Writing e-Newsletters ? Tricks of the Trade

Follow 10 simple rules of thumb, and you?ll soon be writing great e-newsletters and reaping the rewards.

Company e-newsletters can be an amazingly successful marketing technique. Whether you want to up-sell or cross-sell, establish your brand or establish your authority, or simply reach a wider market, an e-newsletter can do the job for you. You just have to make sure you write it right.

Television, radio, and print advertising are often too expensive for many businesses to justify ? especially small businesses. Fortunately, there is an alternative. Today?s internet and email technologies make company newsletters a very inexpensive, yet surprisingly effective, form of advertising. When it comes to newsletters, big companies and small are finally competing on a level playing field.

So what is an email newsletter?

An emailed newsletter serves much the same purpose as a traditional company newsletter. Think of it as a short newspaper ? but instead of relating to a town, city or country, it relates to your business. You can include articles on new products or services, awards, recent success stories and case studies, promotions, specials, share price rises, company events, research? And if it?s a quiet month, you can simply write articles that might help your customers out.

10 Steps to Success

Follow 10 simple rules of thumb, and you?ll soon be writing great newsletters and reaping the rewards?

1) Keep It New! Your readers won?t waste time reading something they already know, so make it news they can use.

2) Keep it personal: Always use your reader?s name. Make sure when someone signs up, you get their name, then use it in the subject line, in the greeting, and anywhere else you can.

3) Know your reader: Find out what your reader is interested in. Do some pro-active research, invite response, or find an email marketing solution such as Ezemail** that tracks the links your readers click on and keeps a history of their activity.

4) Let them know you: Let your personality shine through. Readers are far more likely to become loyal if they feel they know you. Always include a bit of you in the newsletter, whether it?s humour, personal details, personal anecdotes, or personal views.

5) Subject is Headline: The subject line of an email newsletter is like a front-page headline in a newspaper. You need to draw the reader in, so make it engaging and relevant (maybe promise a benefit) but no more than 25 characters so your reader can see it all before opening the email.

6) Use a Title bar: Make the most of the title bar to add visual appeal and establish brand awareness.

7) Make it ?scannable?: Most people don?t read online ? they scan. Make sure you use easy-to-read bullet points and sub-headings. Don?t lose your reader?s attention. Reading is physically more difficult online, so make sure you?re concise. Use links to other places instead of writing long articles.

8) Use White space!: If your page is too busy, you?ll lose your reader. Give them a chance to absorb valuable information by dedicating about 30% of your screen real estate to white space.

9) Easy unsubscribe: Make your unsubscribe easy to find. If it?s obvious, they?ll feel safe and can then appreciate the content. To many people, the ease of unsubscribing is an indicator of the integrity of your company.

10) Forward to a friend: Include a link to encourage readers to forward the newsletter on to their friends and colleagues. Find an email marketing solution which allows you to do this and sit back and watch your database grow!

** Ezemail enables you to create, manage, deliver and track your email marketing and sales communication. Email kathpay@ezemail.com.au or visit http://www.ezemail.com.au.

About The Author

* Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and Article Submission Specialist. He is a director of PublishHub and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com or http://www.publishhub.com for further details, more FREE articles, or to purchase his e-book, ?SEO Secrets?.

More Ezine Marketing Articles

10 Reasons To Sell A Fee Based Subscription Ezine
1. You will create residual income.

Volcanically Erupt Your Online Newsletter, Ezine or e-Course Opt-Ins in No Time Flat
Are you ready to build your opt in email list quickly?Matt Bacak, ThePowerful Promoter's techniques will help reveal new paths to have subscribers come to you. The Powerful Promoter, Internet marketing guru, shares his secrets for creating an explosion of opt-in email subscribers.

10 Sure Fire Ways To Get More Ezine Subscribers
1. Place testimonials for your ezine on your site.

10 First Rate Tips To Getting More Ezine Subscribers
1. Submit your ezine to ezine directories.

13 Ways To A Build A List Of Readers Of Your Ezine
If you have an ezine or online newsletter you want to send it to potential customers. In order to send it you need a list of people who want to receive it.

How to Grow Your Ezine Subscriber List
Your ezine subscriber list is a very valuable group. They are interested in your product of service.

Top 10 Reasons to Use a Blog to Publish Your Ezine
Blogs are the hottest thing going these days when it comes to marketing on the Internet. A blog is a delivery medium.

Ezine Publishing: 5 Easy Smart Strategies To Increase Your E-zines Subscriber Base
Do you publish an e-zine or newsletter?If you answer yes, then you must know how difficult it is to sign up new subscribers.I will now reveal to you 5 smart and easy e-zine publishing secrets to do so.

Fishing For Ezine Subscribers
The Bible tells the tale of the fishermen who were just not catching a thing. Jesus came along and told them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat, which they did.

Ezine List Building-Wealth Mentor Teaches 5 Easy Steps To Skyrocket Your Subscriptions and Profits
Would you like an Internet Marketing tool that can put your efforts on autopilot?In a recent interview for the List Crusade program, Matt Bacak revealed what he called the "foundation" for automatically building a successful and profitable ezine.(Note: To access Matt Bacak's complete audio interview for fre^e, see end of article)A little about Matt: He was the leading facilitator for Robert Kiyosaki's (of Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame) Cash Flow 101 program.