Have you thought about creating a colorful, attention-getting emailed newsletter? I did, for too long! When I got serious about it, though, I found two barriers:

1. It very difficult to create something that was colorful, easily read, and concise. I didn’t want to create just another bunch of words.
2. It proved challenging to distribute a colorful newsletter

To overcome these barriers, my terrific assistant, Laurel Petite, researched newsletters and created the one I now use. I must admit I know NOTHING about the technical aspects, so don’t call and ask me! However, Laurel has provided me the notes I’m passing on here for you--the step-by-step process she went through to get to the product and distribution we now use. At the bottom of this article is a way to register for the newsletter, so you can see a sample of it.

Creating Your E-Newsletter

Here are two ways to create your e-newsletter:

1. The simple way is to use a template provided by an email newsletter distributor, such as CoolerEmail. (See the information on CoolerEmail below). You can get creative with colors and fonts, etc.
2. Slightly more time consuming, and requiring technical expertise, is to create a webpage yourself, using software such as Microsoft FrontPage.

If you create your own e-newsletter template, you must have absolute links (to photos, etc), and will need to know some HTML.  This would be a good choice for you, if you’re trying to duplicate a look, such as a copy of your web site. Our newsletter looks like the home page of our website. When we created the newsletter, I wanted to name it “CrossTalk”, but I also wanted the same font look as my Carla Cross signature. Since that original signature was created by a graphic artist years ago, I had to have the CrossTalk also drawn. Mitch Albala, one of our chapter affiliates, did a terrific job on this.

Distributing Your Newsletter

We originally pulled our data from our ACT database, using free software provided by CoolerEmail www.cooleremail.com. Register with them and take a free ’test drive to see if you like it. CoolerEmail can be synched each month with ACT (or other databases, probably) before you send your report.  The cost per month for CoolerEmail depends upon how many emails you send. For example, up to 500 is $29.95; up to 5000 is $59.95.

Once you’ve created your newsletter, if you’ve created it yourself, upload it to CoolerEmail, and send one copy to yourself first, to make sure it looks OK. You can manage several databases in CoolerEmail.  We have one for our Cross Institute monthly email to Washington state agents and managers, and we have the newsletter group that goes to everyone.

Tracking the Interests of Your Prospects

Once the email is sent, you receive a report from CoolerEmail letting you know who has  received the email, who has read it (and how many times) and if they’ve clicked any links.  There is an up-to-date graph that lets you know what percentage of contacts have read, clicked or unsubscribed.  Contacts may register for your newsletter, or unsubscribe very easily.  CoolerEmail tracks and takes care of all of these requests. This is a great way to target certain recipients’ interests.  For example, everyone who clicks on your ‘meeting planner’ link, could be sent a preliminary ‘meeting planner’ package.

E-Newsletter Pays Off

We were paying $50 to our real estate multiple listing service to advertise our real estate  courses. We didn’t get any referrals from this ad. We’re now spending this $50 on CoolerEmail.  Each time we send a newsletter, the number of hits to our website spikes  dramatically. The hits per day triple right after the newsletter appears, and the hits in  general have more than doubled. We also advertise a particular product in each e- newsletter. The orders for those products and others go up each time our target  audiences receive the newsletter. We are also getting dozens of emails of positive and  encouraging feedback, too, which are fun to read and help us keep writing!

To see a copy of our newsletter, go to www.carlacross.com, and click on the Newsletter button to register.  If you scroll to the bottom, you can register yourself and refer friends, a service also provided to us by CoolerEmail, which of course expands the distribution list .

Good luck and good prospecting with your new e-newsletter!

NSA Northwest
PO Box 5755
Bellevue, WA 98006-0255
Phone/Fax: 425-458-5771
info@nsanorthwest.org

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