More Steps to Writing Successful Revenue Generating E-Zines

Folks,

E-zines are electronic magazines delivered by email. They provide subscribers interesting information while allowing you to promote and sell your product(s).

Publishing an e-zine strengthens your status as an expert in your marketplace and potentially converting readers into subscribers and customers.

Here are four (4) more steps to writing successful revenue generating e-zines:

1. Provide reviews. Let the reader know about a new product; how it works, how it functions, the features, and the benefits it will provide them. Provide all the information on how to get this product. For example: “Go to the web site www.product101.com and click on the Try it Now! button”

2. Provide pictures. If a picture of the product, product package, or system is available, include it in the article if space allows. This will give the reader a visual of the product and what he is getting if he decides to make a purchase.

3. Add a “special feature” article section. This can be a “Ask the experts”, “A Message from the CEO”, “ What the Competitor's Are Saying about us and why?” column section. This is an added attraction that might create a following of subscribers to look for this first. Kind of like a magnet to the e-zine.

4. Send out special mailings to subscribers. Announce a special promotion, a teleseminar, webinar, special event, or other promotional activity that may not be included in the e-zine. Be selective with subscribers, not all need to receive this. This will make the readers feel special and a part of the company's “top subscribers list”. Keep the special mailings to a minimum mailing cycle. Bombarding readers with emails will decrease effectiveness of the mailings and potentially increase unsubscribe requests.

Try these steps and see what happens. Your e-zine will be a valued advantage to your readers and watch them turn into subscribers and buyers.

If you've tried any of these steps, leave a comment and let me know how they worked for you. Thanks.

Steps to Writing Successful Revenue Generating E-Zines

Hey gang,

E-zines are electronic magazines delivered by email. They provide subscribers interesting information while allowing the company to promote and sell their product(s).

Copywriters are needed to write e-zines, in some cases on a continued basis. Making a company's e-zine successful will keep you working for a long time. Companies do not have the staff, and possible expertise, to keep an active e-zine published and distributed.

Companies publishing an e-zine strengthens their status as experts in their market and potentially converting their readers to customers.

E-zines are distributed frequently to a subscriber's email In-Box monthly, bi-monthly, or weekly depending on the circulation.

E-zines are similar to magazines containing pictures, articles, graphics, how-to guides, and other interests the readers want and expect.

Copywriters charge $750 - $1000 per page to write and create e-zines.

Here are some steps to writing successful Revenue Generating E-zines:

1. Write articles. Articles will help to connect with readers, share their knowledge, and promote businesses. E-zines should be filled with articles that interest the target audience and subscribers. Provide enough information to want the reader to go looking for more. Add a hot link to the web site that will give them that.


2. Include testimonials for products or services. Testimonials from satisfied customers and experts in the field will add confidence and credibility to a product or service. This will provide a “voice of the customer”, not the company to the readers.


3. Offer “free” items as a bonus. A new how-to book or other promotional item; logo coffee mug, tee-shirt, DVD,etc., to a new subscriber or existing reader will keep them accepting the e-zine, eventually converting them into buyers.

There you go. Stay tuned for more steps on writing e-zines. Leave a comment and let me know if you think these will work in your business. I would like to hear from you. Thanks. Frank

E- zines are one of the Best Viral Marketing Tools

E-zines are electronic magazines delivered by email. They provide subscribers interesting information while allowing the company to promote and sell their product(s).

Business to Business (B2B) marketing campaigns generally have some type of e-zine on their list of offerings. These are replacing trade magazines in some respects. But trade mags still have their importance as well as a captive audiences.

More marketing departments are using outside copywriters to write e-zines, in some cases on a continued basis. Making a company's e-zine successful will keep their clients, prospects, and potential buyers looking forward to getting the next issue. Companies do not have the staff, and possible expertise, to keep an active e-zine published and distributed.

Companies publishing an e-zine strengthens their status as experts in their market and potentially converting their readers to customers.

E-zines are distributed frequently to a subscriber's email In-Box monthly, bi-monthly, or weekly depending on the circulation.

A Company's E-zine subscribers list is very valuable to them. It is another avenue for potential sales, information sharing, product awareness, announcements, etc.

E-Zines are like newsletters with sections of content, graphics, and contact information including URL hot links to web sites for more information.

E-Zines can be upwards to 2,000+ words along with many pages of articles, stories, and features. Some can cover an entire web page.

E-zines are similar to magazines containing pictures, articles, graphics, how-to guides, and other interests the readers want and expect.

Depending on the E-zine, a graphic artist may be required for the layout and design of pictures, charts, graphs, or images.

E-zines can become as popular as blogs. To some companies they are a requirement and are better received than a blog from their clients and prospects.

But what do you think? Is an e-zine better than a Blog? A Blog better than an e-zine? Or are they both as equally powerful in the viral marketing messaging delivery? Let us know. Your comments are welcomed.

Time to go Viral

If your company, or even you, are not taking advantage of the social media and other methods of getting your sales messages out in a viral type campaign, you may be losing ground.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, eMarketing Association, B@B, and other market watchdogs, in 2010 companies are starting to budget and embrace the social media craze. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, and others are now starting to see more products and sales messages on the links. YouTube, My Space, and others are seeing more product and sales video everyday being posted to these sites. This is an increase in this type of marketing communications strategies than the last few years. Why? It's cheaper and cost effective, especially in today's economy. Plus you can cover a lot more ground and territory.

More campaigns and how-to's are being developed to educate the members on these sites to do more than just post a picture and a profile. B2B Marketing Communications items now feature website content, SEO, and social media campaigns as their list of offerings for the sales force.

So how do you get started?
Start by signing up and building a presence on the social networking sites. Linked In is more business based, but do not rule out Facebook and Twitter. You can use your company name as your identity page and you can post your logo on your link.

Invite listed members to link in with you, be a friend on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, and all the other sites' methods like Digg, et al.

Build a video and post it to your company website using YouTube and MySpace, et al.

Write a Blog. Comment on other people's Blogs. Read the industry leaders' blogs in your line of business and comment on those. Add your link to your blog in your comments if allowed.

Write articles and post them to Article sites like Go Article. com. List these articles on your website and post them on other companies and clients' sites that may interest your line of business if there is a section for that.

Create an email sales campaign. Use your existing customers and clients list and keep them updated on changes and enhancements to your product line, company, and executives. Don't have a list? You can buy them from list builders like Edith Roman, et al., in your line of business. Then use email distributors like Constant Contact and iContact to start your email campaign.

In your own company marketing campaigns, get your products and company name out using webinars, teleseminars, and post the announcements and invites on the social media sites you are listed on. Use your email campaigns to do the same.

Bottom line, the age of doing face to face seminars, knocking on doors to get your sales procedures started, and sending out direct mail brochures to build interest in your company and products has not gone away. It is just now adding the social media marketing activities to the list.

You can do a whole blog on each one of the social media and viral campaigns that are now starting to grow. Want to know more about these, let me know. Your comments are welcomed.

#1 Sales Step for customer and revenue growth

Hey gang,

I have been in the business to business industry market for a long time. I have seen companies try everything they can to generate revenue, gain more customers, and grow their business.

But the best sales step around started many years ago. This step is not hard. It's not tough. You do not have to change your sales process. Add more processes, people, or territories. You do not have to replace what you are doing now. Just enhance it.

How? It's simple. Give them what they want for less. I know you've heard all this before. But in today's economy, it works even better. Here is what I mean.

I remember working for a company that finally decided to give in and open source their software technology and product. They were losing market share and dominance they once had and enjoyed. But they refused to give in and make their product somewhat for free. As the company continued to lose market positioning and revenue, they finally decided they wanted to make their product #1 again and joined the open source community. Now Java is being used by more developers and companies in their products and this has created market share increase and revenue for the founding company. Maybe a little too late but still, some is better than none.

Remember the saying "a baker's dozen"? This all started when a baker added 1 more little cake, or donut, to the normal dozen he sold. This created more customers, and the one (1) he always gave away presented more people buying the 12 he sold. You can do the math. He dominated the neighborhood with his offerings. And whenever someone needed a dozen, they walked right passed the competitors to buy his. Why? Were they better? Who knows. The customer was able to get more for their money than was being offered by others. Resulting in more money to the baker.

So if you have a product, NO you do not have to give it away. Or do a BOGO, buy one get one free. No. Just provide free shipping. Maybe free support for a month. Something for free that will enhance your product sales and increase your customer base. Once you please one customer, word of mouth (marketing) steps in and you just got yourself more buyers without paying for marketing. See, it works both ways.

If you do service and maintenance as your business, give a month for free to existing customers. This not only will please the customer, but will get your engineers to keep the customer's product in good working order, adding value to your product line, which is your service and support offerings. When maintenance contracts are due to be renewed, your competitors may not have had the opportunity to step into the customer's environment and take your business away.

Make it easy to do business with you! If you sell products, make it easy for them to buy, install, implement, and learn how to use it. If that is a challenge, add 1 month worth of installation and training to the purchase for free. Not only do you take away the fear of the purchaser deciding to buy your product, your engineers get the opportunity to show off the workings and functions of the product because it is installed at top performance and it is "tweeked" to run like it is suppose to. Not really that possible if the buyer has to do all of the installation and tuning themselves, even if you do have the best installation training steps provided. I know myself, if I can buy something and it comes with free installation and tuning, that makes it more valuable to me to select that product over others.

But it is up to you. If you care not to give away anything, look at your competitors and see why they may have beat you over a potential customer. Did they give something for free you did not? Did they provide something you didn't but could?

Remember, when this economy begins to repair itself, and it will, more businesses will start spending money again, and they will remember the companies that helped them by providing a little something for nothing to what they were already purchasing. Guess who they will call on to reorder and may even throw in a little something extra on their part as a thank you gift? Who knows, it could be your company getting revenue you expected you would not get because you gave some of it away for free.

Want more tips, go to my websites and grab my products. And shipping is free. Don't see something you need, let me know and I'll do my best to get it to you. May even discount it as a thank you.

What do you think? Leave me a comment and let me know. Thanks. Happy marketing.

Sales vs. Marketing

Sales and sales teams make the deals. They bring in revenue, convert prospects into buyers, turn buyers into customers, and work to keep these customers buying more products and services being offered to meet their needs.

Marketing and marketing departments create the programs, materials, tools, and events that bring in prospects, create sales leads, attract customers and business, and support the sales teams, sales cycle and marketplace. They also support the product line.

Sales and Marketing are equally important to each other. A good sales team is as good as the marketing team to meet the drive and momentum of the market and line of business. A good marketing team is as good as the sales teams to meet the demand of the products.

Some executives view marketing as an overhead. A cost they can do without when budgets are tight, revenue is not coming in, and times are tough. So marketing budgets are cut and staff members are laid off. This is a bad business decision.

The executives forget when times were good, money was coming in, and deals were being made and closed, was due to the two teams working as one. Marketing and Sales were meeting each others needs with producing the tools and events to make the products attractive for the business buyer, and closing the deals to meet revenue quotas.

Sales teams should not create marketing and product materials to do their jobs. This creates a gap that the customers, prospects, and competition see instantly, even when the sales executives do not. Sales needs marketing, marketing needs sales. The product managers need both. The executives need all three and some.

Marketing departments produce sales collateral materials used by sales representatives (reps) that call on other businesses. They know what the sales teams need to meet the demand of their prospects and customers in the most beneficial way that support the sales cycle, product, brand, and company.

Items such as company and product profile sheets, product briefs, technology adoption papers, ROI case studies and calculations, white papers, success stories, and press releases are all sales materials created by marketing.

These materials are distributed to customers and prospects at trade shows, sales events, and promotional activities where the business buyers are.

Having the right sales materials to promote a product or service can often make or break a sales deal.

The right combination of sales materials support the sales cycle and efforts while providing product features and benefits to the buyer, special offers, and projecting a confidence in the company and product for their purchase decisions.

Sales collateral also helps educate the marketplace or in-house sales teams. These materials help develop sales and marketing tools and promote competition.

Marketing is needed to create the sales materials, provide the tools to support the sales reps and sales cycle, and produce the events to make the products, the company, and the brand attractive to the business buyers.

Sales are needed to make the transactions, to close the deals, and to meet the buyer's expectations with the product being offered, and to keep these customers happy. They are the first line of attack but cannot fight the competition without good marketing supporting the battle.

Sales and Marketing teams need each other. Business executives need to recognize this and realize that sales revenues will surpass quotas and allow the company to “beat the street” with profits and gains that meet and beat expectations when both teams work as one.

If you only expect Sales to do all of this, it is like sitting on a 3 legged stool. Someone will eventually fall. Don't let it be your company.

Disagree? Then let me know. Comments are welcomed.

Creating Successful Sales Collaterals

Hey gang,

Continuing on the topic of Sales Collaterals, the marketing materials used to generate sales and draw attention to your products and brand, here are some steps to be considered for successful sales collateral:

• Presentation materials must be clear. PowerPoint presentations, handouts, and notes should be precise and clear enough that the buyers can make sense of them even when they are not there; the sales meeting or presentation.

• Features and Benefits. If aimed towards buyers who use spec sheets or standard checklists, include them in the collateral showing advantages of the product while being honest about what it can do. Some buyers like features as much as benefits.

• Technical Specs. Technical products must have a data sheet of specifications in a clear, precise, and accurate representation that is easily understood by the buyer.

• A Defined Ordering process. Remove all obstacles to the buyer using the client's ordering process. If the buyer prefers to order everything online or over the phone, and not meet with a sales person, then provide that step in the collateral materials.

Successful Sales Collateral materials can range from 5-10 pages.

For tips on creating other sales collaterals such as brochures, case studies, podcasts, product spec sheets, sales presentations, teleseminars, and webinars go to www.frankb2b.com and www.frankb2b.net

There you go. Good luck on your sales efforts. Using these tips will help. Let us know how you do it. Comments are welcomed.