Why publish an ezine anyway? There are a million of them already, it’s a lot of work, and it requires extra time spent online. Is there really even a point to it?
If you’re serious about your online business there is.
Ask yourself this: How many of the BIG guys offer a free subscription to an ezine from their web site?
If you answered pretty much all of them, then you are right. Getting hits to your web site is great, but smart marketers know it’s best to devise ways to encourage visitors to come back.
The best way to encourage repeat visits to your site is by establishing contact with your site’s visitors. For this, you need their name and email. Now, no one is going to drop you their name and email for no reason. Instead, you have to offer them good, educational, interesting content via an ezine. This is what coaxes visitors into leaving you their contact information. They will only do it because THEY look to BENEFIT from it, not because you will.
After you gain contact with people, the next step is to build a relationship with them. Personal contact is wonderful, but limited and time consuming. Through an ezine, you can establish repeat contact with individuals and continue to build a relationship with them.
Repetition is in the heart of marketing. People need to hear about your product or service over and over, often times, before they will really look into it. An ezine provides that repeat contact. When done right, you can continually present your opportunity to your ezine readers without being overbearing. Simple repeat mention of your name and business will keep it foremost in people’s minds for when they have desire or need for what you have to offer.
You’ve either worked or paid to get traffic to your web site, why let them leave with only the one contact? You have to at least try to establish further contact, or you are undermining your marketing’s effectiveness.
In building relationships with potential customers, you will often meet people personally as well that can turn into business partners or associates. These contacts can often prove to be very valuable both in a marketing sense, and an educational sense.
As you build a list of subscribers to your ezine, you will also attract offers from others. Since you have established contact with a list of people, it is a valuable item. Used right, but not abused, the power of your list can be great.
It will give you the opportunity to sell advertising, barter with your advertising, or make commissions from offers you choose to personally recommend to your list.
The power of your list must be protected and maintained, however. You cannot blast offers continually and expect to build a solid reputation. However, with judicious use of your recommendations, you can earn people’s respect and be heard.
As well, providing valuable and interesting content in your ezine is a must for keeping people around.
Overall, the benefits of ezine publishing can be great, but as with anything, it depends on your effort. You don’t necessarily have to put too much time into it, but what you do put into it should be your best.
Serious marketers DO HAVE a list of established contacts. Ezines offer an excellent method of building that kind of list.
Written by Joe Bingham of the NetPlay Marketer
Joe has written many articles, both informational and humorous,
with the intent of helping others gain a better understanding of
Internet marketing concepts. His ‘tell it like it is’ approach has
many offering the NetPlay Marketer as one of their most favorite
ezines. See for yourself at: http://www.netplaynewsletters.com/
