Ya gotta stay in touch - the Ezine way
This is the key to effective marketing. However, it goes beyond that....Way beyond that!
You have to stay in touch with the right people in the right way.
Brian Tracy said,“Your success in life largely depends on the number of people who know you in a favourable way.”
The more people who can talk about you, your company, products and services in a favourable way to others, the more likely you are to achieve the goals you have. To attain that favourable recognition in business you have to keep your name in front of them in a pleasant, compelling way.
A great tool for doing that is your Ezine, or E-mail Magazine, that you send to people. You don’t have an Ezine yet? Well, today is your lucky day because this is the article for you!
An Ezine is an Electronic Magazine (hence the shortened Ezine or often called E-Zine, pronounced “ee-zeen”). Unless you’ve been living with a 78 rpm phonograph for the past few years, you have probably been inundated with newsletters on the Net. These Ezines run the gamut from hobbies to marketing to sales to thousands of other topics. Some are useful. Many are junk and contribute to more junk mail.
Before you add to the junk mail that is out there, here are some steps to get you started along with something else that can help you make it happen:
Important Points About Your Ezine:
- Make it Easy to Subscribe.
- Make it Relevant and Compelling.
- Start Small, And Then Build.
- Only Send To Those Who Grant Permission.
- Go Beyond What Everyone Else Is Doing.
Your website should have an easy-to-use box that enables visitors to sign up for your Ezine. You don’t want to ask for a lot of information, as people will be scared about giving away lots of personal data. You can get more information later as you prove yourself reliable, credible and worthy of deepening the relationship. Make it simple and easy to do in about 30 seconds or less. Bonus: Have several areas on your website where people can sign up for your newsletter. Always ask if people want to subscribe so you can build your list.
We don’t need another thing to read, particularly not in our e-mail. I was talking last night with a futurist and friend in London, England, Rohit Talwar. Rohit was going through his e-mail last night at around 11:30 London time. He told me he had over 250 e-mail messages but couldn’t bring himself to erase all of them without examination. Once again, he’s right (he has a habit of being right as a futurist). We can’t just throw out all of them. E-mail is a vital form of communication and to just throw away everything we risk alienating ourselves from today’s world, our friends, customers and potential customers. Ezines that get read have to develop a reputation over time of being consistently powerful, relevant and worthwhile.
Even if they are “free” they cost us the most precious asset we have – time. Keep your Ezine powerfully compelling. Keep it in tune with what is relevant and powerful to your Ezine subscribers. Bonus: I have a special folder in my Outlook mail called “To Read” where many of the good Ezines I subscribe to go automatically. Then I read them when I have time, not necessarily during the middle of a workday. Set up a folder for your important Ezines so you don’t miss good information but you remain in control of when to read them.
You can send out less than 100 messages using a program like Outlook, ACT!, Goldmine or other contact management software. If it is under 100 you won’t get pegged as a spammer. Then later you can move to a more comprehensive service.
You don’t want to be labeled a spammer. If you are a spammer and send lots of messages to people who don’t want to hear from you, it can prove fatal in future marketing.
Ezines are quite common today. You want your Ezine to be something that stands out. Do this with compelling content and link to valuable audio and video. This way people can learn a great deal from what you’re doing and it puts you in a different category. Why should I read your Ezine vs. your competition’s? Think about how you can make it stand out in a very favorable way to make me feel compelled to read yours.
Let us know your progress.
It’s an exciting journey building a better business. All the Best!
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