How to Create a Money-Making Newsletter Success
Author: Patrick Baghestani
Writing and publishing a successful newsletter is perhaps the most
competitive of all the different areas of mail order and direct
marketing.
Five years ago, there were 1500 different newsletters in this country.
Today there are well over 10,000, with new ones being started every
day. It's also interesting to note that for every new one that's
started, some disappear just as quickly as they are started - lack of
operating capital and marketing know-how being the principal causes of
failure.
To be successful with a newsletter, you have to specialize. Your best
bet will be with new information on a subject not already covered by an
established newsletter.
Regardless of the frustrations involved in launching your own
newsletter, never forget this truth: There are people from all walks of
life, in all parts of this country, many of them with no writing
ability whatsoever, who are making incredible profits with simple two-,
four-, and six-page newsletters!
Your first step should be to subscribe to as many different newsletters
and mail order publications as you can afford. Analyze and study how
the others are doing it. Attend as many workshops and seminars on your
subject as possible. Learn from the pros. Learn how the successful
newsletter publishers are doing it, and why they are making money.
Adapt their success methods to your own newsletter, but determine to
recognize where they are weak, and to make yours better in every way.
Plan your newsletter before launching it. Know the basic premise for
its being, your editorial position, the layout, art work, type styles,
subscription price, distribution methods, and every other detail
necessary to make it look, sound and feel like the end result you have
envisioned.
Lay out your start-up needs; detail the length of time it's going to
take to become established, and what will be involved in becoming
established. Set a date as a mile stone of accomplishment for each
phase of your development: A date for breaking even, a date for
attaining a certain paid subscription figure, and a monetary goal for
each of your first five years in business. And all this must be done
before publishing your first issue.
Market research is simply determining who the people are who will be
interested in buying and reading your newsletter, and the kind of
information these people want to see in your newsletter as a reason for
continuing to buy it. You have to determine what it is they want from
your newsletter.
Your market research must give you unbiased answers about your
newsletter's capabilities of fulfilling your prospective buyer's need
for information; how much he's willing to pay for it, and an overall
profile of his status in life. The questions of why he
needs your information, and how he'll use it should be answered. Make
sure you have the answers to these questions, publish your newsletter
as a vehicle of fulfillment to these needs, and you're on your way!
You're going to be in trouble unless your newsletter has a real point
of difference that can be easily perceived by your prospective buyer.
The design and graphics of your newsletter, plus what you say and how
you say it, will help in giving your newsletter this vital difference.
Be sure your newsletter works with the personality you're trying to
build for it. Make sure it reflects the wants of your subscribers.
Include your advertising promise within the heading, on the title page,
and in the same words your advertising uses. And above all else, don't
skim on design or graphics!
The name of your newsletter should also help to set it apart from
similar news letters, and spell out its advertising promise. A good
name reinforces your advertising. Choose a name that defines the
direction and scope of your newsletter.
Opportunity Knocking, Money Making Magic, Extra Income Tip Sheet, and
Mail Order Up-Date are primate examples of this type of philosophy - as
opposed to the Johnson Report, The Association Newsletter, or
Club-house Confidential.
Try to make your newsletter's name memorable - one that flows
automatically. Don't pick a name that's so vague it could apply to
almost anything. The name should identify your newsletter and its
subject quickly and positively.
Pricing your newsletter should be consistent with the image you're
trying to build. If you're starting a "Me-too" newsletter, never price
it above the competition. In most instances, the consumer associates
higher prices with quality, so if you give your readers better quality
information in an expensive looking package, don't hesitate to ask for
a premium price. However, if your information is gathered from most of
the other newsletters on the subject, you will do well to keep your
prices in line with theirs.
One of the best selling points of a newsletter is in the degree of
audience involvement - for instance, how much it talks about, and uses
the names of its readers.
People like to see things written about themselves. They resort to all
kinds of things to get their names in print, and they pay big money to
read what's been written about them. You should understand this facet
of human nature, and decide if and how you want to capitalize upon it -
then plan your newsletter accordingly.
Almost as important as names in your newsletter are pictures. The
readers will generally accept a newsletter faster if the publisher's
picture is presented or included as a part of the newsletter. Whether
you use pictures of the people, events, locations or products you write
about is a policy decision; but the use of pictures will set your
publication apart from the others and give it an individual image,
which is precisely what
you want.
The decision as to whether to carry paid advertising, and if so, how
much, is another policy decision that should be made while your
newsletter is still in the planning stages. Some purists feel that
advertising corrupts the image of the newsletter and may
influence editorial policy. Most people accept advertising as a part of
everyday life, and don't care one way or the other.
Many newsletter publishers, faced with rising production costs and
viewing advertising as a means of offsetting those costs, welcome paid
advertising. Generally the advertisers see the newsletter as a vehicle
to a captive audience, and well worth the cost.
The only problem with accepting advertising in your newsletter would
appear to be that as your circulation grows, so will your number of
advertisers, until you'll have to increase the size of your newsletter
to accommodate the advertisers. At this point, the basic premise or
philosophy of the newsletter often changes from news and practical
information to one of an advertiser's showcase.
Promoting your newsletter, finding prospective buyers and converting
these prospects into loyal subscribers, will be the most difficult task
of your entire undertaking. It takes detailed planning, persistence and
patience.
You'll need a sales letter. Check the sales letter you receive in the
mail; analyze how these are written and pattern yours along the same
lines. You'll find all of them - all those worthy of being called sales
letters - following the same formula: Attention, Interest, Desire, and
Action on the part of the reader - AIDA.
Jump right in at the beginning and tell the reader how he's going to
benefit from your newsletter, and then keep emphasizing right on
through your "PS", the many and different benefits he'll gain from
subscribing to your newsletter. Elaborate on your listing of benefits
with examples of what you have, or you intend to include, in your
newsletter.
Follow these examples with endorsements or testimonials from reviewers
and satisfied subscribers. Make the recipient of your sales letter feel
that you're offering him the answer to all his problems on the subject
of your newsletter.
You have to make your prospect feel that "this is the insider's secret"
to the success he wants. Present it to him as his own personal key to
success, and then tell him how far behind his contemporaries he is
going to be if he doesn't act upon your offer immediately.
Always include a "PS" in your sales letter. This should quickly restate
to the reader that he can start enjoying the benefits of your
newsletter by acting immediately, and very subtly suggesting that he
may not get another chance to get the kind of "success help" you're
offering him with this sales letter.
Don't worry about the length of your sales letter - most are four pages
or more; however, it must flow logically and smoothly. Use short
sentences, short paragraphs, indented paragraphs, and lost of sub-heads
for the people who will be "scanning through"
your sales letter.
In addition to the sales letter, your promotion package should include
a return reply order card or coupon. This can be either a
self-addressed business reply post card, or a separate coupon, in which
case you'll have to include a self-addressed return reply envelope. In
every mailing piece you send out, always include one or the other:
either a self-addressed business reply postcard or a self-addressed
return reply envelope for the recipient to use to send your order form
and his remittance back to you.
Your best response will come from a business reply postcard on which
you allow your prospect to charge the subscription to his credit card,
request that you bill him, or send his payment with the subscription
start order.
For make up of this subscription order card or coupon, simply start
saving all the order cards and coupons you receive during the next
month or so. Choose the one you like best, modify according to your
needs, and have it typeset, pasted up and border fit.Then, there are
several major catalog sales companies that sell subscriptions to school
libraries, government agencies and large corporations. These people
usually buy through these catalog sales companies rather than direct
from the publisher. The publisher makes about 10% on each subscription
sold for him by one of these agencies.
The best way of learning about and keeping up with this field of
endeavor is by buying and reading books by the people who have
succeeded in making money via the mails; by subscribing to several of
the better periodic journals and aids to people in mail order, and by
joining some of the mail order trade associations for a free exchange
of ideas, advice and help.
Patrick Baghestani
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