Ezine Marketing

Ezine Marketing aka: ezine advertising, ezine marketing segment. As described previously, an Ezine is an abbreviation for an electronic magazine and in some cases is used interchangeably with email newsletters, although not as common as the former use. In the case of an electronic magazine readers may subscribe to current editions through an RSS feed and conversely, with an email newsletter readers sign up for editions through an opt- or double opt-in mechanism. In either case, these are highly valuable marketing tools for both commercial businesses or organizations to send out ad swaps, announcements, promotions, and general news.

Ezines published on the Internet are also carefully designed for search engine optimization which makes them a perfect vehicle to drive web traffic to a particular Internet site or a single page that features sales or other information vitally important for business success. Ezines are also a perfect online venue for press releases and other communications that highlight and promote both large corporations and small one-person shops. New products and service announcements help to keep consumers up to date and encourage new business as well as reminding current customers of new offerings.

For most brick and mortar stores the ongoing relationships with customers is organic and keeps them returning to that location because they trust they will continue to receive reliable products or services. You or your employees are able to strengthen these relationships, however, if your business is strictly conducted over the Internet, these customer relationships have to be nurtured in a completely different manner, and this is where ezine marketing can assist.

Building trust is an essential function of ezine marketing because it allows you, the business owner, to clearly convey your commitment to customer satisfaction, providing quality products, and generally letting them get to know you. Beyond this, there are other ways in which to use Ezines for marketing:

Swap your ads – If you are the owner of an ezine, you can offer other ezine owners a space on your site, in exchange for your ad on theirs.

Take advantage of announcement lists – Subscribe to these lists and always follow the guidelines posted. Many of these lists have hundreds of subscribers and it is an excellent way to drive traffic to your ezine, website and gain subscribers to your email marketing newsletters.

Join subject matter discussion groups – Again, you will have to subscribe and follow their posting guidelines but for specialty businesses these can be a valuable source of new customers. For instance, if you own a shop that sells knitting and crocheting supplies and offers classes, joining a group of crafters and discussing techniques, different types of yarns, and offering a few free patterns will encourage them to visit your online store and become customers. An excellent source for these is Yahoo Groups, where you can search by topic to find just the right category of users to connect with.

Register with ezine directories – this is pretty much self-explanatory and will net your ezine more readers. Take time to pick those that are within your target market, otherwise your results won’t be as effective.

Write and submit articles to other Ezines – your ezine is important, but to really expand your reach you will need to also create working relationships with other ezine editors. You will also have to be open to posting their articles on your ezine. These exchanges are a very effective element of an action plan, and are a win-win for everyone.