Lately, I have been contacted by a number of catalogers and online retailers who seem hell-bent on acquiring new customers. If that sounds reasonable, bear in mind that there is a "herd mentality" in the DMA and Shop.org space. Just a few months ago it seemed that most employers wanted to hire merchandising talent; candidates whose expertise is mostly in cross-selling and up-selling customers. Way back then, increasing "wallet-share" was all the rage.
Currently, one of the most-requested areas of expertise is e-newsletters with RSS capability. Since I've spent my autumn days interviewing people about their ezine expertise, I thought I'd jot down some notes for you.
Starting an Ezine: What's in it for you?
Done right, ezines are an incredibly powerful marketing tool -- even more powerful than blogs in situations where the company's house file is huge and it makes more sense to "push" the content out to the reader.
Like offline newsletters, ezines can inform, motivate, and educate, but that’s where the similarity ends. Ezine distribution is lightning fast, and you can even attach files or imbed videos with sound. And despite their extremely low maintenance cost, the benefits of an ezine often include improved customer service, increased customer loyalty, and a stronger sense of “community” among your customers.
Ezines can have different objectives depending on your goals. These objectives might include:
- New product, service, or company announcements
- Establishing your name and reputation
- Keeping in touch with customers
- Selling advertising
- Selling your product or service
- Collecting e-mail names to rent or sell, and ...
- Drive targeted traffic to specific pages in your site
Here are the five primary steps (A thru E) involved in creating an effective ezine:
A.) Decide on the Name: The name of your newsletter should be aligned with the content of your newsletter. A good rule of thumb is: Crappy name, low circulation.
B.) Decide on the Content: The content of your newsletter must align with your objectives and readership. Content ideas for an ezine usually include:
- Readers' answers to other readers' questions
- How-To tips, hints, and articles
- Readers' testimonials, opinions, and feedback
- Product reviews (including books, tools, websites, etc.)
- Guest experts corner (for guest articles)
- Contests
- Customer stories or case studies
- Expert interviews (by you)
There are four factors that make for an interesting ezine:
- Interactivity – Conducting surveys, asking for answers to questions, and gathering opinions on things like products, websites, and issues are effective strategies for getting people to interact with your ezine.
- Personality – People are attracted to interesting personalities, such as Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart, and Colonel Sanders. Injecting your own personality into your ezine will not only make it more interesting for the reader, but a unique personality can be a lethal competitive weapon for a small specialty distributor. Don’t be afraid to inject your opinions and personal experiences to spice things up for your reader.
- Utility – Include content that your readers can use to improve their personal lives, jobs, businesses, customer relationships, etc.
- Attractiveness – Ezines that are attractive and easy to read get read. Period.
C.) Decide on Your Frequency: It makes a big difference how often you send your newsletter. Daily newsletters (and blogs) require a significant commitment unless they're short. Daily ezines usually consist of brief tips, quotes, or news updates. Weekly distribution probably makes more sense. Timing is everything. For example, if you can manage it, send your newsletter to customers the day before an order ships. This facilitates “impulse” purchases and increases the customer’s perception of your company’s customer service.
D.) Decide on Your Format: Essentially, there are two formats from which to choose: plain text or html. An HTML newsletter is graphical and looks much like a webpage. A text newsletter is simply a message sent with words and no graphics. HTML probably makes more sense for most catalogers because product offers with colors and graphics typically out pull those that don't graphics. HTML newsletter template software is inexpensive.
E.) Develop a Strategy for Capturing E-mail Addresses: Rent lists, use both online and offline strategies to capture email addresses. Online strategies range from putting an opt-in box on every page of your website to using an exit pop-up (always a bad idea because people hate them). Offline email collection strategies typically involve enticing your customer to volunteer his e-mail address in exchange for something of value such as coupon. Or you might hold a contest for which the winner will be announced by e-mail, which would require customers to give you their e-mail address. Get crazy.
Regardless of how your email addresses are captured, there’s no question that ezines can be a highly effective way to grow a business. They're inexpensive to manage, and they are a wonderful way to develop and maintain a meaningful dialog with your customers.
Postscript: Shortly after I posted this, Chief Marketer ran an excellent interview with ezine expert Todd Smart about the ins-and-outs of ezine publication. Click here to download.
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Q: Need the number of a recruiter who "gets it?"
A: Download Harry's contact info for future reference.
