Newsletters are excellent means of marketing on the internet. The publisher of the newsletters gets a foothold in the market for standing and growing. The publisher could be an individual or an organization. But it is important for the publisher to form an identity and to establish himself in the market. The long term players in the market simply cannot do without forming an identity, a brand name. By brand name I only mean an identification to distinguish the publisher.

Newsletters can be used very well for branding the publishers.

But in the first place why do you need to brand yourself?

You are an internet based marketer. You are trying to market products and ideas. You are looking for like-minded people who would be interested in what you have to offer.

If you answer these two simple questions you will know why you need to brand yourself. These questions are:

Why will anyone listen to you? Why will anyone be interested in your offer?

You have to first locate people who may have interest in your offer. Next, you have to build credibility so that interested people start trusting you. It is in this second process where you brand yourself. You establish yourself as an expert in the field who is there to stay and who can be trusted. You create a distinct brand for yourself which is unique.

The brand YOU.

In fact you market your name before you can expect to market your products in a big way.

You can use newsletters to meet both the objectives - to locate your customers and to establish yourself. Starting your newsletters is a long term strategy. Your newsletters should focus on a particular area which is related to the product you wish to market. The frequency of publication should be fixed and strictly followed. In every issue there should be fresh content to keep the readers interested. It will take time and persistence to establish the newsletter as well as the publisher, to increase the subscriber base and to grow the circulation. After initial hurdles are successfully negotiated you are poised for substantial growth.

The readers of the newsletter gradually get used to the style, presentation, periodicity of publication, the content and other features of the newsletter. They look forward to the next issue and expect to find the familiar pattern. The publisher of the newsletter should ensure that the newsletter maintains its unique features. There should be consistency in the content. The objective should be providing information which will benefit the subscribers. You can add stories and your personal experience to make the newsletters more interesting.

What should be the frequency of the newsletter? Once or twice a week can be a good frequency to maintain. It does not become a burden either on the publisher or the subscribers. If frequency is less than a month the readers may forget about the newsletter. If frequency is more the readers may lose interest.

There should not be any drastic changes from one issue to the other. The readers should get what they expect to find. If any changes are to be made in any of the features, the changes should be gradual. It often helps to inform the readers before the changes are made.

Newsletters are powerful tools for cultivating relationship. And relationship is the foundation of a successful business. The subscribers of the newsletters come to know the publisher. The owner of the newsletter gets an effective medium to share ideas and information. By inviting comments from the subscribers the newsletters can be made more interactive and popular.

The publisher should always shave in mind the best interests of the subscribers. This attitude somehow gets transmitted and readers can often see through the intentions of the publisher.

Your customers do not buy your products - they buy your recommendations. Once they have faith in you they will buy from you repeatedly with the confidence that they will get value for their money. That is the power of branding yourself, and maintaining your brand name.

It is ok to send offers to the subscribers occasionally. However such offers should not be too frequent. What is even more important is that the publisher should not send offers for un-tested and un-tried products. He should send offers only for those products which he would himself purchase. With the offer he should provide his own views, ratings and experience with the product.

I have tried to discuss how newsletters can be used for marketing your other products. Publishing newsletters can itself be a business. That is additional advantage of publishing newsletters.



By: Sanjay Johari

About the Author:

Copyright (c) 2008 Titus Hoskins

One of the most important factors to online success is list building. No matter what goals you’re pursuing with your online activities, building a good healthy contact list is vital for a successful outcome.

List building plays a major role in developing good relationships with your site’s customers, clients and visitors. It can be used to get more traffic, leads and sales for your site or business.

For these reasons contact building should be high on your list of priorities when you’re marketing or promoting on the web. Fortunately, list building is an easy process that any site or webmaster can quickly set-up as long as you understand two simple, yet well-proven principles of list building.

To be really successful, your list building must incorporate these two key elements. Without these two main ingredients you will probably find building your contact list difficult and slow going. So it is worth your while to fully understand and utilize these two factors in your list building.

Any list should have these two key elements:

1. Value -

Your list should have value. It should offer something valuable to the one subscribing. It should offer important information, quality content, special deals/discounts, and more importantly, it should offer a valuable relationship or connection to an expert in the subject area of the list.

Subscribers join a list for the benefits it will bring them, whether it be valuable content, special deals or a connection to an expert in their area of interest; your list must have value for the subscribers. They must benefit from joining your list.

If you’re building a list, just write down all the benefits someone would receive from joining your site or list.

- receive important information

- get special valuable content

- receive special deals/discounts

- get training videos/workshops

- get timely announcements or news

Make these benefits your main selling points when you’re building your list. Don’t forget there may also be a psychological reason for joining your list - many people like being part of a group or membership site. It’s human nature, we all want to be emotionally involved with certain topics or causes, so don’t ignore this aspect when building your list. Everybody likes to feel included - lists can fulfil this emotional need.

Simply give your subscribers something of value and you will build your list quickly and easily.

2. Free

Whatever you offer - make sure it is Free. The quickest way to build any list is to give away free valuable content, information, videos, reports, ebooks, discounts, prizes… everybody loves a free gift. Just make them an offer they can’t refuse.

Some marketers argue that giving away free items will attract the “wrong kind” of customer or subscriber - people that will never buy anything because they will expect it to be free. But this has more to do with the nature of your gift and the kind of contacts you’re building - giving away free buying guides on how to purchase real estate, fast cars, LCD TVs, laptops… will definitely attract the right “buying customer”. If you’re into selling, you just have to adjust your marketing to incorporate the free element correctly.

Besides, giving away something free is the first step in starting an ongoing relationship with your subscribers. It gets the ball rolling. It is one of the most effective ways to build your list quickly and easily. Just make sure you’re giving away something of value to the person receiving it and they will turn to you, time and time again, to find what they’re looking for on the web.

So the next time you’re building a contact list make these two key elements the center of your activities. Just remember “give them value and make it free” and you should have no problems with list building.



By: Titus Hoskins

About the Author: