Online newsletters

Offering online newsletters is an essential part of your marketing strategy.

Not only do they have a higher than average CTR (click through rate ... the number of people who go on to click on your ads) but they also allow you to generate a list of names and addresses of people who have given you permission to email them with this type of content.

The idea of running a newsletter campaign is quite straightforward, but many people don't even think about it, considering it an 'annoying extra'.

Here are the benefits:

# One time visitors subscribe to your offering, and that way they can potentially become repeat customers over time

# By opting in to your online newsletter, they give you permission to send email communications to them allowing you to constantly re-engage with your users

# It has been proven that consistent follow-up gets results!

The rules of email marketing

There is one important note that you must take account of if you're going to be a responsible - and legal - email marketer.

You need to observe the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003 ... known as CAN-SPAM ... which says:

Your communications are compliant if:

# Your subject lines are not misleading in any way

# Your advertisements are clearly labeled

# Your email headers and sender email address do not conceal your identity

# The content of the email contains a valid postal/physical address for you/your company

# Your email contains an opting-out system which is acted upon within 10 days

The final point is the reason why you generally need to subscribe for a service like this - it's too technical to manage yourself - but I am going recommend a free service which is very effective.

Creating effective online newsletters

Like everything to do with online work, there are a number of tips and techiques for writing effective newsletters:

# Be honest ... don't misrepresent or overhype your products and make sure that your subject line doesn't mislead ie Subject: 'Win a million dollars!'

# Be interesting ... nobody wants to receive just a sales pitch. Add some content that is useful and/or interesting, not just another email packed with ads and special offers.

# Create clear branding ... if you don't, how will the recipient know who sent the online newsletter?

# Keep it short, snappy, punchy ... it's an email, not 'War and Peace'

# Don't overdo your punctuation ... it makes you look like a spammer.

# Use small photos so that they download quickly. Clog up the user's PC and they'll click on 'Unsubscribe' before you know it!

# Offer a text-only version for those who prefer not to receive HTML emails (this is another reason why you'll need to sort out a proper service to run your online newsletters service effectively).

How to create your own newsletter

I'm going to recommend that you find yourself a good, paid service for managing your email lists and online newsletters.

You can do it for free, and I'll show you how, but it's a pretty complicated business and I have moved from a very good free service to a managed option, which I much prefer.

# PHPList is free open source list management software.

It's what I used when I first started providing opt-in services and online newsletters.

It's an extremely good bit of software and allows you to manage multiple newsletters and databases of subscribers.

In spite of its 'lean' design, this is effective, flexible, functional and stable.

You do need to have technical knowledge of PHP installations to get it for free, or you can pay £75 GBP for the first hour and £35 for each subsequent hour for installation via the makers, tincan.

If you use this option, and have a little bit of PHP knowledge, install it via a hoting service which offers cPanel with Fantastico script installation.

# I moved from PHPList to an integrated service which is included in the Site Build It! package I use to create and host this website.

I have multiple online newsletter options built in as standard (I call it an ezine on this site) allowing me not only to create multiple, timed newsletters but also staged email campaigns, such as those I use for my e-courses.

Take a look at my own newsletter archives for this website and if you want to see how it works, try signing up via the form below ... you can always unsubcribe immediately if you don't want to continue receiving my mailouts.

Incidentally, SBI! provides a free product to help you check your emails to make sure that they won't be classed as spam.

You can access this free Spamcheck service by clicking on the banner below:

# Subscribe to a fully managed service, which is what I recommend if you decide not to opt for either of the first two options.

Running online newsletter and email marketing campaigns really is a complex and skilled business and you can get a lot of advice and support if you go with a specialist provider.

The service which comes up time and time again as being of the highest quality is Aweber which offers tiered payments depending on the number of subscribers that you have (starts at $19 monthly) newsletters, autoresponders, sign-up forms and analytics built in (there's no point starting an email campaign if you can't tell if it's been received and how many people went on to open your mailshot) as well as plentiful support tools like videos, webinars, a forum and so on.

# If you wish to do further research in this area, here are some other well-established services which you might like to check out:

benchmarkemail.com ... Email Marketing service

verticalresponse.com ... includes online surveys and direct mail postcards

graphicmail.co.uk ... 60 day free trial and includes SMS campaigns

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