Top Three Mistakes to Avoid in Your Ezine Marketing

Most businesses send out newsletters these days, but how many really see results? Real results! And isn’t that the main purpose of a newsletter - to get people stopping by your site or buying your products or services? Exactly! The problem is so many are doing it, but so few are doing it right. That’s why these tips should help you master your ezine marketing and help you avoid some of the most common marketing mistakes.

Here are the top three mistakes made in ezine marketing (and what to do about them):

Where did she go? Anyone see (insert name!)… You know who you are. You sign up for one of the top ezine services, create the template, envision sending out a newsletter every week, or at least every other week, and then it happens - you get busy. That weekly newsletter turns into a bi-weekly newsletter, then a monthly newsletter and finally YES, quarterly. And then you even miss the quarterly deadline. Not good.

This is the one of the biggest mistakes made in ezine marketing. Not being out there enough. People sign up for your ezine because you have something to share that they’re interested in. They look forward to your ezine and when it doesn’t come, they forget about you. What can you do to make sure that doesn’t happen? You need to set a plan for your ezine marketing and consistently do it. It should be added into your calendar, your to-do list, your vision for your business and no matter what, you do it. (Or hire someone to do it for you!)

Wow, I’ll never get that 5 minutes back… Have you ever felt that way? You read someone’s newsletter and come away feeling short-changed. They didn’t offer you anything of value. You learned nothing new and truly are now just annoyed that they even sent it to you. You can tell that basically this newsletter was sent out just to get something out there. You’re bummed that you wasted your time reading it in hopes of finding some tidbit of useful information that applies to you. Even though you might not unsubscribe right away, you will eventually and probably sooner rather than later.

Of course you don’t want your readers feeling that way about your newletters, right? So repeat after me… “I will not send out a newsletter unless it is something that I can be proud of. I won’t just rehash old news. I will create good content so that others want to hear more from me in the future. And finally, I will do this each and every time.” There, that feels good doesn’t it?

Who you talking to, Willis? (Certainly not me!)…We talk about this so often, but it bears repeating. Know your audience. Know what they want to hear, and make sure you give it to them. Make the topics relevant to your readers. Yes it’s true that every time you send out a newsletter your audience won’t be totally in awe over it. However, it’s important to make them eager to hear more. You do this by connecting with them. If your target audience is speakers and coaches, what do speakers and coaches need to hear? If your audience is authors, what do authors need to know? And yes, we know that you have more than one target audience in your subscribers, and that’s a great thing. Just make sure that you consistently add more content that speaks to them alone. You want them to feel a connection to you, again and again.

So those are the biggest mistakes to avoid in your email marketing efforts, and suggestions for how to remedy them or avoid them all together. And fortunately, they are all pretty easy changes to make. Need help? Partnering with an online support specialist who is experienced in all of these areas can help you successfully manage your ezine marketing campaigns. Find one that’s right for you and you’ll begin to see the results you’ve been hoping for.