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Wednesday, January 2, 2008

E-Zines, What's So Easy? Episode 35: Emily Nottle, Zooop Design

Joanne, thank you so much for the opportunity to be a guest on the Techno Granny podcast.

Here's a synopsis of our discussion on eZines.

This synopsis includes some additional information I'd forgotten to mention in the podcast.* Ezines are a great way to keep in touch with current and potential clients.* Studies show that people usually won't do business with you after visiting your website once or twice, especially with higher end services.* It takes at least 7 contacts with you, on average for people to decide if they want to do business with you.*

Sending out an ezine is a way for your potential clients to get to know you, and for you to establish crediblity as an expert in your field.* Sometimes I even get thank you emails from subscribers, after sending out an issue with a useful article, and sometimes they request a topic, if they have some confusion around it. This makes me feel like I'm being helpful to people.*

In my eZine, I share some of my information and experitse on internet marketing and business development.* It's also a way to educate my current and potential clients – it's more efficient than sharing the information one on one, like I've been doing as well. * This way, if they decide to use my services, it will take less time to consult on internet marketing strategy, search engine optimization, and other topics clients usually need to get educated on, if they're going to maintain a successful website.*

On occasion, I also write "book reports" because I read so many books on marketing, business development and other business related topics.* In my book reports I try to distill only the most useful information for my readers, so instead of a review to help them decide whether or not to read the book, I assume that they won't read the book, but would like to benefit from the information anyway.*

You can re-use articles to submit to article directories for more free publicity, and include your byline, offering your free ezine. A byline is a short paragraph about you, with one or two links, and sometimes your photo.* I promote my eZine in my byline, instead of my website, because people may check out my website once, and forget about it. But if they sign up for my eZine, and the find my information useful, I can keep in touch with them long term. * If at some point they have a need for my services, they are more likely to contact me.*

An eZine is a way to stay in front of your potential clients, so they don't forget you exist. * You can also post your eZine articles on your website or blog. And with a blog, you can invite comments, as a further relationship building tool.* And of course you can also make offers to your readers, for your own goods or services, or ones from an affiliate. Make sure these are relevant to the article and/or your target market.* I don't do it in every issue, because I don't always have a special offer, and because I don't want the ezine to always be about selling, but more about building relationships. Though I do have a little blip about Zooop Design built into my ezine template.*

If you want to get started with your own ezine, you're better off using a newsletter management service, instead of your own email program because once your list starts growing, it'll be extremely difficult or impossible to manage (depending on how large the list is).*

A couple of services to check out are: Constant'>www.constantcontact.com/ it's the least expensive service I've found, with pricing starting at just $15 per month. It's one of the largest email newsletter services, reliable, and they have good customer support.* Another good one is: http://www.aweber.com/ It's also reliable, and they make it easy to schedule ulimited autoresponders, follow up messages or eZines. The pricing starts at $19.95 per month, regardless of how many emails you send out.*

Feature your eZine sign-up box prominently at the top right corner of the home page (and preferrably all pages on your site). Make it easy for people to sign up.* Say something enticing about what you'll be offering in your ezine, because people get so much email these days that they need a really good reason to sign up for your ezine.*

I'm not currently doing this, but you can offer some kind of freebie, whether it's some targeted information in the form of a free report, or something else you think your target market would like.

Best of luck to you with your eZine and happy new year!

Emilie Nottle of Zooop Design, publishes Grow Your Biz, a bi-monthly eZine for entrepreneurs and small business owners. If you're ready to take your biz to the next level, using your website as an effective marketing tool and automating your marketing efforts, subscribe at: www.zooop-design.com/subscribe_info.html.

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