Be E-Successful With E-Newsletters - Part 1 - January 2003
By Kelly Embleton

One of the most valuable forms of online marketing and one of the best ways to keep in contact with your audience is with e-newsletters (electronic newsletters). Every online business should send out e-newsletters to their opt-in subscribers. E-newsletters allow you to advertise your business to your readers, bring more visitors to your site, announce new additions to your site, make readers aware of any specials or discounts, bring more attention to your products, keep your site fresh in readers' minds and much more. E-newsletters don't incur printing or mailing costs and can be sent to anyone, anywhere, quickly and easily with a click of a button.

What should my e-newsletter contain?
Your e-newsletter should be a text or HTML document containing information about your company, new site additions, information and links to products on your site, discounts and savings for customers, contact information, free industry tips and information, a way for the reader to unsubscribe from your e-newsletter if they wish, a reminder to the reader to send the e-newsletter to a friend or associate who may find the e-newsletter useful and any other information you want to provide the reader with.

How do I get subscribers?
You can obtain e-mail newsletter subscribers by adding opt-in forms on all pages of your site that allow visitors to sign up by entering their e-mail address. Every day e-mails being sent out from the office should have a link to a page or opt-in form. Putting your newsletter links on all promotional material can also help you obtain subscribers. Other ways to get subscribers are getting sales reps to mention the newsletter when making calls and collecting e-mail addresses for the newsletter when attending trade shows and business conferences.

How do I send my e-newsletters?
There are several different methods you can use to send out your e-newsletters. If you have a smaller list of subscribers (less than 100), you could use your e-mail client, Outlook, Netscape, Eudora, etc. If your list is larger than 100 subscribers you should download software or a script that manages the distribution of multiple e-mails. Another option is to have a full service e-mail distribution company send out your newsletter if they are reasonably priced.

When should I send my e-newsletter?
Put yourself in your subscribers' shoes. When do you think they read the majority of their e-mail? Sending your e-newsletter earlier on in the week (Monday or Tuesday) is probably your best bet. Most e-newsletters are sent out weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, this all depends on the information you are including in your newsletter and your audience. Look at stats about Internet and e-mail usership, the more you can learn about it the more successful your e-newsletter campaign will be.

Be sure to read Be e-successful with e-newsletters - Part 2 in the next issue of CM.

Resources

• Sing365.com is a free searchable database of rock, pop, soul, R&B and rap lyrics including biographies and discographies. You can also browse through the artists from A-Z! Get the lyrics you are looking for at www.sing365.com.

• The National Library of Canada invites you to visit the Virtual Gramophone, a multimedia Web site devoted to the first half-century of recorded sound in Canada. Visit this very interesting site at www.nlc-bnc.ca/gramophone.

• The Canadian Musician Web site has a new and valuable addition - Free Product Information. Our new Free Product Info section is your ultimate online resource for products and services offered by Advertisers featured in CM. This is a quick and easy way to request FREE Product Information online. It's your choice to request more information or connect directly to Advertisers' Web sites. Visit canadianmusician.com and get your Free CM Product Information today!

• Eargazmic Inc. recently launched their new music Web site - www.eargazmic.com. This Web site is a subscription-based service that enables artists to gain exposure by uploading music files and photos as well as posting tour information, discography and interview to the site. Members can also find listings of record labels and venues for making international contacts a lot easier.

• Bell Canada has launched Canada's first licensed online music service, Musicmatch.ca. Musicmatch.ca is a subscription-based digital music site for streaming music. Users can play CD-quality streaming audio from a selection of pre-programmed stations or build their own commercial-free stations based on their favourite artists, era and/or music genres.

• Need to book a performer? Want to find the booking agents who book certain performers? Need to find a venue to fill a spot on your tour? If so, check out PowerGig at www.powergig.com. PowerGig is the power tool for finding, booking and promoting gigs. Visit the site for more information, industry links, resources and more.

• For information about Canadian Music Week 2003 happening on February 27-March 1, 2003 at the Toronto Westin Harbour Castle Hotel & Convention Centre, visit www.cmw.net. The CMW Web site features information about the festival, venues, trade show and conferences, sponsors, media, hotel and travel, awards and much more.

• Music Books Plus is your best source on the Net for music and audio books, videos, CD-ROMs, DVDs, audio cassettes, software, posters, sound effects and apparel. Music Books Plus offers over 5,000 titles on the areas of: Music Business, Instrument Instruction, Audio & Video Production, Recording, Lighting and much more. To add to that, they also have new titles regularly, monthly specials, free monthly e-newsletters, free downloadable updates and flyers. Stop by today at www.musicbooksplus.com.