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Major Communications
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Major Communications
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By S. Hunter and G. Kosch
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The Internet is used by a tremendous number of people for a variety of reasons. But if you are a business owner, a writer, self publisher or an entrepreneur you can use the Internet to get your ideas, information, announcement, product list, catalog, whatever you've got to offer, out to literally millions of people. No, we are not talking about a web site on the world wide web, if you've got one great, because what we are talking about can be used with your web site or as a tool on it's own. We are talking about something that is cheap to put together, cheap to send out and yet can be an extremely powerful marketing tool - the electronic newsletter. Whether you do it for fun or for profit, an electronic newsletter is a great and inexpensive way to reach the world.
What is an electronic newsletter? Simply put, it's a text document that is transmitted electronically via the Internet to a pre-compiled list of e-mail addresses anywhere in the world. It can be sent out to thousands of recipients, as often as you want for the cost of your e-mail account - about $5 a month. That's right, no postage costs, no mail delays, no envelope stuffing, just a click of the mouse and it's done. Amazing!
An electronic newsletter can contain just about anything. Microsoft for example, e-mails on request, a free electronic newsletter that contains product information, media releases, web site enhancements etc. A specialized dog breeder that we know uses her web site and electronic mailing list to attract prospects, and to connect to those with similar interests. Each month she sends to everyone on her e-mail list, a newsletter with information of interest to dog fanciers. She is able to keep in touch with previous customers, connect with prospective customers, and provide an excellent information resource. She has effectively eliminated some of the geographical boundaries that once plagued her business and has extended an invitation to people around the world to both share information and conduct business. Another example of the practical use of an electronic newsletter is that of Worldprofit Malls. Twice a month, Worldprofit sends out a free newsletter to both their customers and prospects, a newsletter called a Worldgram. It is filled with useful information including special offers, business building tips, free reports, announcements and Internet tidbits. Consider one more example. A husband and wife team running a home based business developed an electronic newsletter and offered it for free to all who wanted to receive it. Slowly they build up the number of e-mail recipients on the list and when they had well over 10,000 e-mail addresses they began to sell advertising space in the newsletter just like a magazine or newspaper might do. They were able to offer their advertisers just what they wanted; a guaranteed level of distribution, low cost advertising, on time production and a specific target market.
Each of these examples shows how businesses, large and small have effectively used an electronic publication to their advantage and they are able to:
* Maintain contact with valued customers
* Offer useful information at no charge to the customer
* Make customers aware of special offers and company promotions
* Provide an electronic reminder to prospective customers of what the company can offer them
* Save on costs associated with postage, mailing, labour etc.
* Produce a profit by selling advertising space within the newsletter
* Connect with a prospective customer base that knows no geographical boundaries.
* Develop customized target lists for their own business use.
By now you should see that an electronic publication can be streamlined to suit your business needs. Your electronic publication can be compiled and sent out to your customized e-mail lists as often is warranted. E- mail lists provide the advantage of involving very little time and labor but are an excellent vehicle for free promotion. An electronic newsletter can take many forms; perhaps, an organizational report, a compilation of poetry, book titles, a product list, an information resource. What goes in it is up to you. Who it is goes out to is also up to you. The logical recipients are people who;
a) are going to find your publication enjoyable and useful
b) are previous customers
c) are prospects who have requested to receive it.
If you have decided you would like to produce an electronic publication, there are a couple of ways to go about it. The first option is to purchase e-mail list services from an Internet advertising agency. If you are going to get an advertising service to do this, you are limited to the space that they will allot you, in many cases just a short classified ad. You submit it for placement on their next mail out and voila the work is done. However, our experience with these "list server providers" is not the best, typically they are space limited, expensive and produce only a fair response. Also, it is a well known fact that sending unsolicited e-mail is a major error on the Internet. The general rule is you don't send someone an e-mail ad or solicitation unless they request it. Of course if you get a list server to do this for you they take the heat and you are off the hook. More on this below.
The second option is to place an ad in an existing e-mail list that a company is already producing. This can be done at usually no charge as long as you allow them to process orders your ad generates and then pay you a percentage of the revenue generated. The best way to get your ad or information on an electronic mailing list for no charge, is to shop around.
A third route for distribution is spam lists or bulk e-mail services. We DO NOT recommend you use this method. However, since you may have heard about this will explain what it is and why we don't encourage it. There are services and software that strip e-mail addresses from newsgroups or other web sources and sell these e-mail addresses. People who have purchased the list, or the service itself then sends a solicitation of some type to those e-mail addresses. Sending unsolicited mail is known as spamming and is a definite "no-no". The biggest problem with bulk e-mail is that the message is sent to people who never requested the information. The Internet community has reacted violently to this perceived invasion of privacy. While some people claim to get results from using bulk e-mail, others report to have been "taken" by paying for the service but receiving only bogus e-mail addresses. On the dark side, some zealots on a pilgrimage to rid the world of spammers have been known to e-mail some very large graphics to people who spam. Let's just say the kinds of pictures they send are ones you wouldn't want your children too see. We don't recommend that you use bulk e-mail or spam lists to distribute your publication, however legitimate it may be. It is much more productive to distribute your newsletter or publication electronically by developing your own customized targeted lists of recipients who have requested your information or have some association with your business.
The most efficient method for setting up your own electronic publication is to compile your own e-mail list. If you are "technically able" you should consider investing some time to develop your own e-mail list particularly so you can streamline it to target people who have an interest in what you are sending out. This will target people who have purchased from you in the past or will in the future. You could develop one list or many; a list of customers, a list of prospects, a list of suppliers, a list of members, a media release list etc.
To create your own e-mail list this is what you will need to do.
1) Make sure you subscribe to a newsletter such as a Worldgram or Microsoft or Scam Busters to see how others are doing this.
2) Set up a structure or overview of what you are going to send to people on your e-mail list. Determine how often you will send it, how long it will be, what you will include that will be useful to people, and other pertinent information. Make sure that what you are going to send out is of some value to the recipients with a combination of ads, information, tips, special offers, opportunity information etc. Let your own purpose and creativity be your guide, but do put some thought into it.
3) Create a list of e-mail addresses who you will receive your electronic publication. You will need to compile a list of e-mail address of people who have expressed an interest in receiving your information. You might do this by inviting visitors to your web site to submit their e-mail address for a free issue, or on all of your advertising material invite readers to provide you with their e-mail address to receive a free copy. Guest books are also a useful tool; they allow visitors to your site to sign in and offer their comments. You can offer visitors who sign your Guest book a free subscription to your electronic newsletter etc.) Warning: if you routinely add e-mail addresses of people who have not asked to be put on your e-mail list, be prepared for a lot of responses from people who will demand politely (sometimes not politely) to be removed from your list.
4) If you choose to compile your own e-mail list you will need a method, preferably a database program to track and update your list as e-mail addresses are added and removed. Being able to remove people from the list is crucial. Don't get yourself in hot water by sending people unsolicited e-mail and then get caught unable to remove them promptly from your list. E-mail is a very powerful tool and if you tick someone off you will soon be horrified at what starts flooding into your e-mail box.
5) To send out your publication you will need some type of e-mail management program. It allows you to compile your e-mail list and send your message to the list en masse automatically within just minutes.
Conclusion:
Whether you are a small business, a large business or just want to be able to publish your own information on an international level, e-mail can help you do this. Wade in, get your feet wet and find out more about it so you can take full advantage of this extremely powerful, yet inexpensive tool.
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( 1997 Copyright Incor Enterprises Inc. ) George Kosch M.Sc., is the Systems Manager for the Worldprofit Malls and Sandra Hunter is the Director of Web Site Development.
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