Part 5 – Simple published: January 7th, 2011
Should You Do a Blog or E-mail Marketing?
Trying to choose between doing a blog or email marketing? Marketing Mentor, Ilise Benun, explains the pros and cons of both
Both blogs and e-letters (a.k.a. e-zines or e-mail newsletters) are ideal marketing tools for small-business owners. They give you two inexpensive ways to communicate with your customers, give them useful advice, and reveal your latest products and services.
But though they have the same purpose, they are very different.
First, let’s define our terms.
A blog is a website that you can create yourself using Web-based software. Blogs tend to have a personal flavor and speak in the distinct voice of the blogger. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. Unlike a traditional, static website, the content or information posted on a blog is up-to-the-minute, frequently updated (although it doesn’t have to be), and displayed in reverse chronological order, the most recent posting first. Also, readers can contribute their comments, turning the blog into an online conversation.
The most effective email marketing is done with an electronic newsletter that you send out regularly via e-mail to a list of people who have given you permission to do so. The content of an email newsletter is more evergreen. It can be anything from news about you and your business to tips that demonstrate your expertise. When you use an e-mail marketing service or software, it’s also very easy to design and send.
The main difference between the two is this: You “push” an email newsletter to your list so you control the contact, while a blog is a “pull.” Readers have to go there on their own, so you have a lot less (or no) control over the contact. The quality of the readers is different too. email newsletter readers went out of their way to sign up, so you can consider them “A leads” for your marketing messages. They’ve essentially raised their hands and asked you to keep in touch. Blog readers, on the other hand, are information hounds, so they may not be as responsive.
Let’s compare.
A blog is easier to set up – but not by much. It literally takes 10 minutes to create, and you don’t need any technical expertise. However, you have less freedom with the layout due to the limitations of most blog publishing software (especially the most popular and free ones, like blogger.com and typepad.com). With an e-letter, on the other hand, it takes a bit more time to create the prototype and template, whether in text or html. But once that’s done, you just type the text for each issue into that template and send it out.
It takes more time to write an email newsletter. Most small-business owners take time to write and edit their e-letters, as they should. Because you’re pushing your email newsletter to people, asking them to read what you’ve written, it has to be well-thought-out, concise, and to the point. On the other hand, since a blog tends to be made up of snippets of ideas posted frequently (sometimes several times a day), bloggers don’t labor over their text.
Plus, a blog is less formal, because it’s like a conversation. That means “you can speak in your everyday voice, which is (hopefully) friendly and approachable.” So says Colleen Wainwright, a.k.a. The Communicatrix, a graphic designer who blogs. “On a blog, the expectations are much lower for both grammar and formality. Also, you can combine personal and professional elements in your blog; how much of each depends on what you’re comfortable with and what your prospective clientele will be comfortable reading. You can write about anything (and many people do), but if you’re using it to promote your business, it will be most effective if you focus and use the blog to establish your credibility within that narrow niche.”
My email newsletter, Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor, goes out weekly, and between the writing, editing, and layout, I spend approximately one hour on each issue. My blogging takes a half-hour on a Sunday morning. That’s when I draft and schedule my three posts for the week. Each one is usually no longer than a paragraph or two with a couple of links. At least one post is simply a link to an article I like, plus a little intro from me about why I think it’s relevant. If your e-letter goes out more frequently – like Early to Rise – the time you spend on it expands by leaps and bounds.
It takes more time to maintain a blog. For most people, creating fresh content several times a week, or even weekly, requires a certain mindset. It isn’t even that it takes so much time to create the material. (Blog posts are mostly very short pieces accompanied by a link.) What takes time is getting into the groove of blogging – and that involves much more than posting to your own blog. It includes visiting other people’s blogs, reading their posts, and commenting on them. It’s not difficult. It just takes time and practice to get into that mode. email newsletters, on the other hand, don’t carry the same expectation of freshness, so there is a lot less pressure to produce. You send it out when you like – daily, twice-weekly, monthly, or even occasionally.
A blog attracts more Web traffic. Even if no one ever reads your blog, posting to it regularly can be a tremendous boon to your search engine rankings because search engines love fresh content. Any website with new content will come up earlier in search engine rankings than a site that hasn’t been changed in months (or years). Meanwhile, the traffic an email newsletter drives to your website consists of those who already know you, not new prospects and leads.
Both inspire trust in the visitor. Inspiring trust depends more on the tone you take than the format. If you’ve spent time composing your email newsletter, it will show, and that certainly inspires trust. A blog, with its rapid-fire and often impassioned comments, can convey a sense of impulsiveness, which rarely inspires trust. Trust is important on the Internet (a very anonymous medium), because unless people trust you, they’re not going to buy from you.
If you don’t already have a website to promote your business, a blog is a good first step in that direction. It provides a way for people to find you online without your spending a lot of money or time working with a Web designer or learning Web design software. In fact, some people use a blog as their one and only Web presence.
If you already have a website and are ready to branch out with an email newsletter or a blog, which one should you start with? That depends on your goal. If your goal is to generate revenue from a known group of prospects, an email newsletter is the right choice. If you are less focused on revenue-generation and are looking instead to position yourself as an expert and make it easier for new prospects to find you online, a blog is better.
If both goals make sense in your business plan, by all means do both. Blogs and email newsletter work beautifully hand-in-hand.
Here’s how we do that at Marketing Mentor: I want to be able to reach out to my qualified prospects on a regular basis, to keep reminding them who I am and what I have to offer. I don’t want to wait for them to come back to my website or find time to read my blog. I want to be in their inboxes, rather than on their browsers.
So we have a static website marketing-mentor.com/, with content that doesn’t change very often, an e-mail newsletter, Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor, that we send out to a list of 8,000 qualified prospects every other week, plus a blog, marketingmixblog.com/, where we post ideas and tidbits at least three times a week.
We use the newsletter to drive traffic to the blog and the website, while the blog also gets our search engine rankings up. People who find the blog are encouraged to sign up for the e-mail newsletter, so we can stay in touch with them and nurture those relationships. We also use the e-mail newsletter to sell e-books, mp3s, and other electronic products. That would never work on the blog.
People need to be motivated to buy from you, and the best way to motivate them is by landing in their inboxes. If the copy is compelling and the timing is right, a connection or a sale is just a click away.
courtesy of your local neighborhood contractor,
Soto Remodelers
David
published: December 19th, 2010
How i Built my Email List with 36000 Subscribers in 2 Months
Free: http://www.gruntworkslayer.com/email-marketing/free-email-marketing-report.php
email marketing is the highest ROI marketing technique available online. A well executed email marketing campaign to a big email list can produce a lot of sales
In order to be able to use email marketing, you must have an email list of subscribers to market your offers to. So it all starts with list building, this is for many people a quite tough challenge to build the email subscriber list.
That’s why I put together this video so you can get the list building right from the start and build a massive list in a pretty short amount of time like I did.
Free: http://www.gruntworkslayer.com/email-marketing/free-email-marketing-report.php
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Duration : 0:8:57
published: December 7th, 2010
Opt In Email Marketing Lists | Opt In Email List Marketing
Click Here http://tinyurl.com/3ygou4t … To Discover a very powerful yet simple list building system that will bring you more traffic, more subscribers, and grow overall business faster than you ever thought possible… all on autopilot!
Duration : 0:2:3
published: October 24th, 2010
Email Marketing for Multi Level Distribution Companies (Direct Marketing)
http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/published: October 20th, 2010
Email Marketing : Email Software | Automatic Email Responder | Autoresponder Software
http://www.BestGuide.us/email-marketing — Get detailed information on Marketing Software here. A complete guide on email Marketing absolutely free!
Are You Frustrated With The Following:
• Low Conversions on Your Website
• Poor Responses to Your Follow Ups
• Not Getting Your Message Delivered
• The Limitations of ‘Text Only’ email
• Short Attention-Span Syndrome
Imagine using a system where you had…
• No competitors using the same system to contact the same people that are on your list
• No spam or junk filters to hurdle to deliver your message
• No worries about which email accounts your subscribers wanted to use (because the system doesn’t use email system)
• Or any of the usual hassles of traditional email marketing!
Here’s some Benefits of using “Desktop Messenger 2.0″:
1. Your messages are delivered instantly to each and every subscriber’s desktop. You’ll grab their attention before they even open their email account!
2. NO spam, no need to download any spyware or other security programs thanks to our super safe delivery system!
3. The ‘segment list’ function so your customers and/or subscribers can be categorized correctly and you can customize the right messages targeting their interest and desires!
4. Simple point and click functions that you can start using without much thought!
5. Easily create messages with a WYSIWYG editor even an 11 year old kid could use!
6. Customize your messages to be sent out as and when you want — This gives more flexibility than the standard autoresponder and it’s faster to access it too!
7. An exclusive channel with zero competition
8. A direct pipeline to your subscribers
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Duration : 0:1:34
published: October 12th, 2010
Why Email Marketing?
http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com – Is published: September 19th, 2010
Email Marketing for Shaklee Distributors
http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/pre-written-email-newsletters/shaklee-distributor-pre-written-content-articles
MyNewsletterBuilder for Shaklee Distributors delivers a comprehensive email marketing program designed to
* Retain current customers.
* Attract new customers.
* Grow your downline.
All newsletters come pre-populated with your name, photo, phone number and website. Each newsletter is ready-to-send and fully editable. Each newsletter includes social networking links.
Duration : 0:2:21
published: September 14th, 2010
Email Marketing for Franchises & Corporate Chains
http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/published: September 6th, 2010
Affordable Pre-written Content for Email Marketing
Introducing Content Corner and Tips52 from MyNewsletterBuilder.com
For more information, visit:
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We Write We Design You Send
Add Pre-written eNewsletters to Your email Marketing Account
Content Corner™ delivers 12 monthly, professionally designed and written newsletters into your MyNewsletterBuilder email marketing account.
Increase repeat business and referrals with regular monthly multimedia email newsletters with useful pre-written articles that you can send as-is or edit for your specific needs.
Tips52™ delivers 52 prewritten tips emails for effective email advertising.
Increase response rates for promotions, offers, requests, and call-to-action with a regular weekly quick-tips email series.
Personalized email Marketing for Your Business
Content Corner™ and Tips52™ offer an easy, effective method to keep in touch and attract new business. These pre-written email newsletters and tips emails, designed for your business needs, come pre-populated with your picture, logo and contact information. As often as you like, log-in, add special offers or greetings, and click Send its that easy.
Duration : 0:1:43
