This is the third topic in my Summer Series on creating an effective web presence. So far I've covered creating your Web Presence Foundation – The Business Website and Use Blogging to Build an Effective Web Presence. After all that hard work it's tempting to sit in a hammock in the back yard and wait for all the profitable web traffic to come your way. Yeah, and I'll bet you think the temperature is going to start dropping because Labor Day is just around the corner. As good as they are, websites and blogs are nothing more than passive marketing strategies. Now it's time to add an active marketing strategy to the mix. We are going to start with a Newsletter broadcast. Not an ezine or a eNewsletter, just Newsletter. The days of delivering a 4 color, printed newsletter 4 times a year are over. I believe the minimum standard is a monthly online publication, delivered by email and RSS feed, with the title Newsletter. Oh, and it's got to look good on a laptop, tablet and smartphone. It's not as complicated or labor intensive as it sounds. In fact, I found a way to increase the frequency to weekly while cutting the production time by 75%. Subscribers report quality has improved and the content is timely. Sound good? Here's how.

Go to the Source - Blog Posts as Content

I use MailChimp as my email broadcast vendor because they have developed Newsletter templates that look good on any device and use a feed from your blog as the content source. Write a blog post, broadcast it as a Newsletter. Easy Peasy! The trick is making some decisions to customize your Newsletter to meet the needs of your organization and subscribers. As you plan your newletter, consider the following issues.

Content

It's not about you, it's not even about your subscribers talking about you. It is about sharing your insight into the challenges your subscribers face each day. Think of your job as being a curator instead of a celebrity.

Frequency Versus Length

The optimum ratio is found by answering two questions, "How much can you type?", "How much can subscribers read?" I've found 500 words a week works well.

 Audience

Who are the best subscribers? It takes a Fan, definitely a Client, rarely a Prospect. All marketers hope and pray that prospects will subscribe to their newsletters, see the light and magically become clients. I've found that writing to fans of your organization or cause is just the right voice for your newsletter. Content written for prospects produces too much marketing. It turns off loyal clients. Writing to just your clients tends to exclude fans. When you compose your content, write to your fans, customers appreciate the valuable content and prospects want to work with you.

Insight

You need to not only know who is reading your newsletter, but where and when. Are they sitting at a desk, are they on a plane, or waiting for a latte? They're mobile, are you? Why is it that there is never enough time to do it right, but there is always enough time to do it twice? Find an email broadcast vendor who can turn a blog feed into an email Newsletter (it's called RSS to Email).

Resources

Email Marketers Optimize for Mobile - This recent article by eMarketer.com highlights the pace of adoption by marketers for delivering messages to mobile devices. In reporting furnished by Litmus, 36% of email marketing is delivered to mobile devices, while only 22% of marketers are addressing the issue. The tip insight from this report is the top four methods of making messages mobile compatible.

Next Steps

Next Tuesday we will cover the role Social Networking plays in creating an effective web presence.