A main use of a newsletter is to distribute information to your readers about your site including product announcements, site updates, news and more. For business or affiliate web sites the newsletter becomes a tool to remind your visitors about your site in order to bring them back or make a sale. Returning visitors are more focused on what your site has to offer. Also, the more your visitors come back, the more chance they will have to make a purchase. With this in mind consider designing your site with an easy provision for the visitors to sign up for or leave a newsletter mailing list. You must also have provisions to easily send to your entire mailing list.
Email Broadcast Services and Software - What to Look For
You can let a third party mailing service handle the processing of your mail or you can purchase software to do it. A good web service company will manage the mailing list for subscription, unsubcription, bounced email and for archiving previous issues of your news letter. Many the third party mailing service providers send an email requiring you potential subscribers to confirm the subscription. This is known as double opt-in and helps stop any accusation of spamming.
Archiving previous of a newsletter helps in the promotion of the newsletter, as visitors are more willing and convinced if they know what information they are going to get from your newsletter. As the subscriber already knows what he is opting-in for, the attrition rate falls down dramatically.
Some of the disadvantages of paying a service to help you can be added cost, added advertisements, or lack of total control. You can get over these problems if your web service provider provides a mailing list service. Some of the good web hosts and web service providers have very good automated solutions for handling subscriptions, unsubcriptions and request for confirmation without much hassle on your side. These pay services are usually advertisement free. Depending on the automation process you can have a better degree of control over the mailing list like adding, deleting or blocking certain subscribers and the ability to change the confirmation method and message.
Newsletter Content
Your newsletter should contain information useful to the reader. It is a good idea not to send a newsletter if you dont have much data. Newsletters that dont contain anything useful to the readers are likely to annoy recipients instead of encouraging them to become customers.
Avoid Spam Filters
Extra care should be taken to see to it that subscribers ISPs, email service providers or his or her own email software does not block your newsletter.
The main reasons email newsletters are blocked are:
1. Offensive material or words that trip spam filters
2. Words like FREE that spam filters are activated by
3. Some software (like Hotmail) blocks mail that is not directly addressed to the recipient
4. Sending emails from an ISP that is known to allow spam
Format of Your Newsletter - Text, HTML or Both
The format of the newsletter helps define its acceptability by the reader. The newsletter can be sent as a plain text document or in an HTML format. The HTML format lets you add color, graphics and fonts. For large lists, HTML emails can cost more due to increased bandwidth cost, but it is often worth the extra money. Better email marketing software allows email to be sent in both text and HTML format. This is ideal because not all email clients allow HTML emails to be displayed. By using a service that provides both, you can get the best of both worlds.
Conclusion
Having a newsletter on your site can increase traffic and sales. Some sites make more money from their newsletters than their web sites themselves. Using the right email software or service provider can make the task as streamlined and efficient as possible.
Halstatt Pires is an Internet marketing consultant with - an Internet marketing firm in San Diego offering automated web site systems through .
If your email campaigns only talk about what YOU think and nothing about the subscriber, no personal touches, guess what Your subscribers will get tired very soon of reading your emails. Many will unsubscribe and forget about your products. You wouldnt want to lose subscribers so quickly, right
Your subscribers want to see that you dont focus on money but on helping them. In other words, youre not just sending them emails on products to buy. You also send them free information. You talk to them by telling them some personal information.
Put yourself in the subscribers shoes. What types of emails do you want to read You want to feel special by getting unique offers from someone that knows what you bought, where you live, and what your interests are, right
The question is, how do you make them feel special Here is how: by sending customized emails with your email autoresponder. Still not convinced Heres some proof that your subscribers WANT customized information.
Get ready to build a friendly relationship with your subscribers with these 2 easy steps.
Does your subscriber list just have name and email address Do you know who already bought 3 of your products Do you know which subscriber has been receiving your emails for months Who subscribed this week
Once you know this information and use it in your emails, youll start treating them like friends. Without it, you come across as an owner focusing on just getting money, not on getting to know his subscribers so he can help them better. Show your subscribers you do care for them and want to help them.
Start today and begin to sort your subscriber list by:
Dont send the same email marketing campaign to ALL your subscribers. Constantly think of ways you can make your subscribers feel special. In simple words, be creative. Use one of the 7 subscriber categories like date subscribed to newsletter or state they live in to personalize your emails.
Youre welcome to read these three examples of personalized emails. Youll get more ideas to create your own customized emails to make your subscribers feel special.
1) Personalized email using the Date subscribed to newsletter category:
Hi Liz, Id like to thank you for being a subscriber to my 5 Herbs to Improve Health ezine for 2 months now. I want to make sure youre finding my ezine useful. By the way, which herb do you enjoy cooking the most Please let me know, and Ill be glad to send you a special free report on that herb. My favorite herb is Moroccan mint.
2) Personalized email using the state they live in category:
Hi Harry, I see you subscribed to my Boost your metabolism with green tea ezine. How are you taking your green tea, liquid or supplements I see you live in Nebraska. I had a chance to visit it when I went to see my cousin a month ago. Im offering you my new e-book Bored with the green tea taste 3 best Green Tea varieties to take. Only my subscribers who live in Nebraska can get it at 30% off. The discount will expire in 4 days. After 4 days the rest of my subscribers can buy it at regular price.
3) Personalized email using the products bought category:
Have an updated version of your e-book 5 herbal remedies for the lactose intolerant Email your subscribers who bought the original version first. For instance, Hi Kelly, I hope you enjoyed reading my ebook 5 herbal remedies for the lactose intolerant. I wanted to give the latest information in that ebook. So I interviewed researchers at Harvard and included the latest research on herbal remedies on my updated version of 5 herbal remedies for the lactose intolerant. Because you already bought the original version, Im offering you the updated one at 15% off! After 5 days, people would need to buy it at the regular price.
Using the bulk email marketing strategy of sending customized emails youll see less people unsubscribe from your list. More of them will buy your offers, and recommend your products to their friends. You can do these changes in less than an hour, with practice, theyll come automatically when you write emails. Dont let marketing by email frustrate you.
Ashley Keane helps people start an internet business they love and grow it with email marketing. For more information visit Visit for your 7 FREE email marketing TIPS on How To Get Your Customers To OPEN YOUR emails, finish reading them and BUY your products.