Subscribe to the Lead Optimize.com Newsletter and get two free e-books immediately. Learn more here.

Offering a periodic newsletter is an excellent and inexpensive way to keep your clients updated on your offerings and to build brand identity. People are inundated with newsletter these days, though, so your newsletter has to be filled with well-written and valuable content just like your website. Take advantage of your newsletter opportunities. Send a newsletter each time you update your site, add a new product line, invest in new technologies that will help your customers, or if there is some big industry news on which you have “the scoop.”

Most importantly, remember that - just like your website - the goal of your newsletter is also to offer excellent content and enable quality leads from your readers and visitors. Your newsletter should always include:

• Required components of current CANSPAM laws (read on)
• Attention getting title
• “View this article online” link
• Logo (unless text only)
• Phone number (prominently displayed top, middle, and bottom)
• Home page link
• Contact page link (prominently displayed top, middle, and bottom)
• Promotional links

Quality newsletters are effective for increasing traffic and leads when used correctly, appropriately, and respectfully.

Formats If you are managing your newsletter in house, there are three basic format options for you. Each option has its pros and cons, depending on what you want to do with it, how much time you are willing to spend on it, and your level of savvy with html and software. The three main types are text only, html format, and PDF.

• Text Only – very easy to create but, as the name implies, the newsletter is text only. You cannot include graphics, pictures, or any special layout. You can include links, which will get readers to your site. For simplicity, text only newsletter are the way to go.
• HTML Email – looks like a webpage with graphics and a custom and is cheap if you know how to build an HTML email, which is very much like building an HTML webpage. To learn more for free, go to www.ducttapemarketing.com.
• PDF – Simple to build and can be any layout and size you desire but requires converting your document to a PDF. You can add the PDF to your website and send a text only email with a link to the PDF. Readers can then save the newsletter as a file or easily print it out for later. You will need Adobe or another PDF driver and your readers will need a PDF reader, to which you can offer a free link in your newsletter.

For simplicity, my favorite newsletter creating strategy is to send each new page of a website as the newsletter. That is, each time you add a new page to your site, send that content in text only or html format to your newsletter mailing list. This makes the creation of the newsletter simple and keeps readers up to date on your website. This has been my favorite method in the past. This method simultaneously motivates you to update your website with new pages and send a newsletter because you are killing two birds with one stone. You can also summarize the content of the page – providing the main points of your content along with your contact information and a direct link to the webpage where they can read the full page of information.

Opt-In Mailing Lists Opt-in mailing lists are lists built by means of offer and acceptance of being included in your mailing list. Readers must choose to be included by clicking on a radio button or check box on your website and submitting the information. Using only an opt-in list is the best way to maintain integrity in your newsletter, website, brand, and company.

Promote your mailing list in much the same way you promote the name. Mention it in many places. Your salespeople should mention it on the phone and add it to their email signatures. Make the newsletter sign-up prominent throughout your website. Give customers a reason to sign up for it such as promotional offers, event news, project leads, industry news, or how-to articles.

SPAM (not recommended) I never ever recommend SPAM but it is available to you if you choose to use it. You can purchase email lists or use email extracting software to mine email addresses from public web pages (why using email links on your website is not advised) and add those email addresses to your email list. Either way, you can expect angry replies to unsolicited newsletters (SPAM) and be honest with yourself about the fact that it is spam.

The Federal Trade Commission details the requirements of the CANSPAM laws at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm. The law’s provisions and requirements are as follows (from the FTC website):

• It bans false or misleading header information. Your email’s “From,” “To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.

• It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.

• It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a “menu” of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.
  

  Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor’s email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it’s illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.

• It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.

I do not condone SPAM. I only want to clarify what you must include in your email to stay within the guidelines of the CANSPAM law.

1. Clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation – yes, a newsletter is an advertisement no matter how informative or well-written.

2. Valid physical postal address.

3. Opt-OUT mechanism for recipients that works for at least 30 days after the email/newsletter is sent. Once the request to be removed is submitted by the recipient, you are required to remove that person’s email address from the mailing within 10 days.

If used respectfully and carefully, this can be an effective means of increasing the traffic to your site but you are risking the integrity of your site and your brand. If you choose to use SPAM, use only highly targeted mailing lists, be honest about everything, offer exceptional content, and (most important) use the most polite, shortest, and simplest opt-out process possible. SPAM elicits a very nasty response in many people so if a recipient desires to opt-out, let them do so quickly without steaming in front of your logo with a frustrating multi-level password-protected opt-out process.

Subscribe to the Lead Optimize.com Newsletter and get two free e-books immediately. Learn more here. I will never sell or distribute your information.

Subscribe to the Lead Optimize.com Newsletter and get two free e-books immediately.