<There are a number of techniques that can be used to make your
newsletters sticky including:
1. Providing great content.
Content should be up to date, relevant, original and ?must read? material.
It pays to use the services of professional writers and editors.
Include humour.
Let the readers know what they can expect in the next issue.
Run a series of articles ? the reader will have to look at the next
issue to get the following instalment.
Fun puzzles of virtually any type with the solutions printed in the
next edition are also good for getting people to look at the next
issue.
A survey of 37,000 newspaper readers by Media Management Center of
Northwestern University found that the topics with the greatest
interest to people were:
1. News about community and ordinary people.
2. Health, home, fashion, food and travel.
3. Politics and government.
4. Natural disasters and accidents.
5. Movies, television and weather.
http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:HBiN6zpf8-0J:www.utexas.edu/law/news/colloquium/papers/Bealepaper.doc++%22opinion+poll%22+%22increase+readership%22+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Sticky content
http://www.internetnewsflash.com/newsletters_that_flop.htm
Free sticky content.
http://www.freesticky.com/stickyweb/articles/use_free_content.asp
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2. Creating an interactive community.
Ask for feedback from the readers and publish their comments.
Carry out a survey to find out what your readers do and don?t like
about the newsletter.
Get personal - include a piece from the editor.
Include opinion polls and promise to publish the results in the next
issue. Those who have contributed will be interested to know the
result.
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3. Ensuring the layout is easy to read, consistent and looks good in a
variety of browsers.
This site has a good guide to optimising the layout of web based material.
http://usability.gov/guidelines/index.html
Layout.
http://usability.gov/guidelines/layout.html
How to organise the content.
http://usability.gov/guidelines/content.html
Advise on text type.
http://www.dentalcyberweb.com/dental-web/newsletters/sda-0007.html
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4. Giving links to good relevant information.
This will depend on the topic of your newsletter. For example:
A finance newsletter with links to the latest share prices.
A gambling newsletter with links to the latest betting odds.
An export newsletter with a link to a currency converter.
An industry specific newsletter with links to up to date job vacancies.
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5. Providing incentives like contests, sweepstakes and discounts.
Incentives
A survey by NFO Interactive found that consumers prefer the following
types of gifts or awards.
Products or gifts ? 28%
Airline miles ? 18%
Gift certificates to retailers ? 16%
Electronic cash ? 14%
http://ecommerce.internet.com/news/news/article/0,,5061_146401,00.html
A survey by Greenfield?s found that 90% of seniors take part in
cyber-sweepstakes and contests. 30 % take part in contests giving away
as little as $5 to $10.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/3753.html
Case study
Bangor news, a site with 54,256 ran an eight week long contest, for a
voucher that could be exchanged for a free lobster. 35,842 of their
users responded.
http://216.239.33.104/search?q=cache:yfqurAxQ0qMJ:www.digitaledge.org/DigArtPage.cfm%3FAID%3D4693+%22user+registration%22+percent&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
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6. Distinguishing your newsletter from spam.
Make your message in your reader?s mailbox easily recognisable. Since
50% of the email gets deleted without being read it is essential that
your readers are able to distinguish your newsletter from spam. Don?t
use a title like ?July Edition? for your email. The name of your
newsletter/website as the title will be easily recognised.
http://eureka.peoplelogic.com.au/link/id/e1ce122b55c97d1e4d9d/page.html>
<Additional links:>
<The subscription process.>
<http://www.businessofemail.com/e_article000141742.cfm>
<Top ten essential features for newsletters.>
<http://ezine-tips.com/articles/content/20020326.shtml>
<How to create an effective, eye-catching newsletter.>
<http://www.companynewsletters.com/online.htm>
<12 proven newsletter promotion techniques.>
<http://www.profitjump.com/articles/0111-newsletter-promotion.html>
<"online incentives" newsletters>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22online+incentives%22+newsletters>
<Search strategy:>
<"successful newsletter" >
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22successful+newsletter%22+>
<"online incentives">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22online+incentives%22+>
<"sticky content">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22sticky+content%22>
<"case study" newsletter>
<://www.google.com/search?q=%22case+study%22+newsletter&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N>
<Hope this helps.> |
Request for Answer Clarification by
jumbali-ga
on
07 Dec 2003 12:42 PST
You're on the right path for helping me out. The only thing I was
looking for -- was a stream of bullet points of specific techniques a
person could use. For instance, your point 2 could have been extended
into several bullet points. If I could get a list of 40 or 50 ideas,
I'd be diggin' it!
|
Clarification of Answer by
belindalevez-ga
on
09 Dec 2003 02:41 PST
<I?ve included a list of techniques. If you can give me a bit more
detail about who your readers are and the topic of the newsletter then
I can provide some more specific ideas.
1. Do a ?my story? piece featuring one of your readers.
2. Provide a forum so that your readers can comment on the newsletter.
3. Encourage readers to submit articles for publication.
4. Publish photos of the readers.
5. Publish photos taken by readers.
6. Include a tip of the week section and encourage readers to submit their tips.
7. Include a money saving tip.
8. Ask readers to submit interesting links.
9. Ask readers to nominate the best of something and publish a top 10
list. For example song, movie, tv programme, magazine, website,
favourite meal, favourite holiday destination.
10. Ask readers to nominate the worst of something.
11. Ask readers to submit jokes.
12. Get readers to rate a product or service.
13. Give your readers a nick name associated with the newsletter. For
example Star Trek fans call themselves trekkies. Ask your readers what
they should be called.
14. Include articles from experts or interview an expert.
15. Include current news.
16. Conduct a survey to find out exactly who your readers are. Find
out age, sex, income level, education level, marital status etc.
17. Conduct a poll on a current news event.
18. Conduct a survey on a relevant topic ? the results can be used as
the basis of a feature.
19 Get relevant companies to sponsor a competition. Many companies are
happy to offer a prize in return for exposure of their product to
their target audience. The information you collect from your reader
survey will help you define the audience.
20 Carry out a prize draw in each issue.
21. Arrange for your readers to get discounts on products and services.
22 Team up with businesses that give away free samples and offer these
to your readers.
23 Give away an ebook.
24. Organise a get together for the readers. A conference or party.
25. Provide links to your reader?s websites.
26. Find interesting software that your readers can download for free.
27. Find books that your readers would find interesting, then contact
a book seller and arrange a discount for your readers.
28. Organise a live online question and answers session.
29. Ask readers to rate items in the newsletter. This will help to
give a better idea of what works. Develop a rating system with marks
out of five or ten and also allow comments about items.
30. Include classified advertisements from your readers.>
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
jumbali-ga
on
12 Dec 2003 13:13 PST
This is good stuff! If you could come up with another 20, I'll close
the question and award the monies. Thank you!
|
Clarification of Answer by
belindalevez-ga
on
13 Dec 2003 02:12 PST
<Here's another twenty techniques.
1. Include a ?Send this news letter to a friend? feature.
2. Include a ?Add the newsletter to favourites? feature.
3. Use an automated system to allow readers to submit articles.
4. Set up a database of subscribers that are willing to exchange email
with each other.
5. Offer merchandise from the newsletter for sale printed with the
name and address of the ezine ? pens, t-shirts, mugs, mouse mats.
6. Look at what the competition is doing.
7. Plan your articles to correspond with calendar events. For example
a valentine, Easter, Christmas, thanksgiving, mother?s/father?s day,
spring, summer, vacation issue. Tie in articles that are relevant to
the time of year.
8. Plan a special issue around one particular topic.
9. Remind readers how long the newsletter has been in publication.
Published since ? gives a sense of permanency.
10. Do an anniversary issue looking back at what was published in past issues.
11. Set up a searchable archive of past issues.
12. Include an FAQ?s section giving answers to the questions your
readers most often ask.
13. Offer your articles free to other newsletters with the condition
that they supply a link back to your newsletter.
14. Allow your readers to publish your all or parts of your newsletter
on their websites with the condition that they supply a link back to
you.
15. Personalise your newsletter, address your reader by their name.
16. Start a petition about a particular issue.
17. Include cartoons.
18. Link the email version of the newsletter to an online version that
doesn?t require the reader to scroll down the page.
19. Let the readers know the date that they can expect the next issue
in their mailbox.
20. Don?t jam up your reader?s mailbox. Keep the email version brief
and link it to a longer online version.>
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