Creating a Newsletter and Making Your Website Magnetic
Creating a newsletter is an ideal way to drive repeat traffic to
your website but its design, format and implementation need to
be carefully considered in order to achieve the desired results.
Signing Up
Before you begin creating a newsletter itself attention needs to
be paid to the way in which your website will facilitate the
capturing of customers' email addresses and other information.
Though many sites opt for the quick and simple approach of
placing a "Name & Email Address" box on their homepage this is
not always the best solution.
Although such an approach makes it extremely simple for users to
provide you with their basic details it leaves little scope to
sell the newsletter's benefits. Neither does it provide your
business with the opportunity to simultaneously capture vital
demographic information from its customers. A balance needs to
be determined between the ease of signing-up for the user and
the quality/quantity of information captured by you.
Format and Frequency
You website visitors need to be made aware in advance how often
they are going to receive a communication from your business.
Failure to provide such information may deter people from giving
their permission to be contacted in the first place. Stating the
newsletter's frequency up front will also benefit your business
in the long-term as customers signing up to receive it will all
share a common understanding of the expected volume of email
they are going to receive - this will lower the number of
customers who unsubscribe.
The format of your newsletter is also important - you should
either state the format during the sign-up procedure or provide
an option for your customers to choose their preferred delivery
format. Most newsletters are delivered in standard text format
though HTML is being favoured more and more as it enables
greater use of images and links but beware - not all Internet
users can view HTML newsletters. There are various ways to
combat these issues of compliance including delivering a
newsletter in both formats based on customers' chosen option at
the sign-up stage.
Content is King
This phrase applies equally as well to newsletters as it does to
a website's content. Your newsletter may be well-designed, easy
on the eye and technically sound but if it doesn't contain
information that recipients find of value it is worthless.
Creating a newsletter can achieve many objectives and therefore
you must decide on which are most important to you. Do you want
to use the newsletter to facilitate increased traffic, enable
capture of marketing information, push direct sales, improve
public relations, generate product feedback or foster loyalty?
Your newsletter needs to be tailored to the needs and objectives
of your business in this regard.
Generating repeat traffic is one of the easier objectives to
attain via a newsletter - including relevant links to certain
areas of your site, or featuring competitions / special offers
can all drive traffic to your site.
Summary
Engaging in newsletter activity is the electronic equivalent of
knocking on your customer's door - your business has the
potential to sell, whether this be selling products, services or
the ethos of your company - the potential should not be
overlooked.
Michael Cheney, www.magnet4web.com (c)
About the author:
Michael Cheney is a successful entrepreneur and owner of
magnet4web.com - one of the UK's leading website marketing
companies. You can read more of his articles and download your
FREE website marketing guide "How To Turn Your Website Into A
Customer Magnet" at www.magnet4web.com
