The 8 Biggest Newsletter Marketing Mistakes

Newsletter publishing has always made a lot of sense. It makes sense for firms to target their advertising dollars to clients and prospects that have expressed interest in their products and services.

However, for many, newsletter marketing has been more a source of frustration than sales. This is due to eight closely inter-related newsletter-marketing mistakes. By examining what hasn't worked in the past, we can come up with a new concept of newsletter marketing that is already working better for others. Following are three of the eight biggest mistakes that newsletter marketers make.

1. Too much time between issues. The biggest problem of conventional newsletter marketing is the amount of time that goes by between issues. Consistency is the essence of success. Your goal is to maintain your firm's constant visibility. You have to consistently publish, in order to be there when your market is ready to buy. Otherwise, "out of sight, out of mind."

Think of the oscilloscope on E.R., monitoring a patient's heartbeat in Intensive Care. Every time the patient's heart beats, the trace reaches a peak and the oscilloscope "beeps." But ? almost immediately ? the trace begins to disappear.

A similar thing happens when you send out a newsletter. Your awareness peaks in the days immediately following arrival of your message. Your firm will be the one thought of should a purchase opportunity turn up. But, as more and more time passes, your visibility diminishes until you're forgotten.

The more time that goes by between issues, the less chance you'll make a sale. The more time that goes by between issues, the greater the chance that your competitors will steal your customers.

Newsletters that come out every month, or ? worse, quarterly ? just don't make it in today's overcrowded and over-communicated marketplace where your competition is trying to make your customers forget about you.

2. Too many pages in each issue. Excessive length ? i.e. too many pages ? is the primary reason that most newsletters cannot be published frequently enough to maintain constant visibility.

The more pages in a newsletter, the more decisions that have to be made, and the more words that have to be written. More pages also means more time producing and formatting each issue, plus higher printing costs.

Readers and publishers both benefit from short, frequent newsletters. In today's busy environment, readers are in a hurry. They don't have time for lengthy preambles. They want to cut directly to the chase. Readers appreciate newsletters that respect their time and that contain as much information as possible in a short, easy-to-read format.

Writers benefit, too. Long newsletters, however, encourage "loose writing." Not only do short newsletters require fewer words, they are easier to plan and easier to write. By limiting publishers to a finite number of words, short newsletters force writers to ruthlessly organize, edit and re-edit their words. As a result, short newsletters encourage clear, concise writing habits that communicate a lot of information in the fewest number of words.

3. Failure to engage. Clients and prospects are always asking: "What's in it for me?" Unless every element of your newsletter is optimized for answering this question, your newsletter will fail to engage ? or involve ? your reader, it will remain unread until discarded in a wastebasket or deleted in an email inbox.

Newsletter titles often fail to engage their readers. Often, newsletters contain titles like: Roger C. Parker Newsletter. Now, outside of my wife and mother, why would anyone want to read the equivalent of The Roger C. Parker Newsletter?

Better alternatives, that target my market's self-interest, might be:

• Newsletter Marketing Tips

• Marketing With Newsletters

• Effective Copy and Design

These telegraph the newsletter's intentions and offer a benefit for reading.

Brag and boast headlines are a waste. Headlines must be written to appeal to the reader's self-interest.

• Roger C. Parker Introduces New Seminar Topic. No benefit there!

• But, the same article could have been powerfully introduced with an engaging headline like: 10 Ways to Increase Web Site Sales.

Newsletter headline writers should take note of the titles of best-selling non-fiction books. These often describe both a problem and the number of steps, or number of days, needed to solve the problem. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, 30 Days to a Trimmer You! And Write a Book in 28 Days! make even the most complex topic appear doable.

If your newsletter is not performing the way it should, the problem may be that your newsletters are too long, which means that too much time goes by between issues. Switching from a promotional - or "advertising" - approach to a reader-oriented, educational approach can spell the difference between newsletters that clients and prospects look forward to, or one that goes by unnoticed.

Even better, distributing both print and electronic versions of your newsletters, and creating a partnership between your newsletters and your other marketing tools, can be the boost you need to profit from today's competitive marketplace.

About The Author

Roger C. Parker is the $32 million dollar author with over 1.6 million copies in print. Download the rest of the 8 Biggest Newsletter Marketing Mistakes here: www.onepagenewsletters.com

____________________

Advertisement: Honest Riches - Click Here!

Advertisement: Lost AdWords - Click Here!

Advertisement: Get $1 Million A Month In Google Pay-Per-Click Ads Free! - Click Here!

Advertisement: Who Loves Money? - Click Here!

Advertisement: SEO Elite, the GrandDaddy of SEO Software - Click Here!

---

Guidelines For A New Sending Paradigm - Part 1 of 5 - Treat Email as a True Risk and Cost Center

Sustainable email sending programs in an inherently hostile environment now require great care and planning. Before considering the technical complexities and the marketing tactics, email senders must... Read More

The Innovative Ways To Use Your Autoresponder

If you have auto response system set up for following up your customers or prospects, you may just use one or two purpose. Here is a list... Read More

Viral Marketing Tips: Greeting Cards

When we speak about viral marketing, we are not talking about the newest disease. We are not talking about a Mad Cow Disease variant or something that... Read More

The Power Of Email Marketing

Have You Considered The Power Of Email MarketingOld vs. NewIf we consider that not so many years ago when we were selling products or services it was... Read More

Make All Your Mailing Lists Double Opt-In

Accusations of spam can be so harmful to your business that every effort should be made to prevent it.However, simply requesting a surfer to enter an e-mail... Read More

Ten Tips for Email Marketers

Here are the ten most important tips to ensure you're able to get the maximum return on your investment in permission-based email marketing.1. Only send emails to... Read More

Make Your E-mail Signature File WORK for You

You're probably familiar with e-mail signature (or "sig") files -- they're the few lines of contact information that many of us put at the bottom of every... Read More

Autoresponder Services that Boost Your Business

In the world of ecommerce, millions of sites are fiercely competing with each other to gain new clients. For any ecommerce site to succeed, it must capture... Read More

The Flu and List building Go Hand In Hand!

What does the flu have to do with building your list?Well a lot!A flu, just like any other virus is able to spread itself to anyone it... Read More

Kick-Starting E-mail Profits Growth From One Single Shot!

Perhaps the most critical step in guaranteeing the success of your e-mail promotions is to send your messages to a targeted list of opt-in subscribers who have... Read More

10 Ways To Quadruple Your Sales with 232%

1. When you make your first sale, you need to follow-up with the customer. You could follow-up with a nice "thank you" email and include an advertisement... Read More

The Wrong Email Format Can Destroy Your Offer

Which email format is more effective to use, Text or HTML?A good question, many experts have been debating over for awhile now, is which email format is... Read More

The Ultimate Business Network: One Secret Power of the Masters

Dear Friend:If you're out there networking and have been for sometime, you understand the astronomical benefits of networking with the "right" people -- especially when they have... Read More

Ways To Persuade Your Web Site Visitors To Give You Their Email Address

These are several ways that you can use to persuade visitors to give their e-mail address.1. Ask visitors to subscribe to your e-zine. It's a good idea... Read More

Ten Tips to Building Your Opt-in List.

To build and maintain your opt-in list requires constant attention.As either a bricks and mortar or a cyber space business it is always easier and more cost... Read More

How To Use a Message Sequence to Increase Your Sales

If there's one thing I've learnt in over 3 years of web marketing, it is this: you *must* follow up with your visitors.The statistics are very clear... Read More

Autoresponders for Beginners

Hi you may or may not know that your Autoresponder in your first few months promoting your service, product or opportunity, is the most important tool in... Read More

10 Ways to SCREW-UP Your LIST

Just in case you don't know, your 'LIST' ? is you list of optin subscribers who have taken the time and effort to personally subscribe to your... Read More

Creative and Profitable Ways to Use Autoreponders

An interested visitor who has been strolling through your site has finally come to just what she is looking for and is about to make a purchase.... Read More

5 Things You NEED to Know About Your AOL 9.0 Subscribers

In Fall 2003, America Online (AOL) released its brand new AOL Version 9. (Have you noticed all the TV ads?) AOL estimates that up to 50% of... Read More

A Single Email Is Never Enough

"Repetition is the key to advertising (marketing)". Those words were said by a friend of mine, Jason Olson, back in his days of selling radio and direct... Read More

How Opt-in Email Marketing Helps You In Your Online Business

The consumer of today is increasingly bombarded by marketing messages from various media channels. For those that tire of the constant onslaught of ads, they have the... Read More

Use Permission Based E-Mail Marketing to Promote Your Home Based Business

With all the negative Publicity that S.pam is Getting, Permission Based E-mail Marketing is frequently too often overlooked as the Misunderstood step Child of Internet Marketing. Unfortunately... Read More

4 Steps To 1,000.. 2,000..3,000 Subscribers In Days!

Everyone who has been marketing online for sometime already know the value of an email list. An email list, filled with targeted subscribers who opt in, is... Read More

Email Etiquette III

Further to my previous issues this subject continues - part III.This month I'll share on Topic Changes and Read Receipts. Both can give you some trouble if... Read More

Taking Care of Busines... E-mail

In this digital day and age, communicating through email is getting more and more important. This is of course also true for customer service and help desks.Looking... Read More