Magnetic E-zine Ads

By Alexandria K Brown
Posted Monday, July 12, 2004

One of the most effective methods of advertising your e-zine is placing ads in OTHER e-zines!

There are many reasons why, but the top three are:

1) you're advertising to other readers whom you know are already interested in e-zines

2) you can finely target other e-zines whose readers would likely be interested in YOUR topic

3) it's easy and inexpensive

First, you'll need to get your ads ripe and ready. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to write them - it should only take you about 10 minutes.

1) GIMME THE 'MEAT': WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER?

No one's going to give a hoot about your e-zine unless you tell them what they'll GET out of it.

a) What does your e-zine show, teach, or share with your reader? Write them down now.

For example, my other e-zine, 'AKB MarCom Tips,' tells how to write compelling copy for Web sites, brochures, newsletters, and other marketing communications (marcom).

b) NOW, translate those features into benefits.

By showing my readers how to write great sales copy, 'AKB MarCom Tips' helps them attract new clients/customers and increase sales. THAT's what they really care about! : )

Get your result down to one or two sentences. You now have the 'body' of your ad.

2) WRITE YOUR HEADLINE

Often times your ad will be stuck in the middle of many others. Use your headline to make YOURS stand out. Here's where you can really grab the reader, effectively saying, 'Hey, look over here!'

Your headline copy should attract attention and can either sum up your offer or highlight a benefit of your e-zine.

Also, play with CAPS and punctuation to help your headline stand out. You can put your entire headline in ALL CAPS, just capitalize special words, or use asterisks (***) or other punctuation to grab attention.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't overdo it! If you pump your entire ad full of caps and asterisks and exclamation points, it will lose credibility quickly. Grab your readers' attention, but don't cram your message down their throats.

3) INCORPORATE SOME 'POWER WORDS'

These are words that give your ad ZING and get attention quickly. Here are 16 to get you started. See if any of these apply to YOUR e-zine offer, and use them as appropriate in both your headline and body copy.

'you, free, money, profit, secret, easy, yes, save, guarantee, today, first, how to, new, now, discover, learn'

4) ADD YOUR 'CALL TO ACTION'

All good ads give a call to action. Never make your reader have to assume what to do next!

YOUR call to action is obviously to ask the readers to sign up for your ezine. Do this in your last line or two.

Example: 'Sign up NOW at (http://www....com) or by sending an e-mail to subscribe@....com.'

5) MASSAGE YOUR RESULT INTO THE TWO SIZES OF ADS YOU'LL NEED

There are generally two ad sizes you'll need for an effective e-zine ad campaign.

a) THE 'CLASSIFIED' AD: Most ezines offer spots for 5-line ads, so this is a great size to have ready-to-go. Remember to use all three components: headline, body, and call to action.

For example, here's one of my 5-line ads: **FREE: Learn How to WRITE to SELL** 'AKB MarCom Tips' will help YOU write compelling Web sites, brochures, and newsletters that attract new clients and *increase sales*. Sign up today for this FREE biweekly e-zine at (http://www.akbwriting.com)

b) THE 'SPONSOR' AD: If you choose to be a 'sponsor' of another e-zine, you'll have room for a longer ad. These are usually at the top of the issue and allow for at least 10 lines.

To write your sponsor ad, just take your classified ad and build onto it. Give us more benefits and details. Again, remember to use all three components: headline, body, and call to action.

Here's one of my sponsor ads:

--- THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR: AKB MarCom Tips ---

FREE: Learn SIMPLE copywriting tricks that attract new clients, build customer relationships, and INCREASE SALES.

'AKB MarCom Tips' shows YOU how to create compelling brochures, Web sites, newsletters, articles, and more! If you're in business for yourself, you NEED this e-zine. Your e-mail address will NOT be sold or shared.

BONUS TIP: If you have room, always offer an option to subscribe to your ezine via an e-mail command. For example, you'll see in the example above, you can subscribe to 'AKB MarCom Tips' by sending an e-mail to AKBMarCom-On@lists.webvalence.com. This is a good idea because some folks will be reading your e-zine while they're offline and can't jump to the Web, or perhaps their connection is very slow and they just don't like to get on the Web if possible.

REMEMBER -- YOUR WORDS ARE SELLING YOUR E-ZINE!

Everyone's finally catching on to the fact that publishing an e-zine is an incredibly effective self-promotional tool. That means you have plenty of competition, and that you'll have to work to SELL your e-zine to prospects. We're all so overwhelmed with information these days, that it's not enough

to just offer us something FREE -- you need to show us how it will be worth our time!

Take your time to craft a truly COMPELLING ad for your e-zine. It will be well worth it.

About the Author
Alexandria Brown's e-zine gives "how-to" tips on writing compelling copy for Web sites, brochures, and e-zines. Subscribe today by sending a blank message to AKBMarCom-On@lists.webvalence.com