More Email Marketing With Newsletters
As we discussed in the last post concerning newsletters, we found that having consistent, good content is one of the most difficult areas of publishing. Below we are going to address some the the kinds of things that you could write about, hire someone to write about, and/or point your readers to articles about.
Problems and Solutions
If you take the time and utilize some of the suggestion in the previous post on newsletters you can easiliy identify common problems faced by your readers. Once you know these you can simply suggest solutions to those problems. Now, it’s ok to point them to affiliate products but don’t make it too self-serving otherwise no one will read your suggestions. They will assume you are trying to sell them something. Remember, give something of value to get something of value. Self-promotion is fine but not at the expense of delivering value.
How-to Information
If you are an internet marketer then this is the most popular product you can create. People always want to know how to do something. Find what that something is and write about it. If you have lots of information concerning the topic then create an e-book, audio, and video and sell the package.
Top 10 Tips
10 tips, 20 tips, 1 tip, it doesn’t matter. Tips are great ways to get people to read your newsletter. Anything that your readers are interested in can be put into a list. If you are in the dog niche you could have 10 tips to house break your puppy, or ten tips to stop your dog from chewing. You see, it’s easy to come up with a top 10 tip list.
Reviews, Opinions, Analysis
People want to know what you think. This is why they subscribe to your newsletter. So tell them. Give product reviews, you can give your opinion on just about anything as long as you know your audience well. You can analyze features, competitors, products, etc. You can write on anything, a relevant topic, idea, event, news item, product, company, industry development, performance, etc. etc.
Pull Out The Crystal Ball
If you can write an article predicting the future of whatever sector you’re involved in, that might draw some attention. Some time later, write a follow-up examining whether you were right or not (and if you were wrong, why?)
The Press
Have you been noticed by any kind of publication or other media? It could even be another business. Let people know that you are being talked about. Show them that people know who you are and what they think of you. The more press, the better, even if it’s your own.
Case Studies
Create a case study featuring your product or service. Make it entertaining. Most case studies you read are a bit bland and boring. You need to have more than just a customer who says, “we used the product and it worked for us.” There’s a difference between a case study and a testimonial.
Look at the case studies that impress you most. No doubt they include plenty of hard practical detail that readers can learn from, and real numbers so people can better gauge the impacts of the actions taken.
Seasonal Material
It’s easy to find some holiday or seasonal material just about anytime of the year. For example, you can use seasonal content to generate sales depending upon your business. Many email marketing services are now producing newsletter content advising marketers on how best to use email for holiday promotions. There are most likely parallels in your industry.
Educational content
You can write on anything that can be related to your products or service. The more people know about a product or service the safer they feel about doing business with you.
Pull Out The Fun Stuff
There are plenty of ways to put a little fun in your newsletter. You can have famous celebrity birthdays, who was born on this day, what the price of a house was 10, 20, 30 and 50 years ago. You can include jokes, cartoons, crosswords, or anything else that can take up a little space and provide a little break from the news of the publication.
Timeless material produced early on in the life of your newsletter probably reached a mere fraction of your current readership. Dig a little into the subscriber numbers and subscription lengths and you might find a wealth of material that’s effectively new to the majority of the recipients.
“Best of” content also makes a great solution in an emergency…when you’re stuck for content.
Surveys and Feedback Requests
Whether you plan it in advance or use it as emergency filler, surveys and feedback requests provide the reader with interaction and you with valuable information for the way you run your business as well as future topic to include in upcoming issues.
Event recommendations
Let you readers know about any events on the horizon. They could be yours, or someone else’s. Show them that you are trying to help them to satisfy their needs and desires. Point people to online or offline: webinars, conferences, workshops etc.
Resource Links
Some newsletters are based entirely around the idea of pointing people to useful resources elsewhere on the Internet. Nearly every business person has a problem with time (not enough of it). So sifting through the all the crap online and providing your readers the most useful links is a service everyone appreciates.
Direct people to third-party websites, articles, online tools etc. they are likely to appreciate…ideally with a short explanation of why you think these resources are worth noting. However, try to ensure the sites you send them to are not direct competitors.
Interviews
Interviews make for some great content. There are tons of people you can interview for your newsletter. They could be from within your own organization, your readers, customers, experts in your industry, or someone from a related business. Here’s a great tip when doing an interview. If you can video tape the interview. The reason is that then you can create an audio and have it transcribed to create the textual version. If it’s really good you might even create a product from it.
Statistics And Lists
If you were to take a look at some of the top media sites you would find many articles that start something like: “Top 5 ways…,” “Ten strategies for,” “Seven steps to…”
It is well known that people like numbers and people like lists. “Top 10 challenges faced by IT staff”…”Top five reasons to change jobs NOW”…”Top 5 email clients for your mobile phone” etc. etc.
Quizzes
Last but not least are quizzes. Quizzes give readers something fun to do in an interactive way. You can also tie them in to your own products and services. For example, you can use a quiz to identify areas of they don’t know about in which your expertise can fill!
You can use one or several of the above suggestion in a single issue of your newsletter. None of them are mutually exclusive – go ahead and mix and match different types of content to deliver the kind of engaging material that resonates with your readers.
Do you have any other ideas that can help to keep readers interested and content flowing? If so please feel free to comment below and give us your ideas.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Related posts:
- Email Marketing With Newsletters
- Email Marketing Tips For The Home Based Business
- Email Marketing And The Garden Path
- Information Marketing Home Study Course
- Email Marketing – Could There Be Money In Your List?
