Starting a Successful Newsletter

by Cheryl Miller

Published on this site: September 9th, 2006 - See more articles from this month

A free newsletter is a powerful way to develop your business. By this means you will be able to build your own in house opt-in list many of your readers, over time, will become your loyal lifetime customers. Your subscribers are truly VIPs and should be treated as such.

Your newsletter should fulfill these functions

1. Build your business opt-in list
   
   
2. Develop business relationships with your subscribers
   
   
3. Selling your services, products and affiliate programs
   
   
4. Income from 3rd party ads

How will your newsletter build your business opt-in list?

When visitors subscribe to your newsletter they will automatically join your business list. You can do direct advertising and ad swaps for new subscribers to your publication. Ad Coops are useful for building marketing and home business newsletter lists. Cross promotion with related businesses will also build your list.

Developing business relationships with your subscribers:

This is a very important part of newsletter publishing. Respond to questions from subscribers promptly. Always offer free advice and help to subscribers. Always make sure you give quality content in your publication. This will establish you as the expert in your field and inspire confidence and trust in your readers.

Selling your services, products and affiliate programs:

Quality, targeted, in house ads for the products and services you sell can be offered in your newsletter. Your recommendation as a publisher will help to sell to your subscribers. Do not put too many just your best offers.

Income from 3rd party ads:

These ads can bring in a little income and help fund your list building advertising. Make sure they are good quality and highly targeted to your readers. In this way you will have responsive readers and happy advertisers.

Your quality newsletter should contain

1. Good informative articles
   
   
2. Interesting tips
   
   
3. A survey
   
   
4. Disclaimer and means for unsubscribing

Content will sell your newsletter and keep unsubscribing to a minimum. People love original information. Either write the articles yourself or hire a ghostwriter. It will be worth your investment.

Tips and tricks of the trade are also popular. Readers enjoy snippets of information that they can jot down and use.

A survey is useful. It is very important for you to know what your reader wants and the more you the publisher interact with your readers the better.

Disclaimer and means for unsubscribing: In order to safeguard yourself and comply with the CanSpam Act always include your disclaimer at the top, and a way to unsubscribe at the bottom. See our newsletter for an example of this.

Important tips for good publishing and newsletter management

1. Layout
   
   
2. List management
   
   
3. Responsible advertising
   
   
4. Send out your newsletter on a regular basis

Your layout should be clear and well presented. If your newsletter looks impressive and professional people will be more inclined to read and not unsubscribe.

Use an autoresponder to take care of list management and sending your publication. There are many good ones out there. Words of caution do not use a free autoresponder as they will include their ads in your newsletter and this will make you look less professional. It is critical for your newsletter to look and be as professional as possible.

Advertise responsibly: Treat your subscribers well. Do not look at them as dollar bills, and flood their mailboxes with a ton of ads. Try to keep ads to 2-3 a week and only 4 as a maximum number in your publication.

Try to send out your newsletter on a regular basis. In this way you keep in constant contact with your subscribers and can build business relationships with them more easily.

Newsletters are the heart of your business and can be a lot of fun to publish. With this powerful free marketing tool you can build your business at a steady pace and enjoy doing it.

Cheryl Miller - is an entrepreneur specializing in niche markets. For more information about magnetic badges and how they can help you promote your business, please visit http://www.badgemags.com Cheryl is also the publisher of the Magnetic Marketer Newsletter http://www.badgemags.com/magnetic_marketer_subscribe.htm