Top Ten Reasons to Attend the e-Newsletter World Unconference—Dallas, May 7-8
April 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Top Ten Reasons to Attend the e-Newsletter World Unconference—Dallas, May 7-8
E-Newsletter World - May 7-8 in Dallas, TX
10. The Unconference is way cooler than a conference. You pick the agenda. Plus, you’ll be drinking unCola.
9. Joe Pulizzi is Mr. Marketing Content. I think he invented it. Your content is the key that drives the right audience you want!
8. NYLO Hotel is totally awesome! And you get to stay at one of Dallas’s best hotels at a discount price.
7. Just 10 minutes from e-marketing expert Jeanne Jennings will dramatically increase your open rate. That’s worth the price of admission right there.
6. e-Happy hour. Free drinks on me! Need we say more?
5. Small round table discussion groups. Learn and discuss the subjects YOU are most interested in.
4. Ryan “all online revenue” Dohrn all the time! Mucho money to be made in the e-newsletter game.
3. Capped attendances means lots of individual attention for YOU!
2. Free critique of your e-newsletter.
1. You can still save, but you need to register TODAY!
This originally appeared as part of our Vitamin E e-newsletter for e-newsletters. All the articles:
e-Revenue: 6 Ways to Improve Your Ad Sales e-Newsletter
E-Newsletter Layout: Three Things that Should Appear in the Preview Pane View
Top 5 e-Newsletter Elements to A/B Split Test
How to Use Video to Increase e-Newsletter Revenue
E-Newsletter of the Month: Condé Nast’s GQ Pulls off a Daily e-Newsletter with Simplicity, Style, and Sales Savvy
April 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Is your e-newsletter looking a bit dull these days? Check out GQ’s free daily e-newsletter for a few ideas on how you might simplify your design while maintaining reader interest and increasing opportunities for free-to-paid subscriber conversion.
When you sign up for GQ’s e-news, you might be a bit perturbed to find out it is a daily e-news offering. Do I really want tips on men’s fashion, sports, entertainment, and politics along with pressure to be uber-stylish nearly 365-days a year?! But the amazing thing about GQ’s e-news design is how simple and non-intrusive it feels.
We here at Niche signed up to receive the e-newsletter, as part of our ongoing e-news research, and while many e-newsletters have caused us to hit the “unsubscribe” button long ago, GQ’s e-news somehow manages to strike the balance between offering just enough interesting content to keep us reading, while not bombarding us to the point of unsubscribing.
So how do they do it? GQ utilizes three simple elements that accomplish everything they need their free e-newsletter to do:
Less is More: GQ’s e-newsletter opening page is strikingly simple. The “above the fold” section of the page always contains one 
large graphic with the title and a sentence or two from the featured daily article. Below the fold you’ll find four more article links on the left-hand side, designed with a single uniform-sized graphic for each article and only the first sentence of the piece, along with a “read more” button. This leaves the lower right-hand corner of the e-newsletter open for a large “subscribe now” button with a free gift offer.
Address Reader’s Diverse Interests: If GQ was only going for simplicity and counteracting reader burnout in their e-newsletter design, they might focus on just the featured article and the subscription offer—yet, by throwing in the four links to other articles they are able to draw in their reader’s attention and cover diverse interests. Just when your reader thinks “I’m not really into men’s fashion” and is ready to unsubscribe because the feature article is on how brown is the new black for Spring suits, he sees a link to an interview with Jeremy Lin and an analysis of the latest presidential debate and you’ve maintained a subscriber without adding too much clutter to your e-news format.
Plug Your Product with a Clear and Simple Offer: While your e-newsletter is always going to succeed or fail based on the quality and relevance of its content—don’t pretend to be too cool to sell your product while you’re at it. If you are delivering the content your readers want, then they won’t mind a simple and direct sales pitch along with it. GQ gets it just right, as they never fail to include a large and tempting “subscribe now” offer on the lead page of their e-newsletter, but it’s one simple pitch accompanied by quality content, so the e-news offering never feels like a sales-pitch-in-disguise. If you’re sending your readers free, quality content on a consistent basis, they’re sharp enough to know that your company is not merely offering a public service, but has a product to sell, and they won’t mind if your e-news contains that sales pitch—as long as it doesn’t invade the editorial message or take over your e-newsletter’s core content.
This originally appeared as part of our Vitamin E e-newsletter for e-newsletters. All the articles:
e-Revenue: 6 Ways to Improve Your Ad Sales e-Newsletter
E-Newsletter Layout: Three Things that Should Appear in the Preview Pane View
Top 5 e-Newsletter Elements to A/B Split Test
How to Use Video to Increase e-Newsletter Revenue
Learning More About Your Audience
April 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
When you are creating content for your niche publication, you most likely have many different elements coming into play. One of the most important factors you need to consider when creating content is your audience due to that fact that they should be a heavy driving force behind your content creation. Whether you are a new niche magazine or an old pro looking to generate more readers, learning about your audience is crucial. Check out a few ways you can learn more about your readers:
Take a peek at some ways to learn more about your readers.
- Design a contest: One of the best ways to get a better grasp on your audience and their preferences is to hold a contest. Design a giveaway that features an item in demand such as an iPad and ask your readers to fill out a survey as the entry form. Be sure to make winning look like the ultimate prize in order to get the most feedback from the contest.
- Put together an online scavenger hunt: Hosting an online scavenger hunt is a great way to learn more about your audience due to the fact that it involves your readers communicating with you in order to participate. Send your readers on a hunt that involves them having to answer questions about your business to get to the next phase. This will provide you with valuable information as well as generate audience activity.
- Offer a coupon: Providing a coupon is also a great way to learn more about your audience. Simply ask your readers to fill out a form in order to access the coupon. Be sure to include questions of value on the form that will give you the information you are seeking.
Learning more about your audience is important in order to ensure your content marketing efforts are going in the direction that you want them to.
Photo from Free Digital Photos
Read All About It: Making Your Emails Stand Out
April 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Using email for advertising sales as well as generating revenue and growing your audience is fast and easy. However, with the volume of emails the average person receives daily comes the possibility of your email getting lost and forgotten about. In order to get the most out of your emails, it is best to take a few steps to ensure your email stands out instead of getting lost in the depths of the internet. Take a peek at a couple of tips to consider when it comes to all things email:
Check out a few tips for creating effective emails.
- Keep it short: People have a short attention span when reading items on the internet. Avoid having readers toss your email into the trash bin because they think it is too long too read. By keeping your emails short, sweet and to the point you are increasing the chances of it being read versus thrown out at first glance. Get your point across and get it across fast for optimal success.
- Add a call-to-action: One of the best ways to engage your audience is to add a call-to-action at the end of an email. Include a link to research or more reading material and encourage your readers to click on it to keep them engaged with the product. Get creative and add a line that will make them intrigued versus the often overlooked, “click here for more.”
- Send it at the right time: In addition to keeping it short and adding a call-to-action, it is also important to make sure you are sending the email at the correct time. You want the email to hit inboxes in the morning when people are at their desks checking their emails. Between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. are often best to ensure it doesn’t get lost with other emails that were sent at night or over the weekend.
Email is a great tool for growing audiences and ad sales because it fast, efficient and relatively easy. The use of email also gives you one more way to connect with your audience outside of the niche publication.
Photo from Free Digital Photos
