 3.6 Newsletters, E-Zines & more
Newsletters
A Newsletter or E-Zine (Electronic Magazine) is your opportunity to put your brand in front of people who have shown an interest in potentially being your guest. The decision to communicate with your guests in a regularly produced colourful, informative publication will keep your tourism business front and centre.
The discussion of newsletters and similar communication methods presumes that you will be using appropriate opt-in and opt-out options for those on your list. Recipients of your communications should never feel that your communication is difficult to unsubscribe to.
Your communication can be as frequent and as detailed as you have the time and inclination to produce. Your communication could be as short as one topic, or include a variety of content of interest to your potential and returning guests.
Thoughtful use of good design can help you establish your unique identity and add that special sizzle that will get you the emotional commitment you need.
How often should you communicate with your list?
Depends... Send what you promise. For some, special offers may be of interest to your newsletter recipients every 2-4 weeks. Consider a monthly communication with people on your list reasonable, although you may only be able to commit to a longer publication each season (4 times/year).
A Good Newsletter or E-Zine
- Must be valuable, fresh and relevent. Succinct.
- Well presented with Table of Contents or overview of contents if more than 1 screen. Personalize throughout! Use your subscriber data inside your newsletter.
- Each paragraph, should be brief, no more than 6 lines.
- Include a call to action and a deadline.
- Encourage sharing with friends and signing up.
- Always make it easy to opt-out.
- Write as though there is only one recipient and they are a friend. Ask yourself, would I say this to a friend....
- Invite your recipients to interact with you by responding to a quick poll or survey. ie. Contest to name an event...
- Provide an Opt-in offer to encourage forwarding. "We're sending along gift certificates... just leave your email and we'll send it right away. Valid for ..."
- Create a hyperlink in your outgoing email to make it easy to pass on your email.
- Make it equally easy for the recipient to subscribe to your newsletter or email by providing a Subscribe to link.
Test, refine, refine and refine your email campaigns to get the most opens and click throughs you can. Learn each time you send email. Test different offers, different formatting, different images. Compare how often your email is shared with a friend and how many people unsubscribe. For more on measuring response to your email complete tutorial 4.7, Measuring Success.
Empathize with recipients, by recognizing that the average person receives up to 50 email messages a day and that subscribers need to make a special effort to read your newsletter. Your newsletter must pass through their spam filter, then their filter of importance. Make sure your reader values your email by offering something worthwhile. Be personable and conversational.
Plain Text or HTML formatting.
It is generally accepted that a well designed html newsletter with colourful graphics, text and embedded hyperlinks will outperform a non-html email in terms of the number of readers who will respond to one or more calls to action.
However, many more html newsletters will not reach recipients due to the set up of their email client, their ISP, and email filters. Some people just completely disregard html email as it has been associated so closely to Spam.
Consider testing out both types of communication:
- Test different formats and guage the response rate!
- Ask your list to indicate the type of email they prefer to receive, then segment your list and send out both.
- Create your html newsletter as a web page and send a plain text email with a hyperlink to the web page where the newsletter can be read.
- Read informed opinion on the debate between plain text and html with images below.
EZines:
Most traditional print magazines have developed an online magazine and new web based E-zines are cropping up regularly to fill ever more narrowing niche market needs. In addition to adding credibility with your target market, providing content for these online services will boost your search engine rankings. The hyperlinks embedded in your articles can also be a source of additional web visits (by people who are really interested in what you do!)
Getting Published Online
- Send your press releases to online magazines as well as traditional print media. You may find that articles find their way onto the internet quite easily.
- Write for the Market you Cater to. Become a recognized expert with your potential guests.
- Create your own EZine. If you have a keen understanding of a market niche, produce your own E-Zine. There is no shortage of writers who can provide supplementary content to support your publication.
- Recruit a writer to write stories about your business and submit them to online publications. You might be surprised at how reasonably you can get your stories told by a neutral third party. Do you know anyone who has recently studied journalism?
- Consider advertising in e-zines with Niche appealing content. give example here. ie: find an ezine related to Green Travel.
- Sponsor a delivery, ask for exclusivity in your type of service and request a hyperlink to your site.
- Check the editorial content of the e-zine to ensure the most appropriate placement of your content.
Reasons to Write for or Create an E-zine
- There are thousands, with ever more narrowing focus, you can match your offerings in E-Zines to niche services offered on your web site. E-Zine readers are loyal, generally staying subscribed. Reach your target audience in a regular feature.
- With so many E-zines, most are looking for fresh content.
- It's easy to search for appropriate EZines, start with a press release and go from there...
- New Customers are just one click away from your opt-in offer, they are already at the computer reading something they are interested in.
- Copies of newsletters and interesting articles are often forwarded.
- Publications have broad geographic reach.
- EZines have higher response rates than other bulk email with higher click through rates.
- you become established as expert, building a relationship with your market.
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