My Buy Essay

Posts Tagged ‘Internet marketing’

The importance of articles in the success of today’s internet based companies is immeasurable. They are the life blood of product promotion and drive traffic to commercial web sites. Articles are key elements in making web sites produce profits. And business owners must include them in their marketing campaigns in order to create credibility for themselves and their product or service.

Submitting articles for publication creates links to your web site resulting in higher ranking on the search engine result pages. The higher a site ranks the bigger slice of the traffic flow pie they receive. With increase traffic to your web site comes more profit and potential for producing other income streams as well.

It is not enough to just stuff your site with articles; there are other elements to be considered as well. You need these additional elements to obtain the maximum benefit articles can provide. A well written article will peak the interest of site visitors and keep them coming back for more. These added elements can also prompt visitors to recommend your site to others.

Here are four tips to help you spice up your articles to produce more traffic that will result in increased attention to your site.

1. Keywords and Keyword Phrases.

An article must be centered on keywords and keyword phrases. Visitors to your site are looking for something specific. Their at your site because they may have been sent there via a search engine as a result of typing in a keyword or phrase they were looking for (e.g. Toyota Camry, Tax Lawyer etc).

You need content on your web site that has the keywords that are related to what visitor’s are searching for. For example, if you maintain an auto parts site, you must have the auto parts listed in your article. Look for tools on the internet that can help you determine what keywords and keyword phrases are mostly sought after. You can use these tools to determine what keywords to use and write about.

2. Keyword Density

You must use the keywords and keyword phrases you choose throughout your web site content. Keyword density is important for search engines to “feel” their way to your site. Web site content should have at least ten to fifteen percent keyword density for search engines to rank them high in their results.

Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used in an article. The number varies depending on the number of words used in an article. An effective article must have a keyword density that is not too high or too low. With a very high density, the essence of the article is lost and may turn off a reader as well as search engines. It comes off as overeager, and a low number may be ignored by the search engines.

3. Good Article Content

Like what is stated above, you cannot just riddle an article with keywords. They must also be regarded as good reading material. Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Articles should be written well with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make sure your writing is well thought out.

People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic. As more people believe in you. They will be able to trust you and your products.

4. Linking Articles

Here’s another important thing to remember. If you are going to submit articles to e-zines and/or contribute your articles to newsletters and other sites, DON’T ever forget to include a link to your site. A little resource box with a brief description about you and your site should always be placed right after the articles you submit. If people like your articles, they will most likely click on the link directing them to your site.

I have been working with a lot of Entrepreneur’s over the last 6 years as a consultant, a business leader, and one myself. There are two types of Entrepreneurs and I have definitions for them:

1. Successful Entrepreneur

2. Unsuccessful Entrepreneur

3. New Entrepreneur

Not very catchy definitions are they? Let me define them based on their characteristics because the “New Entrepreneur” out there could save them self a lot of headache if they look for behavior that generally leads them to failure.

Sucessful Entrepreneurs

These guys are easy. They know the game. They understand why you build a business. They do it over and over again because they love the challenge. They are not in it for their egos, the idea, or the need to have President on their business card. They do it because they can’t do anything else, but build things and then sell it off. They get it started, then hand it off to people to run it.

Unsuccessful Entrepreneurs

Things just don’t work out for the Unsuccessful Entrepreneur. More often than not, they keep on trying, and get it a little more right next time. Eventually, some become successful. Often, they give up and return to the safety net of a 40 hour per week job. Their idea, product, or service just does not solve anyone’s problem, but their own.

New Entrepreneurs

I have a lot of respect for people that venture out into their own or try to turn an idea into action. These are people that generally don’t fit into the corporate structure, are generally liberal minded (not to confuse the Rush Limbaugh listeners of the world, liberal minded means finding new ways of doing things from how it is always done. Or, it simply means outside the box thinking). Having the audacity to question how things are being done and suggest there is a better way to do it.

So the new Entrepreneur has this great idea! Then, they get excited because they could make a lot of money doing it! “I am going to be rich!” So, they embark on the emotional high of becoming an Entrepreneur. They become infatuated with their idea. It is the best idea and the only idea worth investing. Most need money to fund their idea, yet they don’t want to give anything up to get other people’s money. Their valuation of the business is way over inflated and they have no sales. Ego and control start to get in the way.

I have been involved in several start-up ventures and this is a common pattern that occurs. As I sit at the Venture Club of Indiana and listen to new ideas being pitched around the table, the pattern is there. The “New Entrepreneur” is excited about their great idea, yet they cannot really articulate how to make money with it. Their assumptions about their market are not well defined and they do not really understand what it takes to get a business going. They don’t understand why no one will invest in their business. They are passionate about the idea and their ego loves the fact that they can now put President on their business card.

So what is important for new Entrepreneurs? It is all about sales.

When I was President of the Indiana Entrepreneur’s Alliance, one of the guests to our meeting made an important point. He said, everyone says you need and accountant and a lawyer to get a business started. So, everyone goes out and gets and accountant and a lawyer to make you feel good about your idea. This is backwards. He points out that you need customers first to determine if the idea has merit, then go out and hire an accountant and a lawyer. Is what you are doing in demand and are people willing to pay for it?

In other words, it is about sales and marketing. As a New Entrepreneur is weighing the idea, the emphasis needs to be on sales and marketing. Get the idea, product, or service out there and see if someone will pay you for it. Do you need an infrastructure to support it? Yes. Do you need to be able to deliver it? Yes. But figure out what kind of expectations you can put out there and manage. As another successful Entrepreneur told me, don’t be afraid of success. You can always find money, if you have a book of business to show an investor. And, you can always find ways to deliver.

In our web consulting, we see the New Entrepreneur all the time. Some people are looking for the “Mirror”. “Come in and tell me that I am great, my idea is great, and that you can sell it the way I want it to be sold, even though I have had mediocre success to date.” In our case, the web plays an important part for most customers trying to sell products or services. They focus on their logo and their image, their name. Unsuccessful entrepreneurs gladly feed into their egos and leave results starving at the table.

The reality is New Entrepreneurs need to focus on results. In business, results equal sales and profits. Logos, names, and images can have value &ndash only if people buy because of the name, logo and image.

Get centered Answering the questions of your buyers:

1. What is it?

2. What is the value?

3. How do I get it?

4. Has anyone else used it?

a. What do they say?

b. If not? What is the edge I get with it?

5. Yes, I want one!

With limited resources and limited time, investment needs to be on finding the market, bringing them to you, engaging the market, and closing some deals or selling product. The question to always ask:

Is what I am doing or spending money going to help me generate more sales?

Case in point, people always feel like they need to reinvent something that has been tested to work. (Ok…I respect out of the box thinking, but dollars can be wasted on IT projects that bring very little value in the end). E-Commerce is an area that people feel the need to “customize”. We had a client that need to change e-Commerce systems because the one they were using did not support standard marketing practices for e-Commerce sites. Yet, they would not do it because the one they were using had a feature that really brought no value to the buyer or their business. Again, was what they were doing going to help them generate more sales? The answer was no, yet they chose to spend $20,000 when $3,500 would have done the job for the next five years.

So, New Entrepreneurs, here are some things to keep in mind:

1. No one cares about “the idea.” They care about what the idea will do for them.

2. Investors don’t care about “the idea.” They care if their investment in the idea will make them money.

3. Investors don’t invest in “the idea”, they invest in the people behind the idea. If you do not demonstrate your ability to execute, you will not get investment.

4. Being President of nothing with no sales has no value.

5. It’s about marketing and sales, particularly for start-ups.

a. Always ask, is what I am doing going to help me sell more?

b. Is what I am spending my money on going to help me sell more?

c. Can I apply metrics to what I am doing?

6. It’s about execution.

As it relates to the web marketing, the same rules apply. Here is the list to keep in mind:

1. The website visitor does not care about you, they care about what you can do for them. They want to know:

a. What is it?

b. What is the value?

c. How do I get it?

2. Before you spend money on an expensive website, can you answer these questions:

a. How big is the market?

b. What words do people use to search your product?

c. How much to advertise?

d. Who are your competitors?

e. What are they doing?

f. What are they not doing?

g. Who are the top ranked sites?

3. Have you budgeted for web marketing?

a. Monthly?

4. You are a new business, people don’t know you. And until you spend millions on drilling your brand into the American psyche, they aren’t going to know your brand from a hole in the ground. Use what you do, or what your customers call your product as your name. This strategy worked fine in the past and still works fine today. Evidence: International Business Machines, Advanced Micro Devices, American Telephone and Telegraph, General Motors, General Electric, National Cash Register, American Airlines and Budget Rent-a-Car. Not an obscure latin name with an interesting meaning only to you.

There is really nothing sexy about Internet marketing. It too is about execution. It is about results. It is not about corporate ego. It is about what your product or service does for the buyer and the investor.

More and more people are considering the World Wide Web as a great opportunity to offer their products and services to a new, bigger market or even as a chance to create entirely new businesses online.

Even if the perspective to reach millions of potential customers is surely exciting, the truth is that internet marketing is more difficult than it may seems and if you don’t have a sufficient experience you will usually waste a lot of time and resources doing things that don’t produce the results you expect.

For this reason, seeking advice from competent internet marketing experts is essential if you want to succeed online.

Hiring a consultant can be very expensive, but fortunately this is not the only possibility.

In fact you can utilize one of the many internet marketing informational products (like books, manuals or ebooks) that are available online.

There are complete courses that deal with every possible aspect of the entire process of building, managing and promoting your business online.

Other products concern very specific topics like how to write effective advertisements or sales letters, or how to promote your site on search engines.

You can usually choose among a great variety of media formats: printed manuals, downloadable ebooks that allow you to use the product immediately, CD-ROMs, or even videos and audio tapes, if reading a big manual is not something for you.

The only risk is to be confused by so many possible choices. So how can you determine the product more suited to your needs?

When I need to decide about the purchase of an informational product, the first thing I do is reading each and every page of the author’s site.

You may think that the informations on a site designed to sell a product are, by definition, not objective.

But you can still find a lot of useful elements that will help you with your decision.

The following are the most important for me.

1) How is the product presented?

Reputable authors will never tell you that you will be able to make a lot of money without work simply by reading their ebook or manual.

They will warn you that personal efforts are always needed to succeed online and every concept you learn must be applied to your particular situation.

Disappointment is the only thing you will earn from an informational product that is presented like a ‘magic recipe’ to make money fast and without efforts.

2) How many details the author gives about him/herself especially with regard to past business experiences?

You want to be sure that you are about to spend your money to learn proven techniques successfully tested on real businesses not some vague theory.

3) Does the site contain customers testimonials? Do they sound genuine?

A testimonial should be always followed by a full name, a website or email address so that it can be verified.

4) What kind of guarantee is offered should you dislike the product once you have purchased it?

Ideally every good informational product should be covered by a full money back guarantee as it’s always the best protection for your investment.

If you pay attention you will find many other elements that will tell you a lot about the author and the product he/she sells.

Learning how to market online is an ongoing process. Even if your personal work is always needed, with ebooks, manuals, courses you can learn from successful marketers experiences, concentrate your efforts on strategies that worked for them and consequently avoid mistakes and save time and resources.

An opt-in mailing list can be your most solid internet marketing tool. Think of it as a foot in the door &ndash or better yet, a standing invitation to drop by anytime. Research has shown that it takes an average of seven contacts with a prospect to make your first sale.

It’s hard to count on someone returning to your web site seven times &ndash but if you get them there once, and convince them to join your opt-in mailing list, you have a standing invitation to contact them with your offers, at your convenience.

The trick, of course, is turning your web site visitors into opt-in list subscribers. Opt-in list building is easier than you think. There are a number of tried and true methods of list building that you can use &ndash but don’t be afraid to think outside the box to sign up folks who drop by your web site for a short visit.

Start with a good reason for people to join your opt-in list.

People don’t join opt-in lists out of the goodness of their hearts &ndash they opt in because you’re offering them something of value. What have you got to offer?

• Get a 10% discount on all purchases over $25 &ndash exclusive to members of our mailing list!

• Find out about our newest products through our opt-in mailing list!

• We’ll keep you up to date on the latest developments in [insert your field here].

• Special discount prices and offers exclusively for members of our mailing list.

Get the picture? You’re not saying, “Hey, can I keep bugging you to try to sell you stuff?” You’re offering a service &ndash “I’ll let you know when I’ve got good stuff you want to buy.”

Post the invitation to join your opt-in list prominently on your web site. Simple list building truth number one is that people can’t join your opt-in list if they don’t know about it. Put an invitation to join your email list on every single page of your site &ndash and make the invitation enticing.

Practice opt-in list building everywhere.

Include a short invitation to join your opt-in email list as part of your email signature so that it goes out every time you email someone. If you do a presentation or event, personally invite participants or booth visitors to join your opt in email list.

Bribe people to sign up with a free gift.

Bribery is a tried-and-true fast list building technique and website promotion tool. Selling weight loss products? Put together an e-book of weight loss facts about nutrition and offer it as an incentive to sign up for your opt in list. Be creative, and watch your list grow like a weed.

Offer incentives for referrals.

A few years ago, pop-up windows were all the rage in Internet marketing. It seemed that every time one opened a web page they would be bombarded with offers for this or that. It had gotten to the point where surfing the Internet was almost like playing a video game; when the ads would pop-up one would try and close them out before another one came. This is precisely why we have seen the decline in the use of pop-up windows on the Internet today; surfers simply do not even look at the pop-ups anymore. They close the windows out before even reading the ad. Very often, a surfer will even leave your site if there are too many pop-up ads. They simply do not want the hassle of closing those windows while trying to obtain the information that your site has to offer. This information, while valuable, is not as valuable as the surfers time. Studies have shown however, that even with these set backs, pop-up windows are still an effective method of Internet marketing.

Is there some way that pop-up windows can be less irritating and still be effective? Yes! What if the pop ad were seen upon exiting your site instead of

entering? This would allow the surfer to obtain the information that they need from your site, feeling that they were able to come and go quickly without

being hassled by other ads and offers all the while making the surfer happy. You have left the surfer with a positive attitude and therefore are more likely

to respond to the pop advertisement. This is being accomplished more and more by using what is being called pop-under windows. When the surfer comes to your site, the ad is opened discretely behind the your web page. Then, upon leaving your site, after obtaining all the information that they need , will see the ad and therefore be more likely to respond. Since the surfer has the information, he has achieved his objective and is now open to do other things;

ideally respond to the pop under advertisement.

Not all pop-windows are created equally. There are some things that you can do to make your pop-windows, whether pop-up or pop-under more effective. The

pop-window should be easy to “escape” from. If the surfer does not want to see the add, but has a hard time closing it out, they will likely become frustrated and could leave your site all together. You should either use a button to that will allow the surfer to close the window or be sure that the “x” is easily visible. Another good idea is to use a script that utilizes cookies. Cookie will prevent

pop-windows from overloading the surfer since you can decide the frequency of the pop-windows, rather than each time a page is opened. Also be sure that there is no more than one pop-window per page.

When creating a pop-window, you will be asked to fill out a short information form, select the length of cookies, and choose the layout of the pop-window.

When choosing the design of the pop-window, you can increase the effectiveness by creating a large headline that includes benefits that will be most appealing to the customer. You should also consider using incentives and lastly do not ask the customer to read a long and drawn out advertisement. Keep the message simple yet powerful and your pop-ads will be sure to generate profits for your site.

If you own a web site yourself or know someone that does, you are probably familiar with the importance of internet marketing tools. The site may have a professional design, quality product or service, great content and functionality, but if the right internet marketing strategies are not utilized, your site may not be attracting the key to real success, highly targeted traffic. Getting a lot of consistent traffic has very little to do with the web site itself, but rather how the sites owner or webmaster choose to advertise the site. There are hundreds even thousands of sites competing on the web today, so you must use the most effective internet marketing tools to achieve targeted results.

There are many different internet marketing tools that can be used effectively, all of which are designed to increase your web sites traffic. Simply put, you must find a way to get people to your site. Put yourself in the “shoes” of your prospective visitors and clients. “Where do they go to do web searches?” is a key question that must be answered and can be quite simple to answer, the search engine. The webs most popular sites are search engines and portals, therefore, you should focus your internet marketing efforts to the search engine.

When surfers browse search engines, they will be more inclined to view a site placed high on the search engine, as opposed to a site with poor search engine placement. With that in mind, you must use the correct internet marketing tools to build a strong (high) search engine ranking. This is where the term Search Engine Optimization is derived from. SEO, as it is called commonly, is a set of methods and tactics aimed at improving your search engine ranking and the visibility of your site in search engine results.

Search engines index sites in several ways, one of which is by looking at the keyword density of the web site, or the sites content. Content alone, is one of the most valuable internet marketing tools to utilize. If your site has excellent relevant keywords aimed towards achieving a high search engine ranking, as well as providing valuable information, you can expect a high search engine position. But because of the high competition of web sites using the same internet marketing methods, you must continuously find new and better ways of attracting targeted traffic.

Today, one of the most popular and effective internet marketing tools is the use of Pay Per Click advertising. This method involves bidding for a particular keyword in a specific search engine, the search engine then compares the bids of all the merchants for that specific keyword, and the highest bid gets the top placement for that specific keyword search. For example, if you bid $.75 and a competitor bids $.73, you will be awarded the higher position. This internet marketing tool is being utilized by thousands of web sites on hundreds of PPC search engines. Google Adwords, Yahoo Overture, and the new MSN Adcenter are the three most popular sites who offer pay per click ad services today.

Content and pay per click advertising are just two of many internet marketing tools that you can utilize to improve your search engine optimization and achieve high web site traffic. There are literally hundreds of other techniques and methods, both free and paid, that you can use successfully to increase your sites visitors and profits. Internet marketing tools are the true key to SEO and generating profits in the highly-competitive online business battlefront that we call the Internet.

.supermoneymakingsecrets.com

It never ceases to amaze me how often new webmasters set about their online business at the start without actually having clearly defined strategies on how to market and promote the website and the product.

Now this article is for internet marketing newbies, so the strategies for website promotion are fairly basic therefore experienced internet marketers are under no compulsion to proceed.

If you are a newbie, however, please pay attention as these website promotional strategies are what you will need to employ over and over again every time you have a new product to promote. Apply these basic techniques and the bedrock of success is laid for you.

Remember, no traffic, no sales.

Free listings in Search Engines: Everyone loves to get something for free. The same applies to free traffic.

Consider building a keyword list related to your product before you build your website. This way, you write your website content crafting in those keywords for which the site needs to be optimised. Don’t overdo it though as the search engines are becoming too smart and may think you are attempting to trick them. The more pages you have, the easier it is to have your site optimised for your chosen keywords.

Pay Per Click Advertising: Here the search engines list your site based on your bid for a particular keyword(s). Your position in the search listing strongly depends on how much you are prepared to pay for those keywords and the bidding price is also dependent on the popularity and competitiveness of your niche. This Pay Per Click (PPC) listings are the ones you see on the right side of your screen in the search results in, for instance, Google and Yahoo who now own Overture.

It’s always a good idea to know your website statistics especially conversion rates to determine how much you will be prepared to pay for those keywords &ndash what I call your bid price affordability. This way you don’t operate your PPC Campaign at a loss.

Know Your Numbers!

Ezine Advertising: You search for popular ezines (these are electronic magazines or newsletters) in Google or Yahoo by entering Keywords ‘ezines directory’.

Visit these directories and look out for ezines that fit your products and also the subscription base of those ezines. You then choose to place Solo ads, Sponsor ads or Classified ads on ezines of your choice at an agreed price. The choice of which type of Ad and what ezine(s) to place your Ad would depend on your personal preference and your budget as well.

Linking Your Website: You need to set out linking strategies that can boost your business in two ways. First is that the more links you have, the more the search engines will rank your site and consequently your position in the organic search engines. Secondly, you get traffic deservedly from your link partners website. I’m sure you will welcome targeted free traffic from any source.

Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate program are a great source of free traffic and income at no cost to your good self. Affiliates are business partners who sign up to sell your product for an agreed commission. You can make a fortune on the internet from a great product if you have tons of affiliates working for themselves and you. An affiliate software is necessary to track your affiliate sales, visitors. Don’t forget to provide your affiliate with marketing tools and training materials to assist them.

Offline Advertising: This is quite often ignored. Just because your business is online does not mean you cannot generate traffic offline. You will be surprised at how potent this weapon can be. Write Press Releases about your product, Product review etc and send it to editors of newspapers and magazine. The one I love most is what we refer to as web ad. Here you use classified ads in newspapers and magazines to drive traffic to your site.

These are basic strategies you must have mapped out before commencing work on your website. This way you can start marketing the very day your website goes live.

Always think marketing first.

When you are looking for a way to effectively promote your website, you will find both expensive and inexpensive options. One of the most popular inexpensive options today is to use keyword rich text. When someone is looking for something on the web, they are most likely to use search engines such as “Google” to find what they need. The goal as a website operator is to get most of this traffic right to your website. With thousands of people conducting searches each day, there are thousands of potential consumers and web users to direct to your site. With keyword rich text, there is a better chance that these searchers will indeed be directed to your site through search engines.

Keyword rich text is basically articles of text that contain high numbers of a keyword or keywords that pertain to the subject chosen. To be clearer, if you have a website about fishing, then for search engines to direct web users to your site, you might include articles with words such as “fishing”, “fish”, “tackle”, “lure”, or “boat”. If someone were to type one of these particular words into a search engine, your site would likely come up near the top if you include these words in large amounts on your site. The more you repeat the word the user types in the search engine, the more likely they will see your site as an option for them to click on. Your articles may seem a bit redundant, but it really pays off to use as many keywords as you possibly can, without compromising content.

Another way you can use keyword rich text to effectively promote your website is by submitting articles to databases. This is great for the website operator that would rather not bulk up their website with lengthy articles. The basis of this task is to write keyword articles and submit them to various free article databases. Throughout the articles, or at the bottom of the text, include information about and a link to your website. When someone searches for the keyword within your text, the article will be brought up. As they read the article, they will have the opportunity to visit your page through the link for more useful information. This is a great idea, especially when you have a retail business online that would look ridiculous with a large amount of text included. It gives you the space to store the text somewhere else (the database), but still allows you to reap rewards from your articles.

Once you’ve decided writing keyword rich text is the best way for you to effectively promote your website, you will need to come up with appropriate articles to use for your task. If you feel qualified enough to write the articles yourself, then you can certainly do so. If this is your plan, you will first need to create a list of keywords that you feel are most relevant to your website. When doing this, be sure to think from a web user’s point of view. Think about the words you would type into a search engine if you were looking for a site like your own. Once you come up with a list of 10 or 20, you can begin working. Develop specific subjects for each of your keywords and create original titles. Then, simply write articles between 300-800 words that contain the keyword many times. Again, the more you use the keyword and variations of the keyword, the better results you will see. Lastly, make sure you include your name, business information, and website link at the bottom of the keyword. This is probably the most important information, so don’t forget it!

If you are unsure about your writing skills, it is also possible to hire professionals to write articles for you. You can come up with your list of keywords or allow the professionals to do it for you. This is a great way to benefit with keyword rich text without the trouble of writing the articles. After purchasing the articles from a professional writer, you can then use them as you see fit. Unless you are a strong and skilled writer, you may want to consider this option. It will allow you great results and cost you very little effort. No matter how you plan to use keyword rich text, it is certain you will be glad you did!

If you’re like me you don’t like to exaggerate, in fact, quite the opposite, I prefer to understate things and let the facts and results speak for themselves. In the internet marketing game however, if you don’t tell people that your product is better than the next person’s and list all the reasons why, you’ll end up losing out because your customer never had a chance to see for themselves why your product was so good and the obvious choice when compared to your competitor’s.

This means that, you guessed it, your product has to be the best on the market or at least, beat your competitors in the major areas that appeal to your target market. For example, Rapidforex is a leading foreign currency trading course, arguably the best available anywhere. The course teaches everything that any of the other Forex courses teach plus additional unique techniques. The competitor’s products were a sounding board to use the principle of exaggeration. That is, by knowing what was on the market and aiming to beat competitors in every area, the product had to match up to what was promoted! And it did.

Other Forex courses offer up to 30 page ebooks free and Rapidforex created a free ebook several hundreds of pages long and better than most that were costing a few hundred dollars. Instead of one strategy, they include more than 30. nstead of a 5 to 10 part mini course, Rapdiforex offers a 20 part eCourse. You get the drift. It may sound like I’m writing a plug for Rapidforex and in a way, I am. The key here is that this website is known to have had massive success and I just so happened to find out the details about it.

They took what others were doing successfully and then did it on a bigger scale. The principle here is if you do something that your competitor is doing and improve it, you’ll often see an exponential increase in profits as them. So, do your research and find out what others are doing in your chosen market. By doing more than what they’ve done, you’ve got a huge chance of success and most competitors won’t go that extra mile to outdo what you’re offering the market so you’ll end up on top.

The creation of a newsletter is a serious decision because initiating one without the infrastructure and commitment to sustain it can wind up doing more harm than good. Your e-mail newsletter, once launched, will create an expectation among recipients and if you fail to deliver on that expectation it could lead to a backlash as your customers cll your reliability or commitment into question. The infrastructure you need includes content sources, graphic sources, and the e-mail capacity to send the newsletter. The commitment is eased when you create a timetable that details when the content needs to be concluded, when the graphics need to be completed, and when the newsletter needs to be edited and then ultimately sent. In choosing your send date, you need to think about the other newsletters your readers are likely to receive and make sure that you do not become just one more newsletter in their inboxes. We recommend you send it during a time of the month when there is traditionally less traffic. For example, Tudog sends its e-mail newsletter at the end of each month because most of our competing newsletters are sent either at the beginning or middle of the month. We have found that this increases our readership by approximately 20%.

The construction of a successful newsletter has 6 phases. They are:

1. Content

The newsletter you send stands or falls on the relevance and quality of the content you incorporate. If your website is meant to entertain you content needs to be entertaining. If it is meant to educate, your content better be educational. Tudog does not believe in using the newsletter for self-promotional purposes, as we think that readers rapidly grow tired of reading commercials and self-serving material. There are other forums to engage in self-promotion. Your newsletter is a service to your customers and needs to be written from the perspective of what they need, and not from the view of how it can serve you. By having your newsletter serve your customers, it will ultimately serve you too.

2. Frequency

You need to decide how often you are going to issue your newsletter. There are two primary considerations that need to make up the decision. The first is how often your customer base would engage you newsletter. If your sector is flooded with newsletters, you may conclude that there is an excess of reading material and that a quarterly newsletter is appropriate. Conversely, you may notice that there is both an absence of other newsletters and a hunger for information, leading you to conclude that a bi-weekly newsletter would provide you with an excellent opportunity. The second consideration is your internal capacity. You do not want to create an expectation for a newsletter that exceeds your production capacity. How many newsletters you are able to release each month needs to be the underlying driver to the decision how often your newsletter is released.

3. Design

How your newsletter looks is crucial not only because it represents your company, but also because it could determine how people receive the newsletter and whether or not they are drawn to read it. A well designed newsletter includes a clear delineation of all areas of content, integrated, relevant images, and an identity that is consistent with your company’s identity. It is important that you view your newsletter as an extension of your company and that its personality is representative of the image you transmit to your sector.

4. Database

Your database is the list of people to whom you send your newsletter. Your list should be extracted from your client/customer base, prospective clients/customers, and your sector influencers. You should make sure that everyone receiving your e-mail newsletter either requested it or has a way to be removed from your list (clearly and easily marked in your e-mail). Your newsletter can be sent via snail mail, but the costs of printing and postage make e-mail a much more realistic and cost effective often. Using e-mail, you are able to send your newsletter as HTML, text, or in PDF format. You should select your format based on customer preferences. Tudog uses PDF after our inquiries indicated that our clients were most interested in receiving our newsletter in that format. You clients/customers may prefer a different format, but it should be noted that the content, design, and frequency are not influenced by format.

5. Marketing

Your newsletter needs marketing support so that it can reach out to a wider audience and better serve your company as a marketing tool. The support it receives can be as simple as being listed on your website (with a sign-up option) to advertising and special attention. Tudog markets its website by permitted reprints of our articles in magazines and other newsletters, drawing attention to the company, our expertise, and that our newsletter offers continuing exposure to the ideas and hints we publish.

6. Testing

We recommend that you test your newsletter before you send it out to your widest audience so that you can benefit from the feedback of your test group and ultimately send out the best newsletter possible. You should select a random group of people (between 50-200) to send your newsletter to, alongside a brief questionnaire asking for reviews on your look and content. Once you have their responses and incorporate some of their comments, you will know your newer version is close to the needs and wants of your target market.

Your e-mail newsletter is an excellent way to reach out to and become meaningful to your clients/customers. Embark on an e-mail newsletter only if you have the resources and commitment to sustain it. Done properly, it is a powerful and continuing tool for exposure and reinforcement of your expertise.