Hi there,
It had been quite sometime that I have managed to update my blog. I don't know if you guys know. I'm getting married in a few months and have been pretty busy preparing for the Big Day and working with my private clients, so it's been pretty hectic round here.
Anyway enough about me.
About having an Ezine, You need to have an ezine to stay in touch with you clients. I have an ezine call "Business Abundance" on my site
www.BeAWealthyEntrepreneur.com. It's a lead generation site. On there I collect visitors name and primary email address. I send out an email to all my subscribers twice a months, it help put me on to of there mind when they think of marketing. So check out
my site for examples of a lead generation site. You can also collect prospect details by having them give you their name and address where you can send your hard copy ezine. Try getting their details by offering to send them a free report or a free sample of your product when placing an ad somewhere, instead of just mentioning what you offer in your ad's.
I have articles, Q/A, Book recommendations, and I promote my services in my ezine too. 10% of my ezine is used to promote my business and I get loads of business from it.
A lot of sistahpreneurs have been asking me about e-zine. Some of them even say, "You know, publishing an e-zine sounds great, but I just don't think I have the time to do it on an ongoing basis." Or, "I'm not sure if I'll have enough content to publish an e-zine." Or I don't know how this would bring me more business.
If this is your case, you may want to consider one of these e-zine
alternatives. They can still help you achieve your goals of establishing credibility, staying in touch with your prospects, and capturing your web site visitors. You need to position yourself as an expert and that you are there to solve their problems.
For the first two alternatives, you'll need an e-mail autoresponder.
This is like a fax-on-demand system that sends out e-mails
automatically when others request them.
(I recommend
www.aweber.com, which has a FREE 30-day trial.)
The great thing about autoresponders is that you can set the timing
of a series ahead of time. For example, you can schedule message 1
to go out immediately once a person signs up for the list.
Message 2 could follow two weeks later. Message 3 would follow
two weeks after that. Get the idea?
E-ZINE 1: PROMOTIONS ONLY If you offer only products and no service on your site, just
offer what you've got in this type of ezine.
Give your visitors the chance to receive special offers that
will save them money at your site. The trick to high sign-up
rates is to make them feel as if they'll be part of an
exclusive group. Use words like "special, exclusive, limited,
VIP, first looks, discounts, savings, club, and members-only."
For example, one site that frequent sells discounted designer
clothes and handbags. (Hooray!) During my last visit, they
invited me to sign up for "discounts, exclusive offers, and
first looks." I jumped at the opportunity!
Don't underestimate your visitors' interest -- many of them
WILL sign up for e-mail offers if you politely extend the
invitation and make them feel special.
Just make sure not to overdo your messages to this crowd.
Keep your blasts to a maximum of once a week. Otherwise
your readers will get irritated and may unsubscribe!
E-ZINE 2: THE "GOOD NEWS" NEWSLETTER If you don't foresee yourself writing fresh new content
every week or month that you publish, why not make your
newsletter "evergreen?"
This means that you write all your content ahead of time,
and none of it can be time-sensitive. That is, it should
be just as relevant today as it would be a year from now.
Good News e-zines are brilliant and easy to do. Here's how
it works: Suppose you want to publish a short importance
tip every week. That means you'd need 52 tips
for a year's worth of content. Once you had these written,
you'd just set them up on your autoresponder and tell it
when you want them sent out. (For this example, it would
be day 1, day 7, day 14, etc. -- each reader would get a
message every week.)
It's important to realize that when you use a sequential
autoresponder, these are sent as a SERIES. That means
everyone who signs up goes through the series in order,
no matter when they sign up. For example, let's say you
publish a weekly tip like in the example above. If I sign
up today, I start with tip #1. And in 10 weeks, I'll be on
tip #10. But if Sally signs up 10 weeks from today, she
starts with tip #1 just like I did. Get it?
[BONUS TIP: You don't have to write your entire series
before you begin! Just stay one tip ahead of the first
person who signs up for your series. : )]
E-ZINE3: THE MINI EZINE COURSE OR
REPORT These are very popular right now. You simply create several
e-mails' worth of content to spread out over a certain amount
of days, and set them up on your autoresponder.
Many small business sites offer 7-day courses or reports, and quite
frankly, many of them are awful. So here's a chance for YOU to
stand out. Make sure yours offers really useful or interesting
content that's more helpful than sales.
For example, as a gift basket business owner. You could offer a course called
"5 Ways to Make Her Fell Special Your Most PROFITABLE Year Ever!"
or "5 Ways to Make Your Customers To Feel More Valuable!"
Just sit down and list the 5 ways, then write a few paragraphs
of copy under each.
Then write one final sales message that you'll add on to the
end of the series as the 6th message. This should be a friendly
invitation encouraging the reader to call you for a consultation,
buy your gift basket, or sign up for your service- reminder
service etc.
Paste all the messages into an autoresponder series, set the
timing to what you want (e.g. every day or every few days),
and voila -- you've got an e-mail course!
Your Assignment:
1. Try collecting the names and emails of those who do business with you before you sell or render your service. Store all the names in an excel sheet or a nice database.
2. Create an email ezine that contains the changes in your business, new products and promotions or maybe about special events in you local area.
Send it every month to your subscriber.
Loads of Hugs
Joyce
www.BeAWealthyEntrepreneur.com=====================================================
Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, "Business Growth Queen," is creator of the winning Attractive Marketing E-zine to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Grow You Business In Less Time wth Ease sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at
www.BeAWealthyEntrepreneur.com
