Ezines and Newsletters

Ezines and newsletters are common terms these days. Ezine is a new word derived from the shrinking of "electronic magazine." If you send your newsletter via an email system you may have it referred to in this way. A regularly sent document to a subscribers list is often referred to as an ezine. Now that we have defined the word, let us look at ezines and newsletters.

Snail Mail Newsletter

1. Be sure to hand address the envelope.

2. Once your list gets to 50+, it is worth the investment of getting some professional looking envelopes printed with your address/logo - both for the envelope and the return envelope you put inside.

3. If your newsletter is "generic" - consider adding a cover letter personalized and signed by you.

4. Be sure to include a return addressed envelope (stamp on this not required - if people are going to send a gift, they don't mind putting the stamp on.)

5. In addition to your newsletter and return envelope, you can include another piece like a prayer card or picture. In the USA you can do two pieces of paper and an insert and usually keep it under 1 ounce for postage.

Once your ezines and newsletters mailing list gets in the hundreds you may want to take the time to divide the list into priorities and that will dictate how much time you spend; for example: If your mailing list grows to hundreds are you going to hand address all of them?, or learn how to use mailing labels?

Be sure to review the philosophy of 12/120/500 as you think about this. Bottom line is you always want to keep things personal with your 12 & 120 group - it is worth the extra effort of a hand addressed envelope or including a picture!

Tip: Always send your newsletter, postal and email versions to yourself!

Ezine - Email Newsletter

Lets start from the very beginning for those who are just now starting to gather their supporters. It usually starts with sending your friends and family an email. You might be sending a weekly ezine newsletter to them. Bad habits start here and are usually never BROKEN - that is why so many missionaries are BROKE. A little play on words, but sadly too much truth to it. If you are starting your communication with just an email newsletter to those you know, begin by doing this with professionalism. Way too often I get emails that have all the email addresses stacked into the "To:" field. Not only does this violate email etiquette, but it sends the wrong message to your supporter -

"You are just one of many - you are NOT special."

Do you really want to send that message? Of course not! Your ezines and newsletters are important! As you grow your list to 50 to 100, this is what I suggest to be the simplest and no cost way to send your monthly or weekly newsletter:

After you have written your "article" and placed it into your template - then:

Then take your text and copy and paste it into a new email to be sent. You will be sending one email at a time! Put their email into the "To:" field. Subject line: include their first name(s) Ex: Joe - update from Curt

In the body - be sure to include their first name again - either where you have it placed in your template, or add it on top: "Hi Joe,"

Also - a great advantage of this "system" is you can add a line or two specific to THEM.

Ex: "So - how was Mary's graduation?" or "Thanks Uncle for the gift card - it came at just the right time!" Then send! Notice the TIP above? Start by sending yourself the first one. Even as simple as this sounds sometimes formatting can look weird when it arrives in a box.

So - if you have 24 supporters - do this 24 times. It is so worth the time & effort! You are communicating in unspoken ways - YOU are special.

Now - here is a "cheat" tip for your weekly ezine newsletter - but use it sparingly. If you simply are in a rush, you can send one email to everyone on your list - BUT, do it properly by using the BCC (stand for "blind carbon copy" - a left over phrase from the typewriter days) function in your email program. When someone gets it they will NOT see everyone else's email address, but more importantly, you are keeping the one-on-one feel to it. Obviously you will NOT be able to use their name when you "cheat" like this - you will want to use a generic greeting like - "Hey Prayer Partner!" If the majority of your emails are personalized, then doing this once in a while when YOU HAVE TO, will be OK.

Once your list gets to be 50 to 100, you will want to consider using a email service like Aweber. As with most things the trade off is between time & money. For a little money, you can save some time. Don't be in a rush to do this though. With "mass" emailing programs like this, there is one serious disadvantage: You can't add a personal line or two for each person like you can when you are sending your emails individually. When you begin to use a mass program like Aweber, don't neglect the one-on-one email or mail that still needs to happen with many of your subscribers. Remember 12-120-500 !!!

Aweber simply allows you to build a email list where you can plug in and personalize your emails through a "merge" function, so that each recipient gets a personalized email, but you only need to send it once to your group. Each service is a little different, so I won't go into the details of how it works here, but as an example - when your write the one email newsletter using your template, you will be given a code to use for a name - it may be FNAME. Where ever your service sees the code, it inserts the first name of those who are on your mailing list.

Another advantage to a service like this is the list management. People can sign up for your email newsletter automatically! The service will give you the instruction in how to that. For example, you can sign up for my missions newsletter here:

This system, like Aweber, is called "double opt-in." What that means is when they subscribe to your email newsletters they will need to confirm back to the list management system. This prevents spam complaints, and happens without you having to do anything!

Frequency

An idea that works good with your online version communication also is PayPal. Your supporters can give over the internet, and even use a credit card without you needing to open a merchant account.

The bulk of the work is up front is setting up your system. It is well worth the time and effort to get it set up and do it professionally - treating your supporters and readers with respect! Make them feel special - they are!!! Ezines and newsletters are the base of your communication - but continue to research this site for more tips and tools.

Ezines and Newsletters