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How to Plan Your E-zine

An e-zine sent regularly to your clients is a great way to stay top-of-mind and continue to educate your clients about you, your products, and your services. The key to having an effective e-zine is to make it appeal to your potential and current clients while it increases your reputation and guides prospects to your sales process.

Spend some time planning your e-zine before you send out the first issue so your future issues will follow a similar format and meet the expectations of your readers. Here are the things you should consider:

Schedule

First, you should decide about how frequently you want to send out issues of your e-zine. Ideally, you would send out an issue weekly. If you aren’t sure you will be able to keep up with weekly, then bi-weekly or monthly would be advisable. It’s more important to send it regularly than to say you are sending it on a more frequent schedule, but you often miss weeks. Once you have an idea about the frequency, you can decide on the exact schedule. For instance, every Wednesday, the first Monday of the month, etc.

Branding

Your e-zine should mesh with your company branding. This means that your logo and overall “look” should extend to your e-zine design. Also, decide on the title for your e-zine. You might want to have a title which relates some how to your company name without being your company name, or it might indicate something having to do with your tagline or signature product/service. If you don’t have any good ideas, you can use a variation on your company name (example: [Company] Notes, [Company] E-zine, etc.).

Before you start talking to your graphic designer, decide what other visual elements you will want to incorporate. Do you use a certain icon in your branding, or do you have a good headshot of yourself to include?

Content

When planning content for your e-zine, think about your audience. Keep in mind that your audience is your target market – people who you would like to be your clients or customers some day, and not people in your industry. This is essential to having great content for your e-zine.

For instance, say you are a mortgage broker. You probably know a whole lot about the mortgage industry. You could probably write articles about the current state of the industry, the new developments in the industry, etc. But is that what your customers are going to want to read? Maybe not. So, who are your clients? Probably people who are looking to purchase property. This is where a clear target market is important. Are they people looking to purchase a new home, or people who are in the business of real estate investment? Once you are clear about WHO you are writing for, then you want to decide WHAT they want to know. The information you share should be free of assuming any knowledge of complex jargon or industry “geekiness.” So, if your clients are home purchasers, your articles could relate to things like how to improve their credit score, how to compare mortgage options, understanding closing costs, etc.

In addition to purely educational material, your e-zine should provide information to further your relationship with your prospects and of course, keep them aware of the products are services you offer and the benefits of working with you.

You might want to plan a content “template” which you follow with each issue. You should aim for a good mix of “educational/entertaining” and “promotional” material in each issue. Here are some things you might want to include:

  • Personal Note
  • Short Content Items (Tips, Quotes, FAQs)
  • Upcoming Events
  • “Recommendations” Section
  • Featured Client/Testimonial/Case Study
  • Promotional Area
  • Featured Article
  • Recent Blog Posts
  • Recent Press/Media Mentions

Boilerplate Text

Finally, you will need to draft some bits of text which would appear in every issue. Many of these items are for legal purposes, to comply with CAN-SPAM laws, etc, and offer basic information to your subscribers. Some things you might want to include:

  • Spam disclaimer (“You are receiving this e-zine because you requested information from us…”)
  • Subscription management links (update email address & unsubscribe)
  • Copyright or reprint notices
  • Affiliate disclosure
  • Biography or company description
  • Contact info (including postal address and phone number)

Web Action Steps

  • Determine who your ideal readers are
  • Decide how frequently and on what schedule you will publish your e-zine
  • Select a title for your e-zine
  • Brainstorm ideas for your content
  • Develop your content template
  • Draft your boilerplate text and determine where each item will appear in your template
  • Talk to your graphic designer about what is needed to make your e-zine come to life

A professional and well-executed e-zine sent regularly to your prospects will build your relationship with them and keep your business top-of-mind. If you need help with your online business strategy to determine where an e-zine fits in, please contact me today.