Common wisdom out there is that you need both a blog and an e-zine to maximize your mediation marketing reach online. While that initially seems like a lot of writing, keep in mind that you can often “re-purpose” your e-zine or blog writing for use in the other tool, because subscribers to your ‘zine may not be the same people who subscribe to your blog.
There are several good, no- or low-cost e-zine services that make producing and distributing an email newsletter easier. You will, of course, want something that looks very professional, complies with spam laws, and has simplified distribution mechanisms. These programs can help:
- Constant Contact is highly regarded and easily the most frequently used service I see for ‘zines I receive. It’s free for lists with 50 or fewer people on them, then $15/month for lists up to 500. Constant Contact offers a number of templates you can use as is or adapt slightly to reflect your own business colors, logo and look.
- IntelliContact charges $9.95/month for lists up to 500 members. The interface is straightforward and like most good services, they offer templates as well.
- Campaign Monitor is also highly regarded. As with Constant Contact, there are no setup fees, but Campaign Monitor charges a flat fee of $5 plus 1 cent per recipient for lists over 5 people. They say they structure their fees this way because they anticipate that users will pass that cost along to clients (such as web designers who manage lists for their clients).
There are lots and lots of other such programs out there. Is there one you use and love and I haven’t included it in the above list? Do tell! Write a comment below.
And if you haven’t yet taken my most recent poll on marketing mediation, I’d love it if you’d do it now! You can find it at Marketing Mediation: What Are Your Obstacles?
Making Mediation Your Day Job by Tammy Lenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at MakingMediationYourDayJob.com.
I just discovered your blog and loved it! I am running a telephone mediation program, do alot of training and rely heavily on pro bono mediators.
I’d like to set up a blog and e-zine to serve my pro bono mediators.
Where do I begin and note we are a non-profit with little to spend.
Grateful for any advice.
Great list! I have used AWeber and Mail Chimp for clients — and like them both. AWeber offers a lot of really great features including unlimited delivery and a lot of really nice premade templates. You can also segment lists to have better control of who you email.