E-mail Marketing Tips, Part 4 of 4

(Shel Horowitz's Frugal Marketing Tip, April, 2002)

We'll finish off our four-month series on e-mail with one of my favorite ideas: starting your own e-zine.

This not only offers all the benefits we've discussed in the last few tips, but several more:
* You have a way to capture e-mail addresses of one-time visitors to your website: prospects who may have otherwise never become customers
* You build loyalty and credibility among your prospects (it's not unusual for me to sell books or services to long-time subscribers to my tipsheets)
* You have a forum to present special offers
* You can list in various e-zine directories (though you'll probably get at least as much spam as useful traffic)--and list the archives pages in search engines
* Once your circulation reaches a few hundred, you can build circulation by exchanging ads with other, compatible, publishers
* You can also begin to accept paying ads that will at least compensate you for the time spent preparing the 'zine
* You've created an ongoing stream of new content, that you can not only archive on your own website but also contribute to other sites and publications

It usually takes me only about half an hour to write each actual tip, and about two hours to deal with the formatting, ad placement, routine information, and so forth--total, for the three tipsheets I publish. In other words, it's not a big deal in terms of my time. In fact, I've written the entire e-mail series, January to April, in one sitting at a doctor's waiting room, accompanying my injured son through a medical exam and X-ray.

I strongly recommend doing at least one e-zine, make it as good and useful as you can, and see what happens.

Reminder: we looked at my very favorite e-marketing weapon, participating in e-mail discussion lists, all the way back in the September 1997 and September 1999 issues.

Thank you reading this back issue of Shel Horowitz's Monthly Frugal Marketing Tips, published every month since May, 1997; please click here to view the complete archives, grouped by subject. Shel is an internationally known copywriter and marketing consultant, author of Grassroots Marketing Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First and several other books, and creator of the Frugal Marketing web site. Please click here to contact Shel.


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