Even if you have a web site or a brick-and-mortar store you still need to connect with your target market on a much deeper level; whether or not they purchase your product or service One of the best known, inexpensive ways to accomplish this is through the use of a well written, informative ezine.
“An ezine is an electronic newsletter that subscribers receive via email.”
You can use ezines to:
- Increase sales
- Market to your ideal client
- Gain online exposure for your product or service
- Grow your ezine subscriber base
- Decrease postage & printing associated with printed newsletters
You can promote your ezine by:
- Adding a subscription link on your business card
- Adding a subscription link to both your written & email signature blocks
- Adding the subscription details to your company voice mail greeting
- Promoting your ezine on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn
- Legitimately collecting email addresses
- Telling others about it
By publishing an ezine, you can create additional platforms for your client base. Let’s look at a large church with a pre-school for example. The church could essentially publish two ezines. One ezine could be published for church members and the other for parents of pre-schoolers. This would create two additional church-related platforms for keeping everyone in the loop.
Because ezine publishing allows you to deepen the connection with your target market, it only makes sense to at least investigate your options.
Here’s a few resources you can check out to find the ezine solution that’s right for you:
- Aweber [1]
- Constant Contact [2]
- iContact [3]
A Few Additional Pointers
You’re responsible for providing the written content for your ezine. After all, it is your ezine.
The written content should consist of at least the following:
- A chatty intro about what you’ve been doing
- An article your customers will find valuable
- Announcements, Ads, etc. (optional)
Ask yourself the following questions when writing ezine articles:
- Is this an article my customers would be interested in reading?
- Does it contain information my customers can use for added value?
- In what way(s) will this article help my customers?
Remember, when writing your ezine articles, it’s extremely important to make sure the articles are valuable. No one wants to read a useless ezine, no matter how pretty the colors. I stress this because valuable articles will greatly impact the growth of your subscriber database.
Eliminate the Work – Partner with a Virtual Assistant (VA)
As you get more into the art of ezine publishing you may find it’s created additional work for you. Even if it’s not time consuming, you still have to work on professionalism, quality, content, and marketing. There’s just absolutely no way around it!
The simplest solution is to obtain the services of a qualified VA to handle the work associated with publishing and distributing your ezine. Of course, you’ll need to make sure the VA you partner with has the skill and ability to handle this task for you. Or you can quickly get the help you need by contacting Portable Hands [4]. Specializing in ezine services, Portable Hands [5] [6]can easily manage publication and distribution services, including subscriber database management.
If you decide to partner with a VA, I highly recommend setting up a monthly ezine publishing schedule that clearly defines all deadlines for both parties. Here’s what yours might look like:
- Week 1: You work on written content/article
- Week 2: You complete written content/article & submit to VA
- Week 3: VA completes design, content, layout, & testing of ezine
- Week 4: VA publishes/distributes ezine
Still have questions?
Get answers to your ezine questions by posting them on my Facebook Fan Page [7].
About the Author:
Katrina Chesney is Founder & President of Portable Hands [8], a Virtual Assistance firm that provides leverage for small businesses.