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all accessible via the Internet. Some of these provide the full version of
their traditional magazine; others are selective about the articles they provide;
and still others provide the previous month’s edition.
Web-Based E-zines
There are Web-based e-zines that have only an online presence (Figure
22.2). These e-zines are accessed through their Web sites by browsing
from page to page. They have the look and feel of a traditional magazine.
They include lots of glossy pictures and advertisements. Usually
there is no charge to view the Web-based e-zines, but some do charge a
subscription fee. These Web-based e-zines tend to be as graphically pleasing
as offline magazines.
E-mail E-zines
Although e-mail e-zines can come as text or HTML, these days we are
seeing more and more HTML as they get a much higher readership and
Figure 22.2. Vermont Living is a Web-based e-zine.
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most e-mail viewers have no problem displaying HTML e-mails, which
look like a Web page. Today we are seeing a blur between newsletters
and e-mail e-zines as most newsletters now are sent as HTML and most
are content-rich on a specific subject.
E-mail-based e-zines tend to be very content-rich and, as such, tend
to be more of a target-marketing mechanism. E-mail e-zines tend to be
several screens in length with one main or several short articles and,
sometimes, classified advertising. The benchmark is that these e-zines
should be able to be read in about five minutes. Circulation is often in
the thousands. Most run weekly or biweekly editions. Most e-zines are
free to subscribers.
People interested in the subject have taken the time to subscribe and
ask to receive the information directly in their e-mail box. Once you
have found an e-zine that caters to your target market, the e-zine could
be a valuable marketing vehicle.
Every subscriber to an e-mail-based e-zine has access to the Internet.
These people regularly receive and send e-mail and quite likely surf the
Net. If you advertise in this type of medium and place your Internet
address in the ad, your prospective customer is not more than a couple
of clicks away from your site.
People subscribe because they are interested. Even if they don’t read
it immediately when it is received, they usually read it eventually. Otherwise,
they would not have subscribed. Subscribers will see your URL
and product advertisements. For this reason, e-mail e-zines are a great
marketing tool.
Using E-zines as Marketing Tools
Online publications are superior marketing tools for a number of reasons.
They can be used in a number of ways to increase the traffic to
your Web site. You can:
• Advertise directly
• Be a sponsor
• Submit articles
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• Send press releases
• Start your own.
Finding Appropriate E-zines for Your Marketing Effort
There are many locations on-line to find lists and links to both Webbased
and e-mail e-zines. A number of these resources are listed in the
Internet Resources section at the end of this chapter.
You evaluate an e-zine’s marketing potential by its audience, reach,
and effectiveness. The most important element of choosing an e-zine is
to find one that reaches your target market. E-zine ads are effective
because there is a high correlation between the target customer and the
magazine’s subscribers. If you advertise in an e-zine simply because it
has the largest subscriber rate, you will probably be disappointed unless
your products or services have mass-market appeal.
You should review a number of the e-zine-listing sites, such as the
one shown in Figure 22.3. Some of these sites have keyword search
Figure 22.3. eZINESearch.com provides a searchable directory of e-zines.
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354 101 Ways To Promote Your Web Site
capabilities. Others have their e-zines listed by category. Once you have
a list of e-zines you feel fit well with your marketing objectives, you
should subscribe and begin reviewing these e-zines.
The Multiple Advantages of E-zine Advertising
One of the major advantages of e-zine advertising is the lifespan of your
ads. E-zines that are delivered to e-mail addresses are read by the recipient
and sometimes saved for future reference. Many e-zines archive their
issues with the ads intact. Advertisers have received responses to ads
that are several months old!
When you place an ad in an e-zine, you see it in a relatively short
period of time, perhaps the next day or the next week depending on
how often the e-zine is published. Most traditional magazines close out
their ad space months before the issue is available on the newsstand.
Your ad in an e-zine is also much more likely to be noticed because
there are so few of them. In a traditional magazine every second page is
an ad, whereas e-zines have a much greater focus on content and far
fewer ads.
When your ad appears in an e-zine, your customer is just a click
away because your ad is usually hyperlinked to your Web site. This
brings your customer that much closer to being able to purchase your
products or services.
Another advantage of e-zine advertising is that e-zines are often shared
with friends and associates. Most e-zines use viral marketing effectively,
encouraging readers to send a copy to a friend. Your ad might be passed
around a number of times after it first enters the mailbox of the subscriber.
You are being charged for the ad based on the number of e-mail
subscribers. Therefore, the extra viewers of your ad cost you nothing.
One of the most tangible advantages of e-zine advertising is the relatively
low cost due, in part, to the low overhead for development, production,
and delivery. E-zines need to fill all of their available space. If
an e-zine advertising section has empty spaces, the publisher might be
willing to negotiate. Some will even barter with you—advertising space
at a discounted price in exchange for their e-zine promotion on your
Web site.
E-zines provide a very targeted advertising medium. People subscribe
to various e-zines because they have a genuine interest in the topics
covered. This provides a major advantage over other advertising medi-
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ums. E-zine ads have been shown to have very high response rates due
to their targeted nature.
Because they are distributed via the Internet, e-zines reach a far wider
audience geographically than most traditional magazines. It is not uncommon
for an e-zine to have subscribers from all around the world.
There are thousands of e-zines out there related to every topic imaginable.
Most e-zines have thousands of subscribers. When you couple
the low cost to advertise in these e-zines and the many e-zines that might
reach your target market, it is no wonder many companies are allocating
more and more of their advertising budgets to online activities.
Guidelines for Your Advertising
Once you have found e-zines that reach your target market, you should
consider a number of other factors before you make a final decision on
placing your ad.
• Check the ads displayed in the e-zine for repetition. If advertisers
have not advertised more than once, then they probably did
not see very positive results.
• Respond to some of the ads and ask the advertisers what their
experiences were with advertising in that particular e-zine. Be sure
to tell them who you are and why you are contacting them. If you
are up front, they will probably be receptive to your inquiry.
• Talk to the e-zine publisher and ask questions (e.g., how many
subscribers there are). Ask what other advertisers have had to
say about their results. Find out what types of ads they accept
and if there are any restrictions. Check to see if the publisher
has a policy of never running competing ads. Maybe the e-zine
has a set of advertising policies that you can receive via e-mail.
• Find out if the publisher provides tracking information and, if
so, what specific reports you will have access to.
• Find out if your ad can have a hyperlink to your Web site. If the
e-zine allows hyperlinks, make sure you link to an effective
page—one that is a continuation of the advertisement or a page
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that provides details on the item you were advertising. Provide a
link to the order form from this page to assist the transaction.
• In some cases e-zines have an editorial calendar available to assist
you with the timing of your ad. The editorial calendar will
tell you what articles will be included in upcoming issues. If an
upcoming issue will have an article relating to your type of product
or service, you could choose to advertise in that issue. You
might contact the editor regarding a product review or submit
an article relevant to the issue topics.
• Make sure that the advertising rates are reasonable based on the
number of subscribers, and ask yourself if you can afford it.
Find out the “open” rate, or the rate charged for advertising
once in the e-zine. Ask what the rate is for multiple placements.
If you are not in a position to pay for the advertising now, ask if
there are other arrangements that could be made. For example,
the publisher might accept a link on your Web site in exchange
for the ad.
• Develop your ads with your target customer in mind. They should
attract your best prospects. Wherever possible, you should link
to your site or provide an e-mail link to the right individual
within your organization.
• Develop a mechanism to track advertising responses. You could
use different e-mail accounts for different ads to determine which
ads are bringing you the responses. You can also use different
URLs to point viewers to different pages within your site. If you
have a good traffic-analysis package, you can track the increase
in visitors as a result of your ad.
• Make sure you are versed in the publication’s advertising deadlines
and ad format preferences.
Providing Articles and News Releases to E-zines
Besides advertising, a number of other marketing opportunities can be
explored with e-zines. Once you have found the e-zines that cater to
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your target market, these e-zines could be fruitful recipients for your
news releases. Refer to Chapter 21 for recommendations on news release
development and distribution. The editors might also accept articles
of interest to their readers. You might be able to incorporate
information on your products and services in an interesting article that
would fit the editor’s guidelines.
There are many e-zines looking for great content. If you can write
articles for them that provide great content for their readers and at the
same time provide a little exposure for you, it’s a real win–win situation.
You’ll want to target those e-zines that have the same target market
you do and have a broad subscriber base. You’ll want to make sure
the e-zine includes a resource box at the end of the article crediting you
as the author and providing a hyperlink to your Web site or your e-mail
address. Having articles published enhances your reputation as an expert,
and people like to buy products and services from people who are
experts in their field. You might see if you can be a contributing editor
or have a regular column or feature in their e-zine.
Besides sending your articles directly to targeted e-zines, you can
also submit them to “article banks” on-line. Article banks are online
resource sites for e-zine publishers. E-zine publishers search through
these banks for appropriate articles for their e-zine and, if they use one,
they include the resource box of the author.
Reasons You Might Start Your Own E-zine
You can start your own e-zine. Today, this is relatively easy. There are lots
of resources on-line regarding e-zine development and administration.
Don’t make this decision without much thought, though, as you can damage
your reputation if you don’t deliver consistent, valuable content.
There are a multitude of reasons that you should consider developing
and distributing your own e-zine. E-zines can be an extremely effective
online marketing tool for the following reasons:
• You become established as an “expert.” By providing your readers
with valuable articles related to your area of expertise, you
become, in their eyes, a valued and trusted expert.
• You establish trust. The first time someone visits your Web site,
he or she has no idea who you are, how capable you are, or how
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professional you are. Sure, visitors get an impression from the
look and feel and content of your site, but are they ready to do
business with you? By providing them with free, valuable content
over a period of time, you earn your visitors’ trust, and they
are more likely to turn to you when they need the type of product
or service you provide.
• You generate significant traffic to your Web site. Your e-zine
should always reference and provide a hyperlink to something
available from your Web site. Once your visitor links through,
there should be elements that encourage him to stay awhile and
visit a number of pages on your site. The more often people visit
your site, the more likely they are to do business with you.
• You build loyalty. Relationship marketing is what it’s all about
on the Web. You build relationships over time, and your e-zine
will help you do just that. Your subscribers receive something
free from you every month. Whom are they going to do business
with when they have a need for your product or service?
People prefer to spend their money with businesses they know
and trust.
• You stay current with your customers and potential customers.
When you are in front of your subscribers every month, you’re
not too easy to forget. You can keep them up to date on what’s
new with your company and your products and services, or
what’s new in your area of expertise.
• You grow your database. See Chapter 14 for tips on how to
build your database.
Developing Your Own E-zine
If you do start your own e-zine, you should spend sufficient time planning
and testing before you publish to ensure that you do it right. You
don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, and you want
your readers to subscribe and tell others about the great e-zine they
found. You want them to be excited to read your e-zine every time it is
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delivered to their e-mail box. The following tips will help you in your
e-mail-based e-zine planning and preparation:
• Provide great content. This goes without saying. If you have
content that people want to read, they will remain subscribers.
Don’t think that shameless self-promotion is great content; your
target audience certainly won’t. As a rough guide, make sure
your e-zine is 80 percent rich content and no more than 20 percent
promotion and ads. Your e-zine should be full of what your
target market considers useful information.
• You should keep length a consideration because you want your
e-zine to be read and not put aside for later because it is always
too long to read quickly. In this case, less is more. Subscribers
should be able to read your e-zine in five minutes or less. If you
do have a lengthy article, you might give a synopsis in the e-zine
with a hyperlink to more detail on your Web site.
• Limit your content to four or five dynamite articles for an e-mailbased
e-zine. Provide a brief table of contents at the beginning
of the e-zine. Keep the copy short and to the point.
• Keep your line length under 60 characters including spaces to
avoid word-wrap issues.
• Encourage your readers to send a copy to others they feel might
be interested in your great content. Make sure you provide subscribing
instructions as well for those who receive these forwarded
copies (Figure 22.4). You should also provide instructions
on how to opt out, or unsubscribe.
• Test your e-zine with different e-mail programs to ensure that
your e-zine looks the way you designed it no matter which e-mail
program your reader uses. Send test copies to friends with different
e-mail readers such as Outlook Express, Netscape Mail,
Pegasus Mail, and Eudora. See how it looks, make sure that
word-wrap is not an issue, and make sure the hyperlinks work.
• Keep your subscriber addresses private and let subscribers know
your privacy policy.
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As the word about your e-zine spreads, you will have a large community
of people who fit your target market reading it.
Once you have your own e-zine, you’ll have to:
• Promote it to your target market through newsgroups, mail lists,
your Web site, and your e-mail signature file. If you do promote
your e-zine in newsgroups and mail lists, be sure it is appropriate
to advertise your e-zine in a given newsgroup or mail list
before you post. You do not want to be accused of spamming.
However, promote your e-zine shamelessly on your site (let people
subscribe to the e-zine on your site) and in your signature file.
• Provide an opportunity for subscribers to let others know. In
your online e-zine, have a form that allows subscribers to e-mail
a copy of the e-zine to their friends and colleagues. Use a call-toaction
statement such as “Do you know someone who might be
interested in this e-zine? Click here to send them a copy.” This is
a great way to pick up additional subscribers because some of
Figure 22.4. Encourage readers to send a copy of your e-zine to a friend and
provide subscribe instructions for those who receive forwarded copies.
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the non-subscribers who read your e-zine might then become
subscribers if your content is interesting to them.
• Make it easy for people to subscribe to your e-zine. Provide
clear subscription instructions in each e-mail version of your
e-zine and on the online version. Have a form handy on your
site to collect e-mail addresses from people who wish to subscribe.
Always ask for the first name so that you can personalize
your e-zine.
• Provide an archive of past issues on your Web site so that visitors
can sample your wares before subscribing. Make sure you provide
an option for visitors to subscribe from that page as well.
• Don’t provide your list of subscribers to anyone. This protects
your subscribers’ privacy and keeps your list spam-free. Thus,
when you mail your e-zine, use the BCC feature or use a specialized
e-mail program that hides all the recipients’ addresses so
the entire list is not compromised. People will not be happy if
they start receiving spam as a result of your e-zine.