I'd like to sell sponsorships for my email newsletter. Any tips?
Dear Emma,
We started using Emma recently to send our email newsletter. It's a fine email newsletter if I do say so myself. We also don't have much of a budget for this (okay, for anything) and that got us thinking that perhaps we should sell ads or sponsorships. Do people do this sort of thing, and if so, do you have any suggestions on how to go about it?
Sincerely,
Budget Conscious in Buffalo
Dear BC,
Offering sponsorships for your newsletter is a fantastic idea. You can cover the cost of the newsletter, or you can even generate a little newsletter profit that can be used to send more newsletters, or to pay for that printer/copier/faxer/croquet-player that's been on your office wish-list for months. We've allowed this newsletter to be sponsored by several popular household items as an example of how such a thing might look (many folks will choose a more top-down approach and include sponsors at the top and the bottom, or the top, middle and bottom if they're feeling particularly saucy). Experiment with different layouts in your own newsletter, and consider these tips as well:
Looking for newsletter sponsors? Start with the people who read it.
Your subscribers are already interested in what you're saying, and most of them have jobs. By including a note in the newsletter inviting people to sponsor it, you're likely to drum up interest.
Decide on your ad specs before you start.
Coming up with a simple set of rules (images can be no larger than 100 x 100, or text can't exceed 75 words, etc.) will make sure the ads you receive are consistently formatted and, well, look nice.
Include both a graphic and caption for each ad, and link both.
Remember that not everyone will receive the html version, and that not everyone knows to click on images. So include both and be sure to link them both back to the sponsor's website.
Use Emma's response tracking to let sponsors know how they're doing.
One of the big advantages of email advertising is the tracking - Emma already tells you how many people (and who) saw the email and clicked on each link. Now, you can use that same information to let sponsors know how much exposure they're getting.
Offer sponsorship packages.
You might consider offering people a discounted package price if they buy, say, a quarter's or a year's worth of spots. Do what you can to encourage long-term buys and you can cut down on the administrative work (and receive more money up front).
Best of luck, and, as always, if Ask Emma has left you with more questions than when we began, by all means ask away...
Cheers,
Emma