relatively easy as long as you understand how it works. It’s also an effective way to market
to baby boomers because they are a group of people that have a quest for knowledge and
continued intellectual growth. Plus, they are a group who are willing to pay for the things
that make their passions real; therefore they subscribe to newsletters that speak to their
passions and will respond to well-written ads that show them they can have what they
want.
Newsletter advertising is simply placing ads in other people’s newsletters. It is a powerful
form of advertising because it can be highly targeted to people who have already expressed
an interest in the types of products or services you provide. In addition, newsletters are
typically archived and remain accessible, so you can keep generating leads and clients from
ads you placed months or even years ago.
Selecting the Right Publications
Go for highly targeted newsletters. Even though highly targeted newsletters generally
have a smaller subscriber base, you will get more clicks because it will be distributed to
people who are highly interested in what you are selling. Plus, smaller newsletters usually
cost less since you will be paying for fewer subscribers, which means you will be paying
less money to get more clicks.
Choose reputable publications. Newsletter advertising eliminates any possible spam
issues because the subscribers have opted into the newsletter subscription and have
therefore given the publisher permission to be emailed. For this reason, as long as you buy
ad space in a reputable publication, you can be assured spam will not be an issue.
Be sure to select a newsletter that matches what you are selling. Once you have done
that, the way to succeed with newsletter advertising is to match your offer to the content of
the newsletter. By doing that, your ad will speak to the readers even more, and will
therefore succeed far better than if you used a generic ad.
Your goal is to find a few quality newsletters that you can advertise in regularly and be able
to make a profit each time. You can do well advertising in the same newsletters that have
worked for you in the past for the following reasons:
It generally takes 6-10 times of seeing an ad for someone to actually take an interest
in it. Therefore, you can be sure that you will have a better chance of making sales
the longer you advertise in a newsletter.
. Newsletters are constantly gaining new subscribers, so each month you advertise
with that publication, new people will also be seeing your ad each time.
Steps to successful newsletter advertising:
1. Search for newsletters that match your target market.
Ezine Directories: By using a newsletter directory, you will make your life easy
because they have already done the hard work for you by performing the searches
and categorizing the newsletters. Then, all you need to do is search through their
listings to find the newsletters you are interested in advertising in. Here are some
newsletter directories to get you started:
www.directoryofezines.com - this directory is very robust, but is not free. For a
lifetime membership, it costs $197.00 and your membership includes a highly
researched database of online newsletters, plus tons of other useful services and
features.
www.bestezines.com and www.new-list.com - these sites are free listings but don’t
include nearly as many newsletters and don’t give you the statistics you need to
make an educated decision. You will still need to do quite a bit of research on your
own when you choose to go with these free directories.
To find additional directories, you can search on Google for “ezine directories” or
“newsletter directories.”
Google Searches: This can be difficult because most newsletters do not sell
advertising, so it can be difficult to find a needle in a haystack. To perform your
search, however, type in your keyword topic combined with the word “newsletter”
or “ezine.” Also, be sure to add quotation marks around your search, like so: “dog
training newsletters.” By doing this, you will be searching for the entire phrase
instead of just searching for “dog” or “training.” Then, you can visit the listings that
come up and look for the word “advertising” or “rate card.” That will tell you that
they offer ad space in their newsletter.
Forums: This approach can be very useful because you can ask the forum
participants where they have advertised and you can get third party opinions on
how each publication worked out. Of course, their experiences could be quite
different from yours because they were using a different ad for a different product
or service, but it is still nice to get a third party opinion. Remember to beware of
people who might be using the forum as a means to sell their product. They will try
to persuade you to buy their product or rent their ad space, so just be sure to
investigate properly before giving in.
2. Subscribe to the newsletters you are considering advertising in. This way, you
can read a few issues to make sure they are quality newsletters and are in alignment
with the ads you want to place. You can get a feel for the type of ads that are usually
listed in the publication and determine if yours would fit in. Guerrillas always do the
up-front work to make sure they are making the right advertising decisions.
You can determine if the newsletter is a quality publication by looking for the
following:
. Valuable content. If the content isn’t quality, it won’t attract an interested
readership.
. Ad to content ratio – You want a newsletter that has a limited amount of ads in it.
That way yours will stand out instead of being buried. It also insures it is a
newsletter people want to read. No one likes to read a newsletter that is jam
packed with ads.
. Ad placement – Notice where the ads are located in the newsletter. Are they
clearly seen or are they hidden?
. Frequency of newsletter publications – When a newsletter is sent out daily, it
becomes a nuisance, and when it is sent out monthly, the reader doesn’t become
connected. Optimal frequency does range depending on the reader base, but
generally speaking, the best newsletters are often sent out weekly or biweekly.
. Make sure it is an opt-in publication, meaning the subscribers chose to be on the
list. If the publication doesn’t require an opt-in (and double opt-ins are usually
best), the newsletter is spamming people. Never associate with a newsletter that
practices spam, as your reputation will be damaged as a result.
3. Choose the type of ad you will place:
. Solo Ad – This type of ad is basically an email that is solely about you. The
advantages are huge to this type of ad since you are the only one being featured.
These ads are generally expensive, however, so be sure your ad is well written
and that your website is converting before making this investment. These ads
tend to work best when you have a story to tell that can’t be told in a short ad.
You can write it as a sales letter to make sure all of your points are made.
. Sponsored Ad – These are featured ads that are usually placed at the top,
middle or bottom of a newsletter and are typically about 20 lines long. The key
to making a sponsored ad work is having good ad positioning. Find out where
your ad will show up and then look to make sure that position grabs attention
before proceeding with this option. These ads work well when you want to
direct people to a website where the reader can get more information.
. Classified Ad – This is a short ad that is usually about 3-5 lines long, and is
grouped with other ads within a section. This is generally the least expensive
way to go, however it is also the section of the newsletter that is skipped most
often. These ads work well when you want to generate curiosity or remind
readers of an offer you previously made.
. Ads Within An Article – These ads pull well because they are matched to the
article that they are featured in, so you can be sure the person reading the article
will have an interest in the ad as well. Plus, the ad can be strategically placed at
specific points in the article to make it even more effective. These ad spots are
hard to come by, but they do come up once in a while.
4. Gather the pricing. Newsletter advertising is one of the lowest online advertising
costs available. It is much cheaper than banner advertising, for example, and it
typically yields a much better result. Pricing ranges drastically and depends on the
popularity of the newsletter and the size of the subscriber list. You may find some
for as little as $1.50 per thousand subscribers and others for as much as $8.00 per thousand. You will need to determine what newsletters are worth what price.
Sometimes a higher cost per thousand (CPM) for a newsletter that has fewer
subscribers is worth it if the quality of the newsletter is high and if the list is
targeted to your market. At other times, you might want a lower CPM for a larger
amount of subscribers so you can reach more people. It depends on what you are
trying to sell and whom you are trying to sell it to.
Remember that most newsletter publishers are willing to negotiate rates as well as
ad placement. This is especially true is you rent ad space in their newsletter on a
regular basis.
Bonus Tip – Never spend your entire budget advertising in one newsletter. It is
better to spread your ads around to multiple publications so you can test their
effectiveness.
Tips for Writing a Good Ad:
The purpose of the ad is to get someone to click on the ad, not to get him or her to buy.
Instead, your website or your follow up emails or phone calls will typically sell the product.
Here are some tips to help you craft an ad that hits the target:
. It’s all in the headline. The headline is what gets people to look at the ad. The ad is
what gets people to click through to your site. The site then gets them to buy your
product or service. Since the headline is what starts it all off, you need to make sure
it does its job. It should contain the most important benefit that your product or
service offers.
Example: Sick of Your Website Not Bringing in Clients?
. Make sure your body text is full of benefits, not features. A feature is what a
product or service does, but a benefit is what that feature does for the consumer. It
is often a good idea to show a feature and benefit in combo. For example:
Feature: Web Copywriting
Benefit: Convert visitors into paying clients
Combined: We provide web copywriting that converts visitors into paying clients.
. Include a call-to-action. Always tell the reader what to do and what they will get
for doing that. In addition, make sure to create a sense of urgency. For example,
instead of just saying, “Order today,” generate excitement and urgency by saying
something like:
Grab Your Free Consultation Today & We’ll Give You 5 Web Copy Tips to Walk Away
With – No Strings Attached – Limited Time Offer!
. Capture the lead. To increase the effectiveness of your ads, don’t just send them to
a general website. Send them to a squeeze page, which will allow you to “squeeze”
their name and email out of them by giving them something valuable for free in
return. Special reports, eBooks and things that can be sent in PDF or mp3 format are
best for giveaways because they don’t cost you anything. Be sure to give tremendous
value in your free gift so that they see you are a reputable expert that they should seek out for assistance. A squeeze page web address will take them directly to a
page that contains only the offer being made. It can look something like this: www.abcmarketing.com/freereport
. Test your ads – It is extremely important to test your ads. Why throw money into
ads without knowing if they are truly working. Guerrillas always work smart and
they always know what targets they are hitting and what targets they are missing.
There are two main points to keep in mind when testing your ads:
. Be sure to include some type of code that allows you to track the prospects and
sales that are coming from your ads. Without this, you may never know which
newsletters are more effective than others. This could be a coupon code that you
have them use to get a discount, or you could even use a different phone number
or landing page address for different newsletters.
. If you are constantly running completely different ads, you might never know
what is working and what isn’t. Start with one ad, and then the next time you run
it, change only one thing (either the headline, the body copy or the call-to-
action). This way, you will know what elements are effective and which ones
aren’t.
. Repeat what works – If you run an ad and it is successful, run it again as is in the
same newsletter. In addition, try running it in some additional newsletters that are
similar or complimentary as well.
If your ad doesn’t work immediately, remember that newsletter advertising is
usually only effective when it is run as a campaign for at least three months time.
Remember, your readers need to see your ad a few times to notice it and take an
interest in it. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get results in the first month.
Guerrillas always plan their attack and stick with it so they can monitor the results
effectively.
. Bonus Tip – Create an offer that is unique to the newsletters’ subscribers. For
example, you could offer a free eBook exclusively for the readers of one particular
newsletter, and make that exclusivity known by showing them you understand them
and that you want to give them something especially for them. This makes them feel
special (and we know baby boomers love to feel special) and draws them into your
offer. Plus, it is a great way to track the success of your advertising efforts since you
will know which clients are coming from which newsletters if each one is
specialized.
To recap the examples, presented, here is the completed ad:
Sick of Your Website Not Bringing in Clients?
We provide web copywriting that converts visitors into paying clients. Grab
Your Free Consultation Today & We’ll Give You 5 Web Copy Tips to Walk
Away With – No Strings Attached – Limited Time Offer! Visit:
www.abcmarketing.com/freereport
Newsletter advertising is a surefire way to generate new leads and/or make new sales as
long as you do it right. With the tips you learned in this chapter, you are on your way. Get
started by trying one or two this month.
Next Chapter - Chapter 18: Magazine Advertising: A Valuable Tool for Entrepreneurs
