Ezine Format and Criteria
If you want an ezine, here is what you have to ask yourself:
- What do we do?
- What am I an expert at?
- How can an ezine help my customers?
- Who do we want to reach?
- What value do I want to give my recipients?
- What do I want them to do? (buy product, re-order, click through, remember me as a good guy when it’s time to reorder, help them think in new ways, answer their concerns and questions, inform them, help them build their business
- How many do I have on my list right now?
- How many do I expect to add this year?
- Each year?
- What is my expected frequency of my message? I recommend weekly.
Here are a few examples of what your message of help and support needs to be:
If you supply a product like a copier or a computer:
- You want to stress productivity, profitability, image, and morale – the things that the use of your machine creates. You may also want to give tips in sales and service.
If you are a service like accounting:
- You want to talk money, tax advantages, sales, service.
If you are an add-on like health insurance:
- It’s all about health, prevention, diet, food, wellness and the things that breed life.
What can an ezine do for you?
- It’s a value communicator.
- It will be welcomed by customers, prospects, vendors, bankers – everyone your business touches – including your prospective customers.
What your ezine must contain things like:
- Tip of the week
- An article that has value to the reader
- Answered questions
- Guest article
- Success story
- Featured customer
- Quote of the week
- And a story or note from you
- Information that others perceive as valuable
- Information that’s helpful to them
- Information that helps them build their business
- Information that helps them make a profit or increase productivity
Here’s how to decide on an ezine:
The first question you ask yourself is: how much are my present customers worth and what am I willing to invest to keep them and keep my competition from stealing them.
The second question you ask yourself is: how much is a new customer worth, and how am I staying in front of them after my presentation?
The third question you ask yourself is: How am I differentiating myself from my competition – would an ezine help me? Easy answer to that one – suppose your competition started a real slick one tomorrow? How would you feel?
The fourth question you ask yourself is: How am I staying in front of my customers – the lifeblood of my business – with a value message? A message that makes me different from, and better than, my competition? How important is it for me to be in front of my customers and how am I doing that now?
The fifth question you ask yourself is: How professional do I want my ezine to look?
