We’ve posted a new poll over on Next Level Biz Tips about ezine formatting. Which do you prefer to RECEIVE: plain text or HTML (graphic images like a web page)? It’ll take you about 5 seconds so please let us know how you like your ezines delivered. Thanks!
Author Archive for Patsi Krakoff – Page 127
Ingredient #4: Write Valuable Information Readers Can Use (part 1)
Content is King AND Queen on the Web. Your first contact with Internet visitors is most likely when they land on your website, blog, one of your articles, or a landing page you’ve written. Your words act as doorman, receptionist, host, and sales team.
How you write and what you say is responsible for first and lasting impressions with a prospect. So how do you write valuable content for your ezine?
Marketing Sherpa, a leading email and web analytics firm, has done tests on email effectiveness. Here’s what President Anne Holland reports on one such test: “My favorite result — copy writing really, really matters. The top three best ROI tests were more to do with words (copy, offer, subject line) than they were with design or graphics.”
Here are 10 short tips for writing good content:
1. The reader comes first; address their pain, their wants, their challenges.
2. Break your writing into short sentences, make shorter paragraphs, and use subtitles.
3. Use simple words in place of longer, more sophisticated words; avoid technical jargon and insider phrases and acronyms; don’t be afraid to use emotionally strong words.
(NOTE: Use the test for readability in Microsoft Word under [Spelling and Grammar] [Options] [Show readability statistics] and make sure you are writing at a about an 8th grade level.)
Blogging and Beyond: Episode 5
Email is Dead. Long Live Email!
with guest expert Chris Baggott of ExactTarget.com
Links to sites referenced in the show:
ExactTarget.com
ChrisBaggott.com
WheretoFindParkingBlog.com
SalesForce.com
Ingredient #3: Email Subject Line: Clear, Clever, and Compelling
Creating a good ezine article title or email subject line is probably more important than the actual content, given that so few readers (11%) actually read the entire content of emailed newsletters. Most readers scan, making the headline and subheadings very important. In the context of an ezine, the headline can be both the email subject line and the title of your articles. In both cases, you want to compel the reader to first open your email and second, read your article.
The best headlines are those that start a story, make a shocking statement, tease a bit, offer a benefit or prepare the reader for what’s to come.
Experienced copywriters are extremely good at writing headlines and titles that pull in readers. One such expert is Michel Fortin, who uses his “3 X 3 Rule:”
That is, your headline should cater to:
1. The three greatest human goals to make or save:
a. time
b. effort
c. money
2. The three greatest human desires:
a. lust
b. greed
c. comfort
3. The three greatest human teasers:
a. curiosity
b. scarcity
c. controversy
Newsletter Nuggets – February 8, 2007
…tips and tricks for writing great ezines and blogs
Table of Contents
1. A Note from Patsi – Ezine Week
2. What You Need To Know About CAN-SPAM
3. March 07 Featured Article: Good Boss, Bad Boss: 20 Habits You Need To Stop
4. What’s New on the Blogs?
A note from Patsi –
This is Ezine week, as The Blog Squad is featuring email marketing with ezines on our Internet Radio Show, Blogging and Beyond on VoiceAmerica.com channel Thursdays, 8 a.m. PT). We are interviewing Chris Baggott of ExactTarget.com, about email best practices.
And we’re reviewing all the essential elements to an ezine in a series of blog posts at www.CoachEzines.com, Recipe for an Ezine: 8 Key Ingredients.
When’s the last time you had an ezine checkup? Like everything on the Net, things change rapidly, and you need to know best practices. I’ve included a review here on Spam laws.
Ezine marketing isn’t dead, it’s just changing all the time. Are you?
Ingredient #2: Clarity of Audience & Purpose
What do you want your newsletter to do?
Who is your targeted audience?
What’s in it for them?
Addressing these questions before starting your ezine will serve your objectives in the long run. The better you are able to articulate the answers, the easier it will be for you to write relevant content, grow your subscriber list, and measure results.
Not being clear will result in an ezine that stagnates, meanders and loses subscribers over time. Being laser-focused will result in subscribers who want to hear what you have to say, and who come to trust you over time can lead to sales of your products and services.
Your ideal reader will most likely mirror your ideal client. Once you clarify who your targeted readers are, then list what benefits they will get from being a regular reader of your newsletter.
When you are clear, write a 25 word statement explaining your newsletter:
1. Who it is for
2. What benefits they will get from reading it
3. Who you are as the author an expert
Example:
What You Need to Know: CAN-SPAM Laws
©2007 by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad™
Anyone doing business online and using email for marketing needs to know about the CAN-SPAM laws.
Smart online marketers use “permission” marketing: you invite potential customers to join your email list, and offer a newsletter, a special report, or a sequential series of messages to form an e-course. The recipient “opts-in” to the list by replying to an invitation and subscribing. By "opting in", your subscriber is telling you it’s OK to send email. They’ve given you permission and your email messages are not considered spam.
But most people don’t really understand what constitutes spam. If you’re in business for any length of time on the Internet, you may encounter false accusations of spam simply because people forget they opted in receive your message. To many people spam is simply an unwanted message.
This can cause problems for you with your email service provider. You should be able to prove that you haven’t been sending unsolicited email. Your proof lies with the list management system you use that tracks invitations and opt in responses.
Here’s what you need to know about the law is so you can rest assured that you aren’t breaking it.
CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.
Simply put, here’s a rundown of the law’s main provisions:
• It bans false or misleading header information. Your email’s "From," "To," and routing information must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
• It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message. Subject and content must match.
• It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or an automated way for your subscriber to opt out. You must honor the requests. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor’s email address.
• It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.
Tune in this Thursday, February 15, at 11 a.m. ET for The Blog Squad’s sixth Internet radio show on VoiceAmerica channel:
Blogging and Beyond with The Blog Squad: Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman, Internet Radio Show
"Email is Dead, Long Live Email!"
With guest Chris Baggott of Exact Target
Thursday, February 8 at 11:00 a.m. ET on Voice America
Why you need a newsletter and how it works with your other marketing tools: The Blog Squad reveals essential information to make writing, formatting and sending out an electronic newsletter (ezine) easy and effective. Guest expert Chris Baggott of Exact Target discusses issues affecting deliverability and ezine results and best practices. In the second half of the show, we’ll work with Ideal Client Erik Feder on how to optimize his email newsletter.
If you have a question for Chris Baggott, please use the Comment link below and we’ll do our best to get it answered on the show.
Yesterday we started an 8 part series on key elements to an effective newsletter for your business. Today, we start with picking a title.
Ingredient #1: Start Smart: Name Your Ezine
Before you name your ezine (electronic newsletter), you must get clear about its purpose, the purpose of your business, and why you care. In our Quick-Start Ezine Guide, we suggest writing down two purpose statements:
1. What is your business purpose? (Sell more products, get clients, for example)
2. What is your “higher” purpose? (To provide the best products or services, to help others to achieve something, to make lives easier, etc.)
These two layers of purpose will connect your passion to the realism of making your business successful. By articulating your true values and your business goals you will discover more energy when it comes to writing your ezine.
This will help you find an appropriate name for your ezine. Ideally, like naming anything, your title should be clear, clever and compelling. However, never sacrifice clarity in order to be clever. You want readers to know what your ezine is about just by its name, if possible.
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