Tips on E-mail Newsletters

I have had several inquiries about doing newsletters via the web or e-mail since doing last week's Tips on newsletters. Newsletters whether in print or electronic are opportunities to regularly make contact with clients and prospective clients which makes them a great marketing tool. The big bonus with electronic newsletters is that there is no printing or mailing costs.

I am going to primarily write about e-mail newsletters. There are a variety of online newsletters out there, but probably the simplest form for most small business owners is the e-mail newsletter or tips. E-mail provides a quick way to keep your name out there, build trust with your readers, and, hopefully, attract some clients. If you archive your newsletter or provide subscribing through your website, it can be a traffic driver for your website also. I think probably the most important feature of having that newsletter in someone's e-mail box every week or so is top-of-mind awareness/name recognition which gives a small business an advantage over others.

Your e-mail newsletter should, just as in print, provide information and not be just for advertisement. You need to offer information that is of value, and in the course of doing that, promote your products and services. Eventually as your subscriber list grows (5,000 or more) you could start offering advertising to others to offset the costs of producing your newsletter. However, collecting a subscription base of this size could take a number of years, and I wouldn't make this a primary goal of your newsletter. Newsletters are for promoting your area of expertise - they are a vehicle for revenue generation.

So one of the first things to consider when deciding to do a newsletter is your amount of commitment. Whether you start out on a quarterly basis, then gradually increase to a weekly basis a good deal of commitment must be made. I spend two to three days researching my Tips, then two to three hours writing it. So you can see the time to do a simple tips sheet can in itself be consuming. Just as in print, you must be consistent in both your information and delivery. If you can't make the commitment to consistency, then I would suggest waiting until you can make that commitment.

Well, you have decided to make that commitment to providing worthwhile information on a regular basis - what do you do next? Collect e-mail addresses. Probably one of the easiest is your current database of e-mail addresses. You probably already have current and prospective clients' e-mail addresses. I must admit that this is the way I started my list, although it is not necessarily good Netiquette to do this. I did make sure with my first Tips that everyone knew in the first paragraph that they had the option to unsubscribe. You could also send out an introductory e-mail letter about your newsletter to your personal list to see if anyone would like to subscribe. I think it goes without saying that no one wants to be a spammer - you want to build an "opt-in" list. Remember to press release your newsletter which could bring subscribers. Another option to collecting e-mail addresses is to offer a subscription service through your website. There are programs that can handle the automatic subscribing and unsubscribing which would just take up to much space to go into now. If there is enough interest I could do a tips sheet on them one week. Let me know if you would be interested.

So now you got your e-mails, on to writing your newsletter. I think that greatest part of e-mail is that is definitely less formal than writing for print. E-mail tends to be very informal. I think if you write like you talk, it is much more enjoyable to the reader. As far as content, it depends on what you do. You have to think about if you were the reader, what would you want to see. Another good avenue is input from your readers or questions from clients. I wouldn't be doing this Tips without having had inquiries about e-mail newsletters. (This is a hint to my readers, if you want to see me do a tip on something let me know.)

I would also like to say that you don't have to do all the writing yourself. You can ask colleagues, employees, or reprint (with permission, of course) articles others have written.

So are you at the point where you are saying this seems like a lot of work? Yes, it can be. Although an electronic newsletter may not have some real dollar costs, it does have some time costs. However, I feel it is an investment well worth its time. Sending out that weekly tips or newsletter regularly, helps you build a relationship with your online readers which can be a great income generator in the long run.

Well I think I shall close out here with some of the technical stuff. I use Outlook Express as my e-mail program and although it has the capabilities of sending HTML-enhanced messages (meaning you can add graphics and pretty formatting) I send as plain text because not everyone has the ability to read HTML messages. You must remember your lowest common denominator. I initially create my text in a word processing program , then copy and paste. I also avoid symbols which often times show up as gobbledygook (for lack of a better word). There are other constraints when using listservers to handle your mailing list which again would be a Tips on their own. The best advice I can give is be as plain as possible. You are trying to deliver impressive information, not impressive delivery. Also as a matter of privacy when you send your e-mail put your recipient's addresses in the BCC field which blocks anyone from seeing each other's addresses. (You can just put your name in the TO field.)

Don't forgot to post your newsletter to your website - another opportunity to attract traffic. You can also promote your newsletter on several sites that list other free newsletters. Lastly, if you want to keep your subscribers' trust, don't give or sell your list to anyone unless all your subscribers have agreed. Remember for most small businesses reputation keeps them in business.

Well I hope I have answered some questions. If you have other questions please feel free to e-mail and I will try to help.