How To Start An Email NewsletterA Tutorial
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Jason OConnor February 08, 2007
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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 (http://www.aweber.com/?208983) 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! |