Email Integrity Part 2, Ezines that Work

Ezines and newsletters are a great way to engage current and prospective clients. This is especially true when you deliver valuable information people can use immediately.

To help you get started, or to improve an ezine/newsletter you already have, read these helpful hints about getting started with an ezine. Below you’ll find some useful tips on the best ways to use an ezine.

Email regularly, at least in the beginning

An ezine is a great way for you to be more visible with prospective and current clients. The more you offer useful information on a regular basis, the more likely people are to think of you next time they need help that aligns with your expertise.

But in order for your ezine to increase your visibility and position you as the “go-to” person in your field, you need to send it weekly or twice a month. Anything less may not attract enough attention to build true visibility.

In fact, when I get monthly emails from people I often wonder who they are and why they’re sending me emails. I’ve even clicked the “spam” link on my email system only to discover I actually signed up for the ezine. I’m not the only one who does this. It’s a common reaction to getting unwanted emails, but if people label your email as spam it actually harms your email’s reputation. The more your email address is associated with spam, the harder it is for your email to get into in-boxes. This is just one reason it’s better to send emails more often. When you email regularly and on a schedule, like every Tuesday, people will remember you, why they signed up for your ezine and ultimately they won’t think of your emails as spam.

Hint: on your website’s ezine sign up form let people know how often they will get emails from you. Say something like “when you sign up you’ll receive weekly emails from me on Tuesdays.” This will help reduce the amount of “spam” labeling you receive on your ezine/newsletter.

How much of your ezine should be content, how much self-promotion?

There are many ways you can integrate useful content and self-promotion.

The typical suggestion is to follow the 80-20 rule. 80% useful content, 20% self-promotion.

But what does that mean?

Does it mean sending 8 ezines full of useful content and 2 ezines full of self-promotion? Or does it mean every ezine should have 80% useful content then a small self-promotion blurb at the bottom?

There isn’t one answer. In fact, you can adopt both methods.

But it’s definitely a good idea to promote something regularly otherwise people are likely to think you do your work for free. If people get used to receiving promotion-free content in your emails they’re likely to get all bent out of shape when you suddenly promote something.

One way to consistently promote your work with integrity is to have subtle “invitations” at the bottom of your ezines. With one sentence you can tell people how they can get more help from you. To do this, include a P.S. at the bottom of your emails that say something like, “If you need more assistance putting together your ezine, just click here.” The “click here” part can be a link to a service you provide.

Don’t have the same P.S. content on each ezine. If you become predictable people are likely to stop seeing what you’ve written, so make it relevant to the content and keep it fresh.

The P.S. invitation is a simple bit of self-promotion that flows in a natural way. And best of all, it’s non-salesy. Most people experience this type of P.S. as helpful information, not an intrusive advertisement.

What about people who don’t open my emails? Should I delete them from my list?

When you use an email system like Aweber, you can tell how many people actually open your emails and links. When you first start out your email list is likely to be small and filled with people you know so you’ll probably have a high open rate. As your mailing list grows you’ll notice your open rate declines slightly. That’s normal (so don’t panic).

But you’ll want to pay attention to how many people on your mailing list aren’t opening your emails for extended periods of time. In Aweber you can do a special search for people who haven’t opened your emails in awhile.

For instance, if today is December 27, you can search for people who haven’t opened your emails since August. Once you have this information you need to consider if you want to delete them or try to reconnect with them.

Why would you want to do this?  Because the percentage of people who open your emails affects your status as an emailer.

In other words, if people do not open your emails, email systems like Gmail and Yahoo may decide your emails are spam and start sending your email into people’s spam folders.

So, should you delete all of the subscribers who haven’t opened your emails?

Possibly. I did this once only to discover my email analytics may have shown me “no opens” for people who had actually been opening my emails. I deleted 300 people from my mailing list who may have actually wanted to be on it. Big oops.

What I Should Have Done: Survey People

Instead of automatically deleting emails, send a series of emails to your readers asking what they would like to learn from you. You can use Survey Monkey to ask two questions like, “What is your number one question about _____?” or “What is your biggest challenge about ______?”

You can also ask a question in your ezine and let people know they can simply hit “reply” to your email and share their thoughts, questions and comments from you.

Make it easy for people to leave your list

It’s essential that you make it easy for people to unsubscribe from your list. The “unsubscribe” link is best placed at the top or bottom of your ezine (or both). That way, if someone doesn’t want your ezine they can easily unsubscribe. If you don’t  make it easy, and they don’t want your emails anymore, your reader may mark you email as “spam” and that will adversely impact your email address.

For more useful information on this topic, check out this article by Aweber: http://www.aweber.com/blog/email-marketing/reengaging-inactive-subscribers.htm#more-16559

Don’t worry about unsubscribers. It’s better to have a “clean” list full of people who want to get emails from you than a large list filled with people who don’t.

Conclusion

Having an ezine or newsletter is a great way to position yourself as the “go-to” person in your field. The more visible you are to prospective and current clients, the more likely they are to call you when they have a need that aligns with your services.