I've done a little bit of emailing with news letters for my business. Lets go over some of the possible content that I have used in the past. These are both things that my customers enjoy and have proved to be effective.
Writing Contest
On my website, I have a tab specifically for holding a monthly writing contest to help find new writers. When the page it not active, it allows customers to input their email for updates on the contest. When it is active, they must enter their email address in order to participate.
The news letter that I created has one of two types of messages
1. A call to action announcing that the contest is under way and that submissions are being accepted
2. An update as to who the winners are.
These are sent out once every two weeks or when there is new information to share with the competitors for the contest.
Blog Posts
I have a separate email list for people who signed up for the news letter and updates about new blog posts. Here, I created a special template that showcases the last three blog posts that were written. I only send this email out once every two weeks.Press Releases
For any major updates, such as a new author, publication of an ebook, or advancement of the company, I put into a small press release in the form of a blog post. I sent the email out with a small synopsis for the article, then the link for the blog post. This one I push out to people when new things occur in the company, which comes out to an average of about once every month. I also integrate new blog posts into this one, so I am not sending more emails out than I need to.
Conclusion
The idea is not to send an inordinate amount of email to your recipients. Once a week is more than enough. You also want to make sure that they sign up for the updates and that you do not input their email address into your mailing list without their permission. There is nothing that makes a customer more angry than getting email when they didn't ask for it.
Brian,
ReplyDeleteI can tell you put a lot of work into your marketing. I appreciate the fact that you only send emails to the people who signed up for the updates, because I hate getting too many emails. I tune them out if they come more than every 2-3 months.
My first thought when reading your post was that you send waaaay too many emails for my taste. However, it seems that because you have a different business format, it works. You aren't pushing a product but rather encouraging participation in something that the person clearly has interest in.
Your frequency and consistency shows a great deal of motivation to have your business thrive. Great job!
Thanks for sharing what works for you.
Jill
Hi Brian,
ReplyDeleteYou put a lot of time and effort in marketing your business which shows you have a passion for what you do.
I like your call to action with writing contests and that you do not send emails to people who did not sign up. I loathe unsolicited email. Fortunately, it's easy to unsubscribe, if available or delete it.
Aloha,
Dorothy
Hi Brian,
ReplyDeleteGreat idea about the writing contest! I would think that would work for you on several levels. A weekly newsletter seems like a lot of work to stay on top of, but then again, writing is what it's all about so it probably works well for you. It's nice to see that you are getting results from you efforts.
I like the fact that you have two email lists, one for people who signed up that comes more frequently then the other. I agree you have to be careful about over kill. Otherwise they tend to just autimaticaly delete or just block your emails.
ReplyDelete