If you want to make a profit online by selling stuff, there’s no other venue more powerful and more cost-efficient than a newsletter. However, it’s not as straightforward as connect-the-dots – there are a number of things that you need to establish first just to get your readers in a buying mood. If you fail to establish these elements in your newsletter, you’re not likely to see any sales- at least, not enough to make the whole endeavor worthwhile.
1. Establish Rapport – you need to establish rapport first, which essentially means that you have to give the reader the feeling that you’re coming from the same side as them. There are myriads of ways you can do this, from adjusting the tone of your writing to creating content that they can relate with on a personal level. Continue reading →
A newsletter is easily one of the most important parts of an online business, as it is the most efficient and powerful way of increasing exposure and sales. However, there are marketers who find success only in the beginning, before finding out that their subscriber list has eventually decayed and stopped being beneficial to their business. What they don’t know is that there are 3 things that could creep up on your operations and slowly kill your newsletter if left unchecked. These 3 things consist of:
Lack of Opportunity to Grow the List From Within the Newsletter
List decay is a sad but unavoidable part of any newsletter. You can’t keep every single one of your subscribers indefinitely – over time some of them will lose interest, some will move on to a competitor, or some will pass away.
The Internet has already proven itself as the most powerful venue for advertising in the modern age, with reach that cannot be matched by traditional media and a cost of entry that is scalable enough that even small businesses can afford to run advertising campaigns that span the globe. However, most businesses these days fail to realize its full potential because they still treat the Internet like print or broadcast media, not knowing that there are better alternatives online.
Marketing sometimes mirrors the principles of survival of the fittest, in which the most efficient – and most likely to survive – species are the ones that are simplest. In this line of thinking, newsletters are very powerful because it’s a simple enough concept. It’s basically a magazine that’s been stripped down to its bare necessities: a single article with a single ad, mailed directly to consumers on a regular basis. Continue reading →
Selling ads through newsletters can be very profitable.However, it is a completely different process from traditional ad selling, particularly if you’re basing it within the context of print publications. If you want to succeed, you need to acknowledge the differences and follow a few keys to success, such as:
Offer Data on Performance
Many e-mail marketers shy away from presenting numbers because they compare their numbers with expectations derived from traditional print advertising. A 25 percent open rate with an 8 percent overall CTR with 0.30 average banner CTR might not look very impressive and the numbers may seem “low,” but those numbers are actually decent if you are familiar with the industry benchmarks.
It is also worth noting that the numbers presented on newsletter advertising are much more accurate compared to print advertising due to the availability of tracking tools. Add the fact that newsletters have a significantly wider reach and larger audience and you’ll see that the supposedly “low” numbers are actually above average when compared to other advertising channels.
So, do not be afraid to present actual data. Spend a little bit of time on educating potential advertisers on what the numbers really mean and you’ll find that they’ll end up trusting your data more.
Consider the Size of Ads You Offer
When it comes to banner advertising, size does matter. Larger ads usually generate better numbers compared to smaller formats. However, an email newsletter more often than not has a limited amount of real estate available. This means you have to test and offer large size ads that won’t ruin the newsletter itself, or offer smaller sized formats that are cheaper. Make sure you standardize everything: pick the largest possible size and then slice it into smaller formats that you can offer piecemeal (this way, advertisers have the option of choosing the size that fits their budget.)
Avoid Separating Advertising from Editorial
In the publishing world, editorial is kept completely separate from advertising. They need to avoid making readers think that the editorial is influenced by advertisers. However, things are different when it comes to email newsletters. You don’t want to overwhelm readers with ads, but placing advertisements alongside editorial content will help them be seen by more people. The rule of thumb is just to ensure that readers are made aware of which ones are editorial content and which ones are advertisements – this can be done by including the word “advertising” or “sponsor” as a watermark or small caption. Banner ads don’t really need this, but text ads need them in order to avoid making them look like text content. You don’t want to come off as deceptively trying to get people to click on ads.
The above tips are just the proverbial tip of the iceberg – selling through newsletter advertising is a big, lucrative industry and there are other things that you can learn through experience.
It’s a common saying over the Internet: Content is King! You read it from Google’s Matt Cutts, from various article marketers and SEO experts, and even from random bloggers floating around on free services. Most of the time, they are pertaining to web content, but the amazing thing is that it applies even to newsletters. One of the most important parts of a newsletter is valuable content. But how can you tell if your newsletter content is valuable? There are a number of ways:
1. If People Are Sharing It – People have this innate need to share things that they like to their friends and loved ones, especially nowadays as social media has made the act of sharing content a point of pride. Newsletters with really good content are particularly conducive to sharing, because it has this air of exclusivity to it – readers feel like they’re the only one with access to the newsletter because they access it through their personal mail reader. So once they find something that really grabbed their attention, they feel compelled to show it to everyone else. You do need to make it easier for them, though – so make sure your newsletters have “Share This” links or CTAs.
An email newsletter is not only one of the most lucrative small business models on the Internet, it’s also the easiest one to get into, due in part to the low startup costs – for less than $100, you can start a small website and an email delivery system. The fact that you can work from anywhere where there’s Internet access makes it even better. However, getting from point A to point B is not as simple as one would expect. In order to create profit from your newsletter, you have to take the following recommended steps first:
1. Get a Healthy List – whether you’re building your list through an opt-in form on your website or just buying from someone else, you have to ensure that it’s a quality list made up of contacts who are aware of what they signed up for. Don’t buy lists full of people who were tricked into signing up, or worse – lists full of abandoned email addresses.
2. Compile a list of potential partners – try to collate a list of companies or marketers who have products that may suit your targeted readership. Then you can contact them later and try to strike a deal for cross promotion or even freebies that can be used as giveaways for contests. Continue reading →
If you want to make a profit online by selling stuff, there’s no other venue more powerful and more cost-efficient than a newsletter. However, it’s not as straightforward as connect-the-dots – there are a number of things that you need to establish first just to get your readers in a buying mood. If you fail to establish these elements in your newsletter, you’re not likely to see any sales- at least, not enough to make the whole endeavor worthwhile.
A newsletter is easily one of the most important parts of an online business, as it is the most 
