When I teach ezine classes, I ask the students what they've disliked about the newsletters they've subscribed to. What makes them push that "delete button" or unsubscribe? Below are some of their answers.
"Too many clicks." Give them an easy way to subscribe or unsubscribe. Don't make them have to click, and click, and click to find your subscription box.
"Tell us what's there." Include some sort of table of contents in your ezine. While this may cause someone to delete a particular edition, it will cause others to read it.
"Too many ads." While most business owner subscribers understand that there is no free ride, too many ads, including ads between articles, annoy them. The key is ads targeted to your ideal clients. Keep that in mind and ads will be read and clicked on.
"Tell us when something ends." Space does not indicate when an area of an ezine ends and another starts - a border does. But please don't use all CAPITAL LETTERS to highlight the topic in your e-zine, even for titles. (OK for offline newsletters; online, using CAPITAL LETTERS denotes screaming.)
"Just the facts." Do not force new subscribers to complete long subscription forms containing lots of personal information. While some will complete the entire form, most will "move on."
"Permission marketing." It's about receiving permission to add someone to your elist or having them add themselves. Know that when you purchase an item from someone's web site, you'll be on their mailing list, too.
"Let us read the article." Don't distribute ads in between your article or tips. Provide ads, yes-you ARE running a business - but let them read the article.
"Watch the emotions." Do not over use exclamation marks, question marks, etc. Newsletters are NOT priority mail, so don't flag them as such.
"Tell us." Tell us what we're going to get and how often. Most subscribers don't mind receiving mail daily or weekly - if they know that's what they've subscribed to.
"Give it to us." If you promised a free report, make sure that the links to them appear after someone subscribes to your ezine.
©2005 Maria Marsala. From Ezine Power: Attract Clients, Grow Profits, and Quickly Become Known As An Expert In Your Field, an program that help small business owners increase your profits on the Internet.
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