Practical Strategies To Boost Your Ezine ReadershipWritten by Jeremy Hershberger
Copyright 2005 Jeremy HershbergerDo you have a fresh ezine ready to start taking subscribers but don't know how to attract them? Maybe you have a list already operating that you want to enhance. There are many practical methods available online that can be applied to either situation, some free and some not. This article will cover basics of: •Buying leads •Submitting to ezine directories Buying Leads: The easiest way to build your list is to buy “leads” from companies such as ListOpt or LeadFactory. Leads are people who have shown an interest in what you offer, and provide you their name and email address. What you do is create an ad, usually about three lines long, 60 characters to a line, and lead company will put your ad out on Internet and capture potential prospects for you. What you must absolutely avoid are companies who sell pre-assembled lists of email addresses. These addresses are not “opt-in”, and are not only worthless but can get you accused of spamming! An “opt-in” lead is a person who has specifically seen YOUR ad and shown an interest in what you offer by giving out their email address JUST for purpose of getting on your list. It is important to distinguish between “single opt-in” and “double opt-in” when buying leads. Most good lead companies will offer both, double opt-in being slightly more expensive. In case of single opt-in, when a potential prospect gives their email address in response to your ad, it is then supplied to you as-is. You don’t know for SURE that address you got really belongs to person who supplied it. With double opt-in, lead company will send a “confirmation” email to address supplied by each potential prospect, requiring them to click a link to verify that they are indeed owner of that email address. As you can imagine, double opt-in leads are more safe and secure. NOTE: If you use an autoresponder like GetResponse to run your ezine, check your user settings to see if your list sends out a “confirmation” email to verify subscribers. If so, and if you buy double opt-in leads from a lead company, you will in effect be creating a “triple opt-in” process for your potential prospects! This may severely reduce your readership, as people will have to not only confirm their email address through lead company, but once again through your autoresponder. The idea is to only make them confirm once, so either buy single opt-in leads and have your autoresponder confirm, or buy double opt-in leads and don’t let your autoresponder confirm. Be aware that in GetResponse, once you turn confirmation feature on, you cannot turn it back off, ever.
| | POSITIVE COMPANY BRANDINGWritten by M H Ahsan
Company branding is one of most important components of your marketing plan, particularly when you are making an effort to establish your company's position in marketplace. Identity, differentiation, and reputation are all part of company branding package. How people perceive your company largely relates to how effective you brand is and how it is portrayed, recognized, respected and remembered in community both with existing and potential customers. A brand is so much more than a name or a logo.A brand is essentially a way of communicating a promise or an exchange between you and your customers. It is a way of you communicating to your customer who you are and what you promise to deliver to them. Company branding helps to gear up your advertising. When people are familiar with your company name, logo, products and your brand, they try to relate with association. This is helpful when you place a commercial or a print advertisement, as people would easily connect to company with this brand name. You can just concentrate on one thing and that is, selling your products.
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