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Getting Your Newsletter Into Peoples' Email InboxesIf you're going to go to the trouble of publishing a newsletter to promote your business, then you need to get existing and potential customers and people who want to learn from you to sign up. After all, publishing a newsletter is an investment of both time (to put the newsletter together) and money (to cover the newsletter-sending service fees). It won't pay off to publish a newsletter that no one reads. You have a major challenge in making this happen—rising above the crop of other newsletters out there. Your newsletter has to be valuable enough to be allowed into peoples' overcrowded inboxes. It's like your clients' email inboxes are a velvet-ropes club, and your newsletter is trying to get to the head of the line. How can your newsletter stand out as a VIP? Follow these 4 steps to increase your newsletters' "cool" factor and its' value: 1. Pack your newsletter with consistently valuable information. If your information attractive and useful, it will have a better chance of getting in. How do you do this? Think about questions that your clients have, and how you can help them by answering those questions. Write about topics that are interesting and relevant for your target audience. And, be consistent with the quality of your information—get a reputation for always giving out valuable information in your newsletter. Don't worry about giving away too much information—there will be people on your newsletter list who will implement your advice, but there will also be a group who would rather hire you than do it themselves. Mention at the end of the article that you offer products or services related to the topic of the article (but don't fill the newsletter with sales pitches). Keep in mind that the content you create for your newsletter is your intellectual property. You'll be able to use that information to promote your business in other ways, such as publishing it on your website, adding it to article distribution sites, or even packaging it into a product that you can sell.
In order to package your newsletter, create a cover graphic for the newsletter itself, or for the sign-up gift (which we'll talk about in the next point) that looks like a booklet or magazine. Use that cover image on your website to market the newsletter. Having an image appear along with your promotional text can make your newsletter offer more attention-grabbing. The other half of newsletter packaging is to design your newsletter template itself well. Create a header graphic that matches your other marketing materials. Design the section headings and titles of articles so that your newsletter is easy to read and doesn't confuse the reader. Clearly distinguish any sales offers in the newsletter from the informative content. Finally, use images in the newsletter to add visual interest.
The main purpose of this sign-up gift is to offer readers something in exchange for their email address. Giving them something in return for their permission to contact them makes the exchange seem more fair—and if your giveaway is high-quality, it may even seem to them that they're getting the better end of the deal. The other purpose of this sign-up gift is to give people some information immediately when they register—when their interest in your newsletter offer and getting information from you is the strongest. That way, they can begin learning before the next issue of your newsletter is published. 4. Make it easy to sign up. You want to make sure that once readers decide that they want to sign up for the newsletter, it will be easy for them to do so, like having your ID and cash ready when you get to the front of the line at a club. Tell people exactly what you need from them, and exactly what they'll get by signing up. Clearly describe what your newsletter is about, who would benefit most from signing up, and how they can register. Use a direct call to action on your website, and tell people where to enter their email (such as "Enter your email below to receive the newsletter") In addition to a clear message about signing up for the newsletter, design your newsletter sign-up box so that it stands out from the rest of the content on your web page. This ensures that prospects can tell, at a glance, that it's there and that they should sign up. Style your headline and call to action so that they're easy to read at a glance and highly visible. And consider including a product shot of your free gift or your newsletter cover to call even more attention to the sign up area (see step 2). If your newsletter looks—and proves to be—valuable to your readers, and that it is both enticing and easy to sign up for the newsletter, more and more readers will raise the velvet ropes on their email inboxes and let you in.
About the Author
Small business branding, brand coaching and logo design articles at http://www.brandstyledesign.com
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2. Package your newsletter attractively. Have you ever bought a product, or chosen one brand over another, just because of the package design? Even though your newsletter is not a physical product, and people aren't paying to receive it, packaging it well can still help increase the perceived value of the newsletter. The packaging for your newsletter is like having a trendy outfit—it can help you stand out from the crowd.
3. Offer a great sign-up gift. Create a free report, MP3 recording, video or workbook that directly relates to your clients' needs. Offer that as a free gift to entice people to sign up for your newsletter.
