E-mail Marketing, How to Start Your Own Newsletter and Turn One-time Buyers Into Loyal Customers by Carlos Tapia
You may own a restaurant or perhaps you have an online consulting business. It doesn't matter what kind of business you're in. If you are to
be successful you need to drive interest in your product or service. But
that's not all, statistics show that it's six to twelve times easier to sell to an existing customer than to find a new one. You need to build relationships with those customers. And the best way to do this is e-mail marketing.
It's a well known fact that people prefer to buy from someone they already know than from a stranger. You have to stop being a stranger and become
that friendly face by being always present in their minds, by being in
constant contact with your clients. An e-mail newsletter enables you to
do just that. Starting your own newsletter is a lot easier than you think.
First of all what you need, the core component of the newsletter, is content. And this is what most people fear when starting a newsletter, writing
content. They look at the blank page and suddenly don't know what to do.
But it's really not that hard. As a business owner you probably know more about your business that your prospects. And I'm sure you have lots to say about your business that your prospects would love to read. It's just this
first newsletter that's the hardest.
If you need ideas to get you started look to your customers for potential topics. What do they ask about when talking to you about your business? What are their most frequently asked questions? You can elaborate on the answers and write entire articles. If you devote a little time to gathering content every day you can compile weeks of content ahead in advance and slowly dispense them to your subscribers. For example, you can compile
100 short tips in one day and dispense 10 tips once a week. In other words,
you can compile 10 weeks worth of content in just one day! You can also
link to articles written by other people. You don't have to write the whole newsletter by yourself.
It's a good idea to include a feedback link or form in your newsletter. Let your readers take a more active participation. Remember that you're trying to build relationships. If your prospects feel that you listen what they have to say it will be easier for you to win their trust.
What you need next is an e-mail marketing solution. This is necessary because it will let you automate many repetitive tasks that otherwise would consume more of your time than you can afford. It will also get your newsletter past the spam filters of most e-mail services and it doesn't have the limit on the number of recipients that your e-mail service has. AWeber and TrafficWave are two of the best e-mail marketing solutions available.
It's also important to keep track of what your readers are actually reading. Most e-mail marketing solutions have tracking capabilities to measure what sections of your e-mail are the most popular. In this way you can experiment with different placements and make the newsletter more interesting and appealing to your prospects.
You may be surprised that a website is actually an optional component. There are eZine publishers publishing their newsletters without a website! But of course, having your own website can offer you tremendous advantages, such as the ability to bring in more subscribers and having your newsletter indexed in the top Search Engines.
Statistics show that it can take from six up to twenty contacts before you can turn a prospect into a customer. E-mail marketing is an affordable and effective way to keep in contact with your prospects, providing them with useful information, informing them about your products, building trust. Do not underestimate the power of repetition, just as in real state the most basic principle for success is "location, location, location," in marketing the principle that will give you the best results is "repetition, repetition, repetition."
About the Author
Carlos Tapia is dedicated to help small businesses advertise and market themselves on a small budget by researching the best marketing principles and most affordable techniques available online and offline. To get more information on how to market a small business with a small budget visit his site at http://www.creativelymarketing.com.
