Email Marketing Tips | Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

Archive for Email Marketing Tips – Page 2

7 Ways to Leverage Your E-Newsletter Content

By Patsi Krakoff

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Michael Katz and Chad Board are experts at teaching professionals how to write and publish a successful e-newsletters. Today they reviewed ways to re-purpose newsletter materials and get the most marketing power out of your publication.

There was a lively discussion on the teleseminar, open to members of their E-Newsletter Success Program.
As some of you know, I'm a big fan of Michael and Chad: I really
believe that they've got the e-newsletter training stuff down to a tee,
and are teaching it well.

I took some notes. They came up with 7 ways to leverage your e-newsletter content:

Submit your main article to online article directories. My favorite is Chris Knight's Ezine Articles. Be sure to put your name and blog URL in your resource box so people can find you on the web.
Re-purpose your main article for blog posts. In
some cases, one newsletter article can be turned into a series of
posts, depending on the length. Of course, this goes both ways. I've
often turned blog posts into newsletter material.
Create a special report or e-book,
or an e-course delivered by autoresponders. What do your newsletter
readers want to know more about? Are there "7 insider secrets" in your
industry that you can share with them?

Categories : Email Marketing Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing

Great Options: How to create a no-brainer

By Patsi Krakoff

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

I just read something in Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely that blows me away. The Economist offered 3 options on their website for subscriptions:

Economist.com subscription – $59 for online access
Print subscription – $125 for printed issues
Print & Web subscription – $125 for both print and online editions

Wait a minute. Logically, this makes no sense. From a potential subscribers point of view, it's a no-brainer to choose option #3. Which is precisely what the magazine wants you to do.

This is really good marketing. It seems as consumers, we don't really understand the value of something unless it's relative to something else. When you can see options in context, it's easier to make a decision.

"In the case of the Economist, the decision between the Internet-only and print-only options would take a bit of thinking. Thinking is difficult and sometimes unpleasant. So the Economist's marketers offered us a no-brainer: relative to the print-only option, the print and Internet options looks clearly superior."

How can you apply this to your content writing? Well, if you're writing to get people to take some sort of action, give them options. Then make one option vastly superior.

Categories : Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, On Writing Better, Writing Great Copy

E-Newsletter Success: How to painlessly learn to be profitable

By Patsi Krakoff

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Launch a Profitable E-Newsletter with E-Newsletter Success

I haven't been this excited about ezines since blogs burst on the scene. I still believe in the power of sending out a regular, well-crafted e-newsletter for your business.

It's just that email deliverability issues and the time to put one together…you know what I'm talking about…unless you know what you're doing, an emailed newsletter can cost you time and worry.

You can just STOP thinking like that. This is the swift solution to learning quickly and inexpensively everything you need to know to craft an ezine that works, that brings in business and makes money for you. This is pain-free, folks.

I'm a huge fan of Michael Katz of Blue Penquin Development. You've heard me gush about his clever writing before: His E-Newsletter on E-Newsletters is a first class production. If nothing else, if you just copied what he does, you'd have a spectacular ezine.

Yesterday Michael announced he's teamed up with Chad Board. They've just launched their E-Newsletter Success training membership program.

If you're thinking about starting an ezine to grow your business, start here. If you're thinking about abandoning yours, don't do it. Learn what you need to know and turn your e-newsletter into a profit machine.

Categories : Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Writing Better Ezines

3 Ways to Write Content that Brings In Business

By Patsi Krakoff

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

Denise Wakeman answers a question over on our Build a Better Blog site that's an important key to effective business blogging: 3 Ways to Motivate Blog Readers to Take Action.

This is a key piece of the content marketing puzzle: how do you write so that readers become clients or customers? How do you provide valuable content that educates readers yet also works to bring in new business?

Denise"s response is this:

Connect with readers on your blog
Interact with them on your blog
Move readers off your blog to a deeper experience

This same good advice can apply to other things you write. After the main body of an article, email broadcast, newsletter or blog post, provide opportunities for people to get more involved: download a free report, attend a teleseminar, or meet in
person at conferences and workshops.

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, On Writing Better, Online Marketing

How to Write an Email Promotion Message… 6 Rules to Guide You

By Patsi Krakoff

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

This is my follow-up to yesterday's post: How NOT to Write an Email Promotion Message. It's so easy to pick out what's wrong with something; the real crux is in correcting an email to make it sizzle.

Pat McGraw of McGraw Marketing contributed a great comment which sums up what is wrong with the previous email message: "This laundry list of stuff has no clearly stated benefits and is more about the Famous Guru that it is about the recipient of the offer(s)."

I agree with Pat about what's wrong:

No greeting, nothing with my name
No reason given why this is important to me
Only give me one thing to think about at a time, otherwise too many choice, no action will be taken.

There are others, but clearly the biggest one is not addressing the needs or wants of the reader. What's in it for me?

Even if I know who is sending me a message, I still need the reasons to care to be spelled out. Why? We're all busy with our own stuff. So if you don't spell it out for me, fuggitaboutit, I delete and move on.

Rule #1: Grab my attention. Here's a clue. I scan email headlines to decide what needs to be read. If your subject line isn't compelling, I ignore your email.

Categories : Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, Online Marketing, Writing Great Copy

How NOT to Write an Email Promotion Message…

By Patsi Krakoff

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

I opened his email because I like to know how famous consultants are marketing themselves. I was expecting some words of wisdom and maybe to pick up a nugget or two. But I got the following promotion message. See if you can understand what's wrong with it, then we can look at how to make an email promo message better:

From: [Name of Famous Best-Selling Author/Guru]
Subject: End of Year Reminder from "Famous Guru"

The discount for the 2009 teleconference series expires on December 31, so register NOW if you're interested in this very popular series at a huge discount:
[link]

There is a new XYZ program scheduled for Spring, only six people… two spots are already taken. Register on the earlier course site until the new one is up, this is brand new:
[link]

ABC scheduled, beginning to fill:
[link]

Last call for $0 to $300,000, turbo-charge the start of your year, four seats remain:
[link]

Have a happy, healthy, safe, and prosperous New Year.

You know what? I'm going to open this up to you readers to dissect. Give me 3 things you think are wrong with this from a marketing perspective. Tell me why you think this message falls flat, or isn't effective in getting people to take action, or in getting any kind of positive reaction.

Keep in mind this guy is really famous in his niche and has a large following of fans and then tell me if you think this has any bearing on the quality of the message. Personally, I think he should know better, or hire better people to write his email messages.

Categories : Email Marketing Tips, Online Marketing, Writing Great Copy

Blogs Haven’t Replaced Email Newsletters

By Patsi Krakoff

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Thanks for voting on the Vizu Poll about email newsletter formatting preferences. If you haven’t voted yet, please do. The poll is found if you scroll down a little on the right, in bright pink.

Why should you do an email newsletter if you’ve got a blog? When it comes to content marketing, you want to increase the chances that people will read what you have to say. You need both a blog and an emailed newsletter (or ezine).

Today I got Darren Rowse’s Problogger.net newsletter in my inbox and he reminds us that email newsletters are still a best practice of smart bloggers. Rather than repeat all his wisdom, here are the links to read a couple of his posts about this:

Email newsletters aren’t a thing of the past. Blogs haven’t replaced ezines. A newsletter gives additional information in a way that is different, more traditional.

Categories : Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Writing Better Ezines

Ideal Format for Email Newsletters?

By Patsi Krakoff

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

Last week I asked readers to respond to a poll (see Vizu poll on the right) on their preferred formatting and distribution for emailed newsletters: plain text, HTML, or PDF versions. So far, half of responders prefer using HTML, and a third are using plain text.

There haven’t been any who say they prefer PDF, either sent as an attachment, or viewed as a page on their websites. I happened to know of several clients who are using PDFs for their newsletters, but looks like they didn’t vote.

Judging from the newsletters I subscribe to and receive in my inbox this 50%-33% split between HTML and plain text formatting is typical.

Here’s my perspective: if you want readers to focus primarily on your message, then plain text is valuable. If you also want to impress people visually with colors, logo and other branding elements, then it makes sense to make the most out of graphic design by using HTML formatting.

Can there be an ideal merge of both of these important elements – design for branding and showcase valuable content?

Categories : Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks

Email Newsletters: Best Ways to Deliver & Format?

By Patsi Krakoff

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

Ah, the eternal question of emailed newsletters: What’s the best format to send it so it gets delivered, opened, and read? Here’s what one of my Customized Newsletter Services clients asked in a recent email:

Dear Patsi,

There is a definite divergence of opinions among my colleagues about the best way to distribute a newsletter.

Some feel that the entire text should be in the email in html, eliminating the need for click-thru’s.

Some simply send a one or two sentence summary, with an attached pdf.

Some send what amounts to headlines, with a click-thru to the website where the newsletter is resident.

Some send a one or two sentence plain text summary with link to the newsletter.

Everybody seems to do something different. They all have a rationale for their decision. And all seem to have their limitations, as well.

Categories : Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Writing Better Ezines

Email Marketing Messages: How to Promote a Program

By Patsi Krakoff

Friday, July 11th, 2008

How do you write great email marketing messages to promote an event or program? After your landing page is up, with your well-crafted sales copy, you must drive people to that page with email messages. This is the next writing task you’ll need to master if you want to successfully promote a program.

In this series of posts, we’re using our Law of Action 2.0 mentoring program as example. We sent out several email messages during the month prior to the event, most of them during the week before.

Email marketing messages are challenging. Everybody gets too much email, and each time you broadcast you get people who unsubscribe because they aren’t interested or are annoyed. But you must send out enough messages to remind people to sign up, especially at the last minute. Otherwise you’re leaving money on the table. It’s a balancing act of risking so many unsubscribe requests and so many last minute registrations.

You need your email recipients to:

Open and read your message
Discover something important they can benefit from
Convince them they need to learn more about this
Trigger their desire to click over to the sales page to read details and register
Realize the some sort of urgency so they won’t put it off and forget to take action

The most important thing you can do is to write naturally and with sincerity. If you come across as promotional, readers’ BS antennae will get triggered. The delete finger goes into automatic action when you use hype and fluff.

Categories : Content Marketing, Email Marketing Tips, Online Marketing, Pathway to Profits, Writing Great Copy

Archive for Email Marketing Tips – Page 2

7 Ways to Leverage Your E-Newsletter Content

Great Options: How to create a no-brainer

E-Newsletter Success: How to painlessly learn to be profitable

3 Ways to Write Content that Brings In Business

How to Write an Email Promotion Message… 6 Rules to Guide You

How NOT to Write an Email Promotion Message…

Blogs Haven’t Replaced Email Newsletters

Ideal Format for Email Newsletters?

Email Newsletters: Best Ways to Deliver & Format?

Email Marketing Messages: How to Promote a Program

Content for Coaches and Consultants

Serenity Virtual Assistant Services

Social Buzz Club