions about writing an ezine, you can email gloria@gloriarand.com. I’ll be happy to help!
“Consistency” is tops. Good content leaves-em-wanting-more…just don’t leave them hanging for weeks. Super, actionable article. Thanks Gloria.
Eddie,
I agree with you 100%. Thanks for taking the time to write!
Thanks for sharing this tips. I think that this is very helpful. I appreciate this. I also think that you should be consistent and your content should be related to your business. I think that it is also important to update it from time to time.