2004
...materials that sell 4U
web & print
words
& graphics
Vol.
1 Issue1
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Why e-Newsletters? |
Sending your clients and prospects a regular e-newsletter is one of the most cost-effective methods of establishing and KEEPING that crucial connection. A newsletter is a vehicle for demonstrating your value in the marketplace and reminding others of your value to them. You can use it to:
-
inform your contacts of new products and services and why they are important
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drive traffic to your Web site
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offer industry-specific information that will keep your customers "in-the-know"
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reinforce your brand identity
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offer specials, discounts and other promotions
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update your customer service component by offering insights into your field and helpful information and tips
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tell success stories
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And ... one of the best reasons to send a newsletter... is to keep people informed of upcoming, scheduled events with an online calendar.
Take a look at this first edition of The
Mighty Pen e-newsletter and see some of these principles in action...
Satisfied
Customer
" I really love my site. I
can't believe how much easier life is now that I can send people there to
see my work. What a difference! And you've done a great job with all
the photos. Thank you!"
Nancy Carroll,
(lunaC arts)
content and organization requirements
for your site
Before undertaking any design work, think through your objectives and your audience. This process should ideally include everyone in the organization who will be or could be effected by the site or who is expected to use or benefit from the site. Mining this in-house information will put you in a better position to make optimal content and organization decisions. Keeping your objectives and audience(s) in mind from the outset will keep you on track throughout the design process.
The actual organization of your site also needs to be engineered working backward from objectives and audience parameters. Using principles of Information Architecture your site can be designed to capture the best flow for your users. These parameters will provide guideposts as you go through the design process.
Design of complex sites (or even simple sites) needs to focus on functionality. Design should serve the objectives of the site and the users of the site. Impressive graphics and state-of-the-art programming pay off most when coupled with an understanding of information architecture and clear organizational objectives.
Tips of the Month
Four steps you can
take after your site is complete to begin the process of marketing your site
and becoming "findable"
on the net:
(1) Make sure your pages have appropriate names and meta-tags.
(2) Submit your site to search engines.
(3) Locate appropriate directories in which to list your site. (There are
usually free directories that are happy to have to add your listing).
(4) Create links from other sites to your site. This is particularly
important when trying to improve your placement in GOOGLE. GOOGLE is the
only search engine that actually uses the number of links TO A SITE as a
factor in ranking the site.
Marketing
Tip
of the Month
When you're planning your marketing campaign for 2004, think about how you can build in "synergy." The timing of materials, ads, seminars, calls, meetings can be coordinated to give you the most impact from each investment.
Project
Do you have a way to monitor traffic to your site? You cannot assess your site's effectiveness without knowing something about the traffic patters to and within your site. There are many tools that will help you take a hard look at how your site is doing. You want a tool that gives you the most information so you can continue to tweak your site effectively.
The Mighty Pen will help you decide on an appropriate tool to monitor site
traffic and help you analyze the data you get to improve your Web results.
Let us know if you would like to talk about an
e-newsletter for your business
The Mighty Pen has grown into
Hot Button Marketing
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Thank you!