How To Succeed With A Newsletter
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Developing a website is only half the battle when it comes to online marketing and advertising. Potential customers need to be introduced to your company a minimum of seven times before they’ll even consider purchasing your time, services, or products. The truth is that not everyone who happens upon your website, hears your advertisement, or sees your products or services will need them now—at this very moment. Most people are searching for answers, services, or products for a future date; others are simply browsing for the sake of browsing.

Many people spend a lot of time researching online before they decide which company to do business with. They’ll prepare a list of websites that hold their interest or save them to their favorites list, but often forget to return to those lists later. And, should they lose that slip of paper or their computers crash, they’ll simply go with the first company they find.

You can prevent them from forgetting about you. You can get them to return to your website. And you can market to them in an effortless and inexpensive way. All you need to do is start an e-zine—a newsletter that’s emailed to opt-in subscribers.

The idea behind your newsletter should be to keep people coming back to your website, to educate them about your services or products and to offer them incentives to buy directly from you.

Below are six tips to help you succeed with newsletter marketing:

• Pick a reliable e-zine delivery service.
  For a free service, consider yahoogroups.com or topica.com
  For a paid service, consider aweber.com or marketerschoice.com
  
  
• Be consistent in your delivery.
  Deliver your e-zine at the same time every month. Whether you choose to deliver your e-zine every Wednesday or the 15th of every month, make sure your e-zine arrives in your subscribers inbox on time. Regular delivery helps people remember you, your company, and your services. Infrequent delivery is the best way to lose subscribers and have them thinking your company is spamming them.
  
  
• Don’t use your e-zine solely as a sales letter.
  Subscribers only subscribe if there is something in it for them. Providing discounts, sales announcements, customer testimonies, or letting them know about new products isn’t enough to keep them subscribed.
  
  
• Offer related material.
  Give your readers a reason to keep reading by adding a little originality to your e-zine. Offer tips on how to use your products effectively, provide how-to articles, and include links to video demonstrations. If, for example, your company sells gardening supplies your newsletter could feature one gardening supply in each issue. It could describe the benefits and features of the supply, offer a step-by-step article that shows your subscribers how to use the supply in a gardening project, and then include a call to action. If you’re an author, on the other hand, your e-zine could showcase an excerpt from your latest book, a little background information on the town featured in that excerpt and a buy now link.
  
  
• Offer a freebie from time to time.
  Freebies are great incentives for getting people on your mailing list, but make sure the item you offer targets the right audience. If you don’t, you could end up with a bunch of subscribers who never buy a single thing from your company.
  
  
• Reward loyal subscribers.
  Subscribers who actually take the time to read your e-zine are a precious commodity. Show them that they are special by treating them to “subscriber only” specials.