Building a successful newsletter. Part II - Integrating newsletter with other advertising methods

Article from July, 9th, 2003.

First part "Operation ANTISPAM" is here

OK, some people think that if they start a newsletter that all they have to do is to write it and send it out. The money will start pouring in, at least that's what these folks think. The truth is that it is quite hard to make money off the newsletter. If you tried, you know exactly how hard it is. Nevertheless, there are companies and individuals that manage to turn their newsletter into a marketing machine. What do they know that you don't? They don't think about a newsletter alone. It may sound a bit simplistic, but it's true.

You have to integrate your newsletter. The first question is - "With what?" With your website, of course. There are a number of ways to do this. Amazon, for example, let's you sign up for theme newsletters. They sell millions of different books (and other items as well). But you may like only fiction or poetry or pop psychology. So they let you choose the topic. You get updates about the books you are interested in, they make sales. It works great. Both parties benefit. It's quite unlikely that you would keep reading "new releases" newsletter. Books come out every day - you'd get bored. This way the newsletter helps out the website.

Here is another example - a lot of smart marketers keep the archives of the newsletters on the websites. Why? Some readers may miss an issue or may want to go back to an old newsletter. Archives let them do it. Another reason is search engines. They spider your website and adding new pages helps a lot. People enter keywords, get to your site, read the articles where the keywords are mentioned and then s! ign up for a newsletter if they liked what they read. This is how a website can help your newsletter. Tight integration between your newsletter and your website is VERY IMPORTANT.

And you have to remember one thing - make sure the readers of your newsletter get some kind of reward. It may be the discounts or advanced information or something else. But as long as it pays to read your newsletter, people will pay for your goods and services.

Relevant links:

    • Atomic Mail Sender - send newsletter to your web site subscribers
    • Atomic SMS Messenger - SMS broadcasting, a new way to inform your subscribers instantly

Next week: Email Marketing Statistics and Measuring Tools
Prev week: Building a successful newsletter. Part I (Operation Antispam.)

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