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← 28 Ways to Grow Your E-mail List

Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die →

October 21st, 2008 · 7 Comments

by Carey Peters,
Ladies Who Launch member, Los Angeles

Newsletters, sometimes called e-zines, are a necessary and effective business opportunity no entrepreneur can afford to pass up. Depending on your proclivity for writing, newsletters can either be a royal pain in the butt or a whole lot of fun. If you’d rather chew glass than write a newsletter, you may want to consider outsourcing it to a writer who can do it for you. But if the idea of writing a newsletter makes you as giddy as if you were getting a fresh mani/pedi, then these five newsletter tips will help you get started building business with current and potential clients.

1. Personalize

Build connections by telling your story, sharing your picture and letting your readers know who you are. People buy from people they know and trust.

Give real-life stories of problems you have solved for clients.

Recommend your favorite products and resources. Link them to your Web site, where readers can purchase them.

2. Engage

Ask for your readers’ stories, questions, and opinions, and feature a reader response in every newsletter.

Offer a reward or prize for the reader whose response is chosen.

Ask a trivia question pertaining to your industry. The first correct response receives a prize.

3. Target

Point out your expertise by targeting the top three areas that you want readers to come to you for, and develop content for those areas.

Use “Top Five” or “Top 10″ lists to keep your newsletter concise and fun to read. Put your best tip at the top to keep readers’ attention.

4. Offer

Describe your latest product or event.

Offer a special discount for the first 10 readers to respond.

Offer a referral bonus.

Use testimonials to illustrate the benefits of your product or event.

5. List

Keep a notebook handy to jot down questions from readers. Note when you get repeat questions, and answer them in your newsletter. If you keep hearing the same six questions, you have six months of topics ready to go.

Jot down any ideas you get from articles about industry trends, conferences, workshops, magazines, other newsletters, TV shows, shopping, or your latest girls’ lunch out. Novel, exciting ideas for newsletter content can come from anywhere.Carey Peters is a member of the Los Angeles Incubator, a certified holistic nutritionist, and the founder of www.CoachToolsToGo.com , a resource site for health and wellness coaches and their clients.

7 RESPONSES SO FAR ↓

Annainla -- July 8th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

Great article Carey,

Communicating with your customers via email newsletters consistently ranks as one of the best methods of growing a business. It’s an excellent way to build relationships and retain customer loyalty -particularly important in this economy.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing returns an incredible $48.29 for every dollar spent.

My tip is to buy a camcorder, post some web video and link to it via your emails. My clients have had great success combining email and web video. Click through rates have doubled and even tripled.

Check out the Flip camera $150, Camtasia Studio – Free 30 trial and Animoto.com for entry level web video options.

Anna Yeaman
Style Campaign

ps: I have a free pdf download, “25 ways to grow your email list” you can download it from this page:

http://www.stylecampaign.com/html/email.html

krista -- July 8th, 2008 at 3:48 pm

Thank you!!! How did you know that this has been on my mind?! My readers comment they love getting my newsletter… however now I’ve added a product to my service biz and needed a little kick to take my newsletter up a notch. Cheers to you and I so appreciate you + your article.

Krista Colvin ifestyle expert + organizing phenom
http://www.organizeinstyleblog.com
http://www.theshebang.com The Smart Woman’s Guide to Doing it All!

maryrobb64 -- July 11th, 2008 at 8:14 pm

GREAT STUFF!! Mary:)

JanaStewart -- October 21st, 2008 at 3:04 pm

Thanks!!! These tips are great. I have not sent out my weekly fitness newsletter in a while because I was running out of ideas, so now I have plenty!!!

In fitness & health,
Jana Stewart
http://www.janastewartfitness.com

ktafoya -- October 21st, 2008 at 8:25 pm

Hey Carey, you’ve got some great ideas here. Believe it or not, writing a newsletter can be fun! Now I just need to get first one back up and running and my second one started

~Katy
http://constantchatter.com
http://katytafoya.com

psadriano -- October 30th, 2008 at 10:41 am

Hi Carey, this is a great article. The best part for me is being proactive and getting your readers engaged and involved in your newsletter. This is a great way to measure readership and interest in what you are imparting to them. Kudos!

Give Your Network the News | Perks Consulting Blog -- October 27th, 2009 at 10:21 am

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