Newsletter No-Nos A Beginner’s Guide Sarah Spencer
What are Newsletters GREAT for? Teaching a course with multiple s (autoresponders) Upselling to other products after sign-up Survey your customers Announce a new product Building relationships Communicate with inactive customers to do business with you again. Communicate with other website owners/peers Asking for links to your site. According to Frank Girard, author of "How to Succeed as an Independent Marketing Consultant“ they're great for:
Here are the Top 7 Newsletter No-Nos Erratic Sending NO SHOUTING Spam Phrases No Opt-Out Option Not leaving a signature Sending to a non- permission based list BORING subject line
Send your newsletter at least monthly, provided you have good content. Weekly if you have killer content. If you’ve created a new product, if it’s timely, if it’s a question your clients have asked you over and over and the answer would help a great many of your customers, then go ahead and send it. If you’re sending for the sake of sending – DON’T. Look for another writer/blogger to write the article for you. Find writers Erratic Sending
2. NO SHOUTING!!! Refrain from using all caps in your Subject line. Not only is “SHOUTING” rude, it can also be considered spam and your e-newsletter may never get to its’ destination.
3. Avoid Spam Words/Phrases Here are the "nifty 250" words and phrases you'll want to avoid so your newsletter doesn't wind up in the spam filters. Here's a link that will help:
4. No Opt-Out Option In order to stay within the CAN-SPAM laws, recipients of your MUST be able to opt-out of your list. There’s nothing worse than having an unwelcome come to your box that you have no way of opting out of receiving it. Use a newsletter service that has this feature such as aweber, Constant Contact, or MailChimp.
5. Not leaving a signature Make sure you use a signature file at the bottom of every you send. A sig file is a simple way to promote what you do with every you send out. It’s how customers contact you in the event they’d like more information.
6. Using Outlook to send non-permission based s If you send to a list greater than 60 people, you could be accused of "spamming" people - sending unwanted out to customers. Risk: You could lose your ISP (Internet Service Provider) privileges to . To avoid this, use an software program like MailChimp to send s safely and effective.
7. BORING Subject Line Want to guarantee no opens? Put in the subject line "ABC Company Monthly Newsletter." It always shocks me how many marketing newsletters I subscribe to that never pay attention to the subject line. Most of us get s a day - tell me why your message is so important. Give me a reason to click.
Resources Want to see a GREAT newsletter in action? He uses NO fancy HTML, just GREAT writing and he gets GREAT results with his newsletter: Bob Bly: Sign up for Got Clicks monthly newsletter and receive a FREE 152-page Affiliate Masters Course to help you get your online business started sensibly and profitably:
Thank You! Sarah Spencer