E-Newsletters: Getting Started and Getting Revised

This last week I’ve published a variety of articles on how to do an ezine so that your emailed messages get opened, get read, and get results. What’s the bottom line here, if you want to get started publishing an e-newsletter for your business or practice? What should you pay attention to if your current ezine isn’t getting results, and your list of subscribers isn’t growing?

Writing on blogs has taught me a lot about writing short and sweet, but I still tend to go on and on. Like right here, I am fighting a tendency to tell you all about the way newsletters used to be written, and how they should be written today. They have evolved, have you? Okay, I’m over it… back to my points:

Whether you are starting a new newsletter or revising your current one, you need to:

1. Decide on who your target audience of readers and customers is
2. Decide on the purpose of your ezine (or blog)
3. Decide the best format for your ezine, considering the reading habits of your subscribers (PDF, plain text, HTML?), along with length (600-800 words ideal), and frequency (monthly, bi-weekly, weekly?)

4.  Pick a topic that addresses the needs/wants/challenges of your readers
5. Write out a list of tips, keys, essential facts – bullet points
6. Summarize how your points will solve a problem
7. Ask for action or response from readers
8. Write a compelling, curiosity-seeking headline using your keywords
9. Plug it into your HTML template, or PDF, or plain text editor.
10. Use your customary emailing service to send out to your list.

If you get stuck at any one of these steps, don’t stay stuck: get help. There are a ton of email services online, some of them will be appropriate for you. For example, my own company of Customized Newsletter Services helps professionals in a variety of fields.

We even provide content, as long as you are in the field of coaching or consulting, either on an orgaizational level or for personal development. We can also format, design a template, and handle the subscription/emailing challenges.

E-newsletters are not dead, au contraire; they are still the most effective marketing bang for you buck. But you do need to do them right. Like other Internet tools, if you don’t do them right, they can become a mega-time sucker.