Newsletters: A Great
Internet Marketing Tool
by Scott F. Geld
One of the tools that smart Internet marketers use to attract new
business is a newsletter. A newsletter keeps clients and potential
clients informed about products, events and services that relate
to your business, and it always keeps your name front and center.
It shows readers that you are a good source if information that
they can count on.
If you think about it, you also probably subscribe to a number of
newsletters on various subjects that interest you. When you are in
the market for a product or service that relates to your
interests, where do you think of going to get information? Yes,
that's right, you think about the newsletter that gives you all
that great information.
Newsletter Formats
News letters can be produced in a number of different formats.
Plain text emails, HTML emails and PDF formats are the most
economical, and then there is always the hard copy print version.
Plain text Email is the most economical and it's easy to format.
The size of the file means it's manageable for readers to open.
However, you are limited to using text only and you can't add
graphics or do any thing fancy.
HTML Email can only be viewed online, it's economical to produce
and you can get a little fancier with it. The reader can choose to
read the either the plain text version or the HTML version. If
your reader chooses to view the email as plain text, then your
creativity won't shine through.
HTML Web Pages allow for lots of graphics and text, and the design
possibilities endless. As with HTML Email, the reader has to view
the newsletter online. Another advantage is that an HTML Web Page
doesn't have to be sent as an Email attachment. Cost is low too;
really it's just your time to develop the newsletter.
PDF format allows for endless design possibilities with loads of
space for content and graphics. You can get as fancy as you like.
However, in order to produce a PDF, you need the full version of
Adobe's Acrobat software. Anyone who downloads Adobe's Reader
(it's free from Adobe's Web site) can view the newsletter. Readers
can save the file on their computer and read it when they want to.
Printed newsletters allow for complete design and content
creativity. However, print newsletters are costly to print and
mail.
The format you settle on to produce your newsletter in may require
you to do some experimenting. You may want to try several
different formats and get feedback from your audience as to what
suits their needs best. You'll also need to factor in the time and
costs involved.
If you want to produce a professional looking newsletter, try
using a software application to create newsletters, for example,
Microsoft Publisher. You can then convert it to a PDF. If you have
the full version of Adobe's Acrobat, you can choose to distill it
or print to file. Distilling leaves the hyperlinks in place while
printing it to file requires that you go into the newsletter in
Adobe and re-insert the hyperlinks.
If you do not have the full version of Adobe to accomplish this,
you can choose to use one of the many PDF printer drivers that are
on the market today, such as EasyPDF, PDFZone, and Win2PDF.
Scott F. Geld is the Director of Marketing for
MarketingBlaster.com, a company providing targeted traffic and
direct links starting at just $5. For more info:
http://www.MarketingBlaster.com
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