Writing & Designing: Email Newsletter

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Posted on 14th June 2010 by Susan Venancio in Business Tips |email marketing

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An email newsletter, when put together effectively, can be a fantastic avenue to generate traffic to your website and increase your sales revenues. Keeping the format clean and sharp looking with useful engaging articles and irresistible promotional special offers will give your subscriber a reason to open and read more.

Here are some helpful tips to consider as you create your newsletter:

  • Make it simple, easy to read, and quickly scan-able with easy navigation. Format with a 12 pt. size font (I like Arial typestyle) in dark font color on a light background, publish only 3-5 articles, using a few compelling pictures and add a clickable table of contents with article titles at the top. For articles that have over 200-300 words, add a “read more” link to take your reader to your website for the full details.
  • Set your standards. Keeping the same colors, article and promotional placement, and number of articles; sets a predictable standard that customers love.
  • Establish a publishing schedule. Decide and commit to sending your newsletter at regular intervals. For example, if you were to publish a monthly newsletter, email it on the first Monday of each month. This too, helps establish a predictable standard that customers love.
  • Format for the preview pane. Most people view their emails through the preview pane, so format the top 200-300 pixels with the most engaging and irresistible material.
  • The 80/20 content rule. 80% of the newsletter content should be engagingly useful tip oriented articles and 20% promotional sales content.
  • Subscriber access on the homepage. Put a subscribe box at the top of the homepage, only asking for the subscriber’s email address. Give the subscriber an opportunity to view current and previous issues. Also, offer a share button. And make your privacy policy easily accessible.
  • Check it out. Send your newsletter to email clients, such as, Outlook, Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail to ensure quality viewing results in these various environments.
  • Measure the results. Analyze what works and what does not work after each newsletter. Find out the: delivery rate, open rate, click-through rate, sales rate and sign-up growth rate.

An email newsletter is another opportunity to showcase your company’s personality. Also use your target audience, competition and newsletters you receive to help guide you towards writing and designing a great newsletter. If you are looking for material inspiration to cover in your newsletter try: a main editorial, “From the President” article, testimonials, special featured products/services, upcoming events, promotions, coupon, other industry expert interviews with tips/best practices, FAQ section where you answer customer submitted questions, customer feedback, surveys, or enter a contest.

I hope these tips help you write and design an irresistible newsletter. Get creative and have fun!

Cheers!

Market your Testimonials

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Posted on 28th April 2010 by Susan Venancio in Business Tips |Marketing |Social Media |Web Design |Web Development

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Customer testimonials have the potential to be a powerful marketing tactic for your business. Collecting letters, cards and emails of positive, believable testimonials can be put to good use to build a glowing marketing portfolio for your company. Constantly be on the look out for that positive, believable feedback. Please ask for it too! See if you can get your customer on video. Most satisfied customers would not take the time to proactively provide testimonials, so just ask.

There are many characteristics that make up a great testimonial. Use a testimonial that addresses a specific benefit &/or addresses a personal situation, overcomes objection, especially where a customer admits to it, the more dramatic, the better. It’s best to show off the detailed and specific ones, but not the overly long ones. Keep it short and sweet.

When it comes time to use your testimonials make sure you put them in a relevant place. The possibilities are endless; ads, direct mailers, brochures, Facebook, Youtube, blog, on-line business directories, newsletters, web site homepage, product page, landing pages or group your testimonials on one page. Anything else?

Remember to get written permission from your customer, quote the lines you are requesting to use and state what media form will be used. To increase your believability, include your customer’s full name, city, state, job title, company. For top rate believability use your satisfied customer’s photo and email address. That’s what I call a “WOW!” factor.

It is a little bit of extra work, but powerful advertising for your company.  You can even encourage your customers to share their success stories by offering rewards for their testimonials.

Have fun with it! Cheers!

Social Network Advertising for the Small Business

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Posted on 9th July 2009 by Jose Bono in Business Tips |Social Media

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imagesHow does a social network like Facebook ( www.facebook.com ) gain so many users in so little time when you have other networks like MySpace and Friendster working so well. Simple, it represents a specific type of user base. One that’s just a bit more productive than the mySpace user, which makes it a better candidate for certain types of advertisements.

That’s where you come in… The small business, the stay at home mom or dad running a sole proprietorship, the website looking for new juice on the web. Facebook is teeming with customers and it’s easier than ever to market directly to them. (more…)