John Jantsch with Ali Brown, "The Ezine Queen" on Marketing With Ezines, [with comments and observations by John Gaudio]

Much of what's said here applies to Blogsites as well as ezines, and each can be used to promote the other.  This post is still rough, but it's timely. ;-)

Ezine's are marketing tools.

Ali Brown, "The Ezine Queen," was an award winning copywriter at a magazine in New York.  After being rewarded for her award with a pizza party, she decided to strike out on her own.  This required spending most of her time marketing her business rather than doing the business.

She joined every networking group she could find, and needed a way to follow up with the people she met.  To do this she created a simple ezine as a tool  follow up with the people she met.  She simply asked them if she could send tips via email.  Most people said yes. 

Starting with a list of ten, including her cat and her parents, she grew the ezine to the point that large companies began finding her, and using her services.

An Ezine is a permission based email with valuable content, combined with a list of readers that you build up over time.

Seven ways an ezine can help any business.

1.  An ezine let's you grow a mailing list.  "Building your Herd"  Creating your "Funnel."
2. It's a very effective way to get more sales, be they products or services.  With an ezine you show how great your products are.  It brags for you, and your readers get to "sample" your work for free.  This builds visibility and credibility.
3. Publishing immediately establishes you as an authority.  The wall street journal called to interview her because the reporter had come to see her as an expert in her field by reading her ezine.
4. Ezines are great for  staying in touch with your customers and prospects.  It's said that it takes an average of nine exposures for people to buy.  Monthly or weekly ezines get you that exposure. 
5. Ezines allow you to "effortlessly," as compared to print magazines and newsletters, spread the word.  People pass your emails around.  It is "viral marketing" in the best sense of the word.
6. An ezine is an ideal way to capture the email addresses of your visitors.  In most cases people will look at your site, then click away.  By offering something of value you can entice them to give you their email address.
7. An ezine is cheap and easy, compared to a print newsletter.  It's more timely.  There's no printing or postage, and it's not restricted to a specific length or format.

John pointed out an example where a salon emailed to their list when they had open appointmens coming up soon, sometimes even that same day.  Through those emails they often filled appointment slots that would otherwise have gone to waste.

Treat some or all of your subscribers as VIPs by doing a special VIP only mailing to offer them something special, just for them.

Include simple marketing tools.  John recommends including check lists, which people tend to keep.   Ali recommends creating very short articles, perhaps three points, that can be absorbed quickly.  These can be combined and expanded to create Ecourses.  [Using a Blogsite is an excellent example of this sort of thing.  Creating a number of short simple posts on a topic, sugh that the blog automatically forms a sort of Ecourse.]

John Suggests you sign up for some ezines to get ideas.  Check out ezinelisting.com.   ALi suggests directoryofezines.com, and, of course, Ezinequeen.com.  Also StraightShooterMarketing.com.  The Ezine Queen tells us that she earns a six figure income from this.

Ezines typically come in two formats:

1. Old fashoined text.
2. HTML, with color and graphics.  Most studies show HTML gets more sales.  It stands out.  Include pictures of yourself, your staff, your pets.  Often people send out a text email with a link to the HTML page.  If you do that be sure to Include a teaser giving your readers a reason to click the links.  [Consider using text email with links to your blogsite as well.  And remember that  RSS enabled blogsites offer many of the same advantages of ezines.]

WebSource.net is a tool to help you format your  emails.

At ezinequeen.com there are free articles on formatting.  Use this information to format your ezine so that they will look good in many email readers.  Additional tools can be found at CoolerEmail.com, EmailLabs.com, ConstantContact.com, and QueenCart.com.

Ezines should go out no less than monthly, abd no more than weekly in most cases.  A few however, such as ezines on changing stock prices, could be published much more frequently.

To promote your ezine,

1. Go to your current customers and clients.  It's always good to ask first.  One shoe store gave a shoe shine kit to every customer who signed up.  Give away a goody.
2. Think about your target market.  Then ask who else is already reaching that group?  Is there some big fish you can work a deal with?  Consider cross promotions, Doctors with Dentists, Accountants with Lawyers, etc.
3. Use your website.  BoostBizEzine.com is an example.  When people find your site ask in the upper right hand corner for their email address.  Give them a good incentive to sign up.

EzineAnnouncer.com is an example of an ezine directory that may bring you some subscribers.  Include ways to sign up on your business card, when you speak, etc.  [Creating a blogsite and registering it with RSS agregators is very similar to this.]

What about subscribers who go away?  Ali says she has 15,000 subscribers, and treats them like "Gold."  Continue rewarding them by giving them great content and goodies that they can't get anywhere else.

What about making money?

Before you start selling you may want to get a few issues out.  Then once you're newsletter is establishd, try sending a solo emal when you have something to sell. 

1. Keep it nice and short.
2. Include a reason to act now.  lPerhaps a imited product or supply, or a deadline.
3. Provide a call to action.  Click here, call us now, come in by end of day tomorrow. 

This solo email is seperate from the ezine.  The Ezine Queen has seen 50% response to something in the solo mailing, as compared to a 5% response for the same thing advertised in  her regular ezine.  [Solo emails can also be targetted to a subset of your subscriber's list if you have demographic information on them.]

People read your ezines, and come to you for your products and services because they:

1. Know You
2. Like You
3. Trust  You

THe Know, Like, Trast factors are critical.  Each must be established.

Advertizing can be a cash cow in your "money farm."  For Ali, though it's her "Margiata money." Remember, your number one goal is to sponsor your business.  Keep the prime realestate, at the top, for yourself.  If you do advertise, make sure that any ads are relevant.

Consider affiliate programs that allow people to make money selling your  products.  This improves exposure because people want you to succeed when they share in your success.  Give the a reason to want you to succeed. 

What about paid subscription Ezines?  It's harder to get people to pay for a subscription because so much is free.  Your information must be of great value.  Typically it needs to be something that makes your readers a lot more money that the subscription costs them.  Even if you offer a paid subscription ezine, you would still do well to offer a free version to get them interested in the premium version.  If your main goal is to promote your own business, your probably best off keeping it free.

What about spam filters, and getting your ezine through them to people who really do want it?  Some of your emails will be filtered out.  Check for red flags at Lyris.com/contentchecker.  This will give you a score, based on Spam Assasin, and let you decide what changes should be made.  "Increase business" for example was flagged because the word "Increase" is commonly used in spam.  Also EzineCheck.com is a good resource.

For people who don't like writing try:

1. Writing short tips.  Keep it simple and conversationsal.
2. Use guest articles.  Look at ezinearticles.com.  You need to include their contact information.   Check out GoArticles.com.
3. Find somebody to write for you.  Elance.com offers "starving writers that work for very little money."  You should get a real good deal if you hire them to do a series. 

John suggested writing a number of articles on a weekend, the sending them out over time.   Ali says she writes hers at the last minute. [Welcome to my club, Ali :-)]

To get started:

1. Make a list of the questions your clients ask you over and over.  Build that list.
2. Look for software or service to make it easy.
3. Email is changing.  It's been free.  It may change.  Start building your lists now so you can market to it over and over.

John adds that to get the PHD version, check out Ali's Boost Business with Your Own Ezine.  This can be found at EzineQueen.com, along with a 45 minute audio course that you can listen to for free.

Email john@ducttapemarketing.com with feedback on this information, for a quick reference to the links mentioned, and check out LocalOnlineMarketing.com for inforation on upcoming seminars.