Tony Alessandra Celebrity Guru

Dr. Tony Alessandra is the expert at creating newsletters and e-zines and generating passive streams of revenue from them. With roughly 65,000 subscribers, he has developed one of the world’s most successful newsletters and, by selling 70 products, he is able to use his newsletter to generate an average of $8,000 a month in sales and growing monthly. Dr. Alessandra is also an expert at reading people. With the publication of his book The Platinum Rule® (Warner Books 1996), he simplified the field of personality style assessment by outlining the four basic personalities of the business world. He is the creator of The Platinum Rule Behavioral Style Assessment, an online tool that reveals why we hit it big with some people and fall flat with others. It's used by Microsoft, Sprint, Sears, Toshiba, Bank of America, The University of Phoenix, and Purdue University to assess the individualized training and development needs of employees and students, as well as to build teams, and develop leaders and salespeople. Dr. Alessandra is the author of 14 books including Charisma (Warner Books, 1998); Collaborative Selling (John Wiley & Sons, 1993); Communicating at Work (Fireside, 1993), and the best-selling Non-Manipulative Selling (Fireside, 1992). He has an MBA from the University of Connecticut and a PhD in marketing from Georgia State University. To learn more about Dr. Alessandra or to sign up for his newsletter and receive your free weekly tips, please click here or visit his website at http://www.alessandra.com

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Why have a free newsletter

For strictly marketing purposes, having a newsletter is a great way to build your database. In addition, when you create a newsletter, you not only provide your subscribers with valuable information, you also create a mechanism to reach out and touch your subscribers every month or week, or any time period. I actually like newsletters better than blogs because with a blog your reader must come to you; with a newsletter, you are showing up in your subscriber’s inbox every week or so with a valuable message. And, everyone who receives your e-zine is a potential customer. Whether you are selling your services or products, each newsletter is an opportunity to generate revenue. It is also a chance to increase recognition and grow your business.

Text or HTML?

E-zines can be created in plain text or HTML (HyperText Markup Language) format – the same code that is used to create web pages. At one point, plain text vs. HTML format for newsletters was a highly debated topic, but with the advancement of technology, this is no longer such a pressing issue because many websites allow you to send both formats. Still, there are a couple of things to know about each type.

Text: Text documents are the easiest to read and are less likely to be caught in spam filters. However, you have to worry about “wrapping” the text so that it looks the same in everyone’s inbox. And, all you have to work with is text color to make your content and product presentations flashy and visually exciting.

HTML: An e-zine in HTML format will display like a web page. However, not all email programs will be able to read it properly. Also, the spam rating for this type of newsletter is significantly higher than it is for a text document. However, because it looks like a website, the possibilities for design, color-scheme, and product placement are endless.

Content

It is essential that you take your newsletter or e-zine seriously and create high-value content. If you deliver sub-par information, you will quickly loose subscribers. At the same time, however, short is better than long. Many people are inundated with emails everyday. They are not going to take the time to read your weekly novel. If you can condense your message into three really pithy paragraphs and deliver great value to your reader, you are golden.

Products

Having products to sell and incorporating them into your e-zine are obviously a great way to generate income and make your newsletter profitable. I currently make on average about $8,000 a month from products people buy off of my newsletter. That’s a lot of money! I’ve been able to accomplish this by taking the time to create 70 pieces of merchandise. These range from eBooks and MP3s to assessments and soft-cover books. Podcasts and video downloads will be coming soon.

Be creative. Your products do not have to be tangible; they can be electronic. eBooks and MP3s are great items because there is no manufacturing or distributing cost. Once you pay to create the file, that’s it. It’s pure profit!

What type of promotional content is right for you?

There are three approaches to newsletter content: the type that exists to sell products, the type that exists to promote the author, and the type that purely gives information.

The goal of the first two is to promote and sell. However, make sure your content doesn’t suffer. If the quality of your e-zine goes down, you will lose subscribers and ultimately lose money. If you are a speaker, personal coach, or expert who wants to gain recognition, you should promote yourself in your newsletter. Talk about what you’ve been doing, your recent articles and media mentions, problems you have helped your clients solve, etc. After all, there is no better product than yourself, so figure out how to market your services as effectively as possible.

If you don’t like the idea of using your newsletter as a promotional devise, the solely informational option is probably what you’ll choose. While your newsletter is still valuable as a database generator, I would advise against abstaining from all promotional copy. If you are going to take the time to create a newsletter, you want it to work for you as much as it can. There is always a way to find a balance between maintaining the integrity of your newsletter and either promoting yourself or your new project/product.

Auto Responder vs. Here & Now Tips

Auto-responders (or evergreen e-zines) are a series of tips or e-zines that are created in advance and sent out at set intervals. First, you must write several tips or newsletters that you then put into a reserve database of e-zines. When someone subscribes to your newsletter or tip series, they receive the first one. Consequently, if person A signed up for your weekly tip a year ago and person B signed up yesterday, person A would be on tip 50, while person B would only be on tip 1. This is a great system if you do not want to create a new newsletter every month or week. Once you write enough tips, you can sit back and wait as your subscriber network reads through them all. However, once your readers start to catch up on the e-zines you’ve already written, you need to create more. The downside of this system is that you cannot make your tips relevant to items in the breaking news or seasonal happenings.

The Here & Now tip is an e-zine you write each week or month. If you enjoy relating your advice to current events, holidays, or seasons, or just like writing a newsletter, this is the best option for you. It is also a great way to promote your speaking engagements, current articles, or recent sightings to keep your readers up-to-date on your activities. If you are just starting out and don’t have a lot of products to promote, this might be your best option because it allows you to create visibility for your marketing efforts before you have product.

The Layout

Laying out your newsletter is extremely important. Naturally, a newsletter that is visually interesting will do better than one that is not. It is important to create continuity between your website and the newsletter. If you have a logo, a slogan, or any type of branding on your website, make sure that it is also on your newsletter. If you are using HTML, I am a proponent of creating a column that takes up one third of the page either on the left or right side. While your content goes in the middle two-thirds of the page, this side column is purely promotional. You can use this space to write catchy copy about yourself and your products or services. Or, you can create buttons that make it easy for people to buy merchandise directly from your e-zine.

All the stuff that goes in the bottom

There are a couple of items that need to be included in every newsletter, regardless of its intended use. Most importantly is an easy way for your readers to unsubscribe. Most newsletter service providers insert this link automatically and make it user-friendly.

You also need:

 A link to update contact information. If your subscriber is changing email addresses, make it easy for them to keep subscribing to your e-zine.

 A phrase about the author, i.e. “Check out Dr. Alessandra’s website at …” to keep referring your readers back to your site and products.

 A copyright notice

 A link that they can click on if they want to share the newsletter with their friends.

 If you are a speaker or author, contact information where interested parties can book you.

 A privacy policy

 A legal disclaimer

Don’t Spam!

Every newsletter or e-zine you send out gets rated by the recipient’s spam filter and, if you are not careful, could end up in their spam folder! You want to keep this rating as low as possible. To do this, be conscious of your word choice, color scheme, and background template. Certain words, like “free” or “guarantee,” and certain non-web colors or excessive use of graphics trigger spam alerts. Also, limit your database to people who have signed up to receive your newsletter and to those who you’ve done business with. By sending mail to parties who have “opted in,” you will be less likely to be flagged as a spammer.

Deciding to sell or exchange your list of subscribers

Don’t sell your list! However, you can partner with another vendor or exchange your list with someone in a data-share arrangement. If someone has a product that you think would benefit your customers, you can make an arrangement with the seller to give him or her access to your list of subscribers. You can put an advertisement in your newsletter and tie your content to this other product or service. However, make sure that the product you are promoting is not, in any way, in competition with your products or services. Also, you should create an agreement with the other vendors with whom you are exchanging marketing lists so that they promote your products and services in their newsletters. This type of agreement, or exchange of lists, is a great way to expand your marketing reach and also maintain the integrity of your newsletter and the loyalty of your readers.