NZS.com Newsletter August 2009

Is email marketing the answer to your prayers for driving visitors to your website each month? We're all eager to keep clients engaged and interested while directing more traffic to our websites. The internet can be a brilliant marketing tool for your business, and it may be easier than you think to learn the keys to a successful email marketing campaign.

Contents:

• Top Ten Sites
• Email Marketing 101
• Drive Traffic with Email Newsletters
• Reap the Rewards by Adding Your Business Details to NZS.com
• Swing by and Say 'Howdy' at the Bizzone Expo

Are you committed to communicating with your customers? If you want to revitalise your email newsletter with some help from the experts, check out the Top 10 most popular websites from our email marketing category this month.

Rank	Site Name	URL
1.	SmartMail	www.smartmail.co.nz
2.	Tech1	www.tech1.co.nz
3.	Snipermail Email	www.snipermail.co.nz
4.	Rocket Mailing	www.rocketmailing.com
5.	Digital Stream	www.digitalstream.co.nz
6.	Permission	www.permission.co.nz
7.	webContact	www.webcontact.co.nz
8.	Vmail	www.vmail.co.nz
9.	WordJot Email Newsletters	www.wordjot.co.nz
10.	GravityMail	www.gravitymail.com

Email marketing is a cost effective and speedy way to reach existing clients, but it pays to remain wary: it's easy to get lost in the sea of spam. To help make your message stand out from the crowd, try these basic tips for effective email marketing.

• Get permission from your readers. It's essential to get permission from those on your mailing list. Invite people to sign up...
• Offer discounted products or services. Treat your email recipients to something useful and lead them towards becoming loyal customers...
• Choose 'from' and 'subject' lines carefully and lessen the chances of recipients hitting the delete button...
• Let readers get in touch. An important aspect of any email marketing campaign is making it easy for readers to contact you. Let them know that you're willing to answer any queries...

Read the full article with more tips on the basics of emailing marketing on NZS.com.

Like to breathe a little new life into your email newsletter and drive more traffic to your website and business? Make your newsletters stand out and avoid the instant delete treatment with these easy and effective ideas.

Spark their interest
It sounds obvious, but it's a point that is often overlooked. Your newsletter should contain topics that are useful, interesting and add value to your client's business.

Keep it snappy
In most cases the shorter and punchier the newsletter, the better. And you can always use links to your website to provide more information.

Readers like to skim
Write so that the eye can quickly scan the email, and click to your website for more. Use headings, bold key words, interesting layout and low res graphics to make your newsletter easy to read.

Study your stats
Test and measure the traffic hitting your website. Look for peaks and troughs in traffic and test different links to different website information to learn what works best with your market.

Use web links
Give your readers several different reasons to visit your website and use a variety of links from your email newsletter for further information.

For 16 top web link ideas to use in your next email newsletter be sure to read this article in full.

You've heard all about our wonderful Website Resources, and you already know you love NZS.com, but what exactly are the benefits of claiming your website if you already have a listing in the NZS.com directory?

By claiming your website and adding your business details you can drive more traffic to your website, create targeted links to aid your site's search engine optimisation, and publish even more information about your business.

You also get a "Business Info" link next to your main NZS.com listing in the directory , which highlights your listing on the page and allows users to click through to view more information about your business.

Content you can add to NZS.com about your business;

• Add you business contact details
• Write a comprehensive Marketing Description about your company
• Add links to Social Pages relevant to your business
• Link to your blog
• Add links to your video footage on Youtube
• Include Search Tags

You even can link directly to specific pages in your website from your marketing description. Publish your business details to NZS.com and you'll be driving more traffic to your website in not time.

Got your new and improved email marketing campaign ready to go out to the masses? Claimed your website and added your business details on NZS.com?

If you have all the boxes checked and you're in Christchurch this week, pop in for a nosey at the Christchurch Bizzone Business Expo, meet the NZS.com crew, and grab some more great ideas for your business.

Following the success of the Auckland and Wellington expo, the Christchurch expo is kicking off tomorrow, from August 5 - 7 at the Christchurch Convention Centre.

The three-day expo is expected to attract more than 3000 attendees, and will feature leading international business brands through to local service providers. It's a great chance for Christchurch business owners to check out the latest business products and services, get information to manage your business better, improve productivity, increase profitability, and network with thousands of other business owners.

The theme of the 2009 Bizzone Business Expos is Smart Marketing, and all attendees will go in the draw to win $100,000 worth of smart marketing tools, including a $4000 online advertising package from NZS.com.

We're always interested in your opinion, so if you have anything you'd like to hear about in the newsletter, let us know.

Images from Flickr: Email Newsletter, Subscribe, Einstein.