If you run your own business like I do, you don’t have much time to spend fudging around with new programs. Here are some tricks I picked up while using Constant Contact's email marketing software to create my company newsletter.First things first: gather up some subscribers!
Before you do anything, place
subscriber sign-up box on your website, and anywhere else that your portfolio is displayed online. You can’t send out a newsletter if you have no subscribers! By time you’re finished learning Constant Contact ropes, you’ll have at very least a handful of interested readers—but hopefully, more!
Make your visitor sign-up form as simple as possible.
You’ve already lucked out once because someone took time out of their busy day to pay attention to you. The worst thing you can possibly do now is make them work to become a subscriber. To simplify process, go to Constant Contact's More Features section where you can "Customize Your Visitor Sign-Up Form." Other than their Name, Company Name and State, uncheck all contact information boxes. You can always take down their information later, if they decide to become an actual client.
Write and/or collect your articles ahead of time.
If you’re a writer, you’ll hopefully have some decent material of your own on hand, saved onto your hard drive. If you don’t have any articles, now would be a good time to write some. Don’t type them directly into your newsletter from scratch. Navigating through an unfamiliar program is a big enough headache without trying to create error-free content. Use a word-processing program you’re familiar with, then save and store files so your articles can be accessed easily, for this or any other project.
If you’re not a writer and don’t intend to become one, go directly to Ezinearticles.com. This website showcases thousands of talented authors offering valuable tips. Many allow you to publish their work without even having to ask (although some require a quick permission request by email). Asking permission to use someone’s article is a great way to expand your circle of contacts! Once you’ve found articles you’d like to feature, copy and paste text into a file stored on your computer.
Prepare your company logo in advance.
Constant Contact allows you to "pop in" your logo and resize it to fit page using their prescribed measurements. My logo is 300x180 pixels, but you can size yours to whatever specs you’d like. Save it as a .jpeg file and then upload it to your website. You’ll be accessing it from this URL later on.
I decided that my masthead looked a lot cooler as part of my logo than in boring Arial type, so I designed name of my publication “The Good Word: Wordfeeder.com’s Writing and Marketing Newsletter” right into logo. With that in mind...
Go ahead and break all formatting rules.
You don’t have to type “suggested details” where Constant Contact indicates. If they offer a space for you to type your company newsletter name, but your name is already visible in your logo, just don’t type it into box! If you don't like their "privacy policy" letter, write your own! Go on, break rules. Delete that line where they ask for date if you want. Don't add "helpful tips" like they suggest. You know you’re a rebel deep down.
Set Global Colors and Fonts before you create your articles (not after!).
