Automate your Newsletter
Automate Your Newsletter
Ezines are much easier to create and distribute if you can setup as much automation as possible. This is especially true for those who are smaller companies and individuals who are doing the whole process themselves. However, if you are extremely busy, you may find that third party Ezine software vendors would be useful to you as well.
These vendors take care of your distribution. They are able to save you a lot of time and money, but you do have to pay rates based on your ezine’s subscriber list. If you don’t want to go this route, you do have the option of handling all of the functions on your own. The main advantage of going with a vendor is that they are able to handle your formatting, managing, administering and tracking are also automated by them.
Acquiring Useful Information on Your Subscribers
As an ezine publisher you want to provide information to your subscribers that is useful and meets their needs, after all that is one of the main reasons that people use the Internet. It is important to not only track your ezine’s campaign, but to gather information about your subscribers as well. This information can help you improve the content of your ezine as well as the popularity of it.
Demographic data can be very useful and you can use it to tailor your ezine to your target audience. This can help you improve your content as well and the most popular way to gather this information is to use a feedback form or survey. You may post these forms through your emails that go to your current subscribers.
Most subscribers may not be willing to provide you with this information, but others will not mind. Either way, you should be careful when you are requesting this type of information so that you do not lose the trust of your subscribers.
There are several guidelines that may help you when gathering this information:
- Clearly mention why you are requesting this information.
- Have a strict privacy policy that is viewable by your customers.
- Do not collect any information that is not necessary.
- Do not provide lengthy surveys. Most people will not complete them, so keep them as short as possible.
- Provide a guarantee that the information is safe and confidential.
- Do not force anyone to fill out the survey.
- Automate this process as well.
Testimonials
Testimonials are a great way of improving the credibility of your ezines. However, be aware that there are several sales letters and ezines on the web, even websites that have false testimonials. The only people who know that these are untrue and fake are the site owner and the writer who wrote them. This means that there are many unsuspecting customers out there being swayed by false advertising. It is always best if you can provide testimonials that are true. People trust other people, so it is a great idea to solicit testimonials directly from your subscribers. You can even use photos of them if they are willing. These make your testimonials and your ezine very personable and people like that. Testimonials have been known to increase the number of subscribers greatly!
Write a personalized email to every existing subscriber and request a review and testimonial of your ezine. Ask them what they like best about receiving your ezine and you will find that many people are very happy to assist you.
Here are a few tips on how to gather testimonials:
- Give a sample issue of an ezine to a group of users. Then ask them if they found it useful and what can be improved.
- Give a sample issue to someone who is considered to be an industry expert.
- Get permission to use the testimonial and then have them sign a release that grants their permission to publish their testimonial both on your website and in your ezine.
- Fully identify the person when quoting the testimonial. This should include name, occupation and company name if applicable and it is good to include their city and age with permission.
- Use them everywhere from your website to your autoresponders to your brochures.
