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The Future is in
your Ezine! I've "zine" it!
By: Patrick Wagner (c) 2003 Email
Marketing Software
Over the last 5 years, there has been a significant focus
on web sites and web design, and for good reason! Consider
the explosive tech boom - all those companies that raced
to get online to stake their claim in cyberspace. But for
most companies, once they arrived, they found out (the hard
way) that they had little or no reason to be there. As with
most pioneers heading into uncharted territory, everyone
got caught up in the frenzy and joined the chase without
thinking - no one could predict what to expect until they
got there. This blind rush idea lasted 6 months.
Since then, online business has evolved a great deal. Some
things don't change: Successful companies with a strong
business plan and a good relationship with their customers
are better today than ever. Leading tech companies simply
raised the bar and thrived in the consolidation environment
that inevitably emerged from the early rush. This added
value became the elevated standard for anyone getting online
today.
Four years ago, you could have gotten away without providing
online support to your clients from your web site. Not so
today. If you run online services, your customers expect
(and deserve) accountability. They need a way to solve any
issues that stem from your product or service. Gone are
the days when you can create a successful (i.e. profitable)
web business by relying on the help of the kid down the
street who knows HTML. This paradigm no longer exists -
not for the true breed of online business.
This environment has created tremendous opportunity for
those willing to provide high levels of quality and customer
services to online users. Those who choose to service the
lucrative online market do so with no illusions regarding
the demands of online consumers.
Given this shift towards more efficient ways to service
and support your online customer, the first step is creating
a presence - a way to create a relationship with your customers,
vendors, and perhaps most important, your potential customers.
A web site is essential, but not enough. You have to find
a way to reach out and touch someone with it. This is the
critical role your ezine will play.
Again, there is a simple starting point. Clearly identify
in your own mind what information you will be sending out,
who should read it, and why. Don't make the mistake of confusing
your ezine for some slapped together flyer! It must be set
up such that it meets the needs of its readers and the objectives
of your company's marketing department. This fine balance
does exist - and your success will depend on developing
your strategy before deploying your own ezine.
People doomed to the same mistakes as early Internet pioneers
might tell you to "just get out there", get a
hold of a ton of e-mail addresses and start bombarding them
with TONS of e-mails on whatever you're selling. ERASE THAT
THOUGHT!!! This is another relic from the era five years
ago, when you actually could do that and make very good
money. This is not the case any more! You need to realize
that online users are not stupid. They now know enough to
weed out the ground, and focus where there is true value.
If no value is provided and time is wasted or lost, it's
just a matter of time before someone builds a program to
replace your service and make money from that. The Internet
evolves constantly, and there will always be two camps -
those looking to exploit it for monetary gain, disregarding
any damage they do; and those searching for ways to increase
the value proposition to the online user experience. The
latter will always be the big winner. It's true now. It
will be true 5 years from now.
What's the POINT of your web site? What VALUE does your
service bring? What are you trying to do/sell/promote etc.?
You need to know these answers and use them to create the
strategy for your newsletter.
An ezine or newsletter is a way of capturing the e-mail
address of anyone and everyone interested in using your
product or service. You need to give them a REASON to give
you their e-mail address to communicate with them via your
ezine. Your goal should be to provide an ezine that gives
visitors to your web site valued insight into your business,
industry, profession, products, service, life, etc... This
becomes your target market - the people to whom you send
information.
Remember subscribers want value, which means good articles,
with valuable information for them - not just a promo puff
piece for YOU. Give them a chance to save time with links
and resources you find and share with them. Online users
can smell value and these are the types of web business
that gain acceptance simply by word of mouth, person-to-person,
all around the world.
Web sites will continue to evolve but now, more then ever
before, that evolution is dictated by the needs and wants
of the visitors/users. The profitable, successful online
businesses constantly evolve their web presence to match
the feedback and information received from their direct
communications to their customers/visitors/potential customers.
This is the next edge your company will need to be profitable
online and to reach critical mass.
The time has come to design your ezine template to match
(or continue) the branding efforts of your web site. Your
ezine template will be in two formats, text and HTML, one
being graphical, like a web page (HTML), and the other in
plain text for non-HTML e-mail clients. Currently, 90% of
web users are capable of receiving HTML e-mails but only
50% want HTML - 40% still prefer text. This means you need
to provide BOTH options to your subscribers. The eventual
shift will be to all HTML readers because of comparable
quality to magazines and web sites.
Finally, you will need a publishing schedule for your ezine.
Decide whether you can provide a high-quality publication
weekly? Monthly? Every two months? When you decide, plan
6 to 12 months of ezine ideas - it's easy if you're producing
12 issues a year! Get topics for each issue, research and
gather articles. Better yet, write them yourself! Get advertisers,
get feedback (surveys), and swap with other ezine publishers
with a similar target audience. This will make the publishing
of your ezine simple and will let you start creating a relationship
with your customers and web site visitors. Then ask them
what they want - more of this, less of that? Make sure you
respond to subscriber feedback just as any major company
would. Use this feedback to make the right changes to your
web site, which will lead to more profit for your company.
Your ezine is the umbilical cord between your web business
and your customers. Make sure you talk to your customer
at least monthly in order to ensure the success of your
online business!
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