Driving traffic to your web site: what newsletter publishers must know.

The web is turning whole industries upside down. We know that it's affecting the newsletter business, but since we're so close to it, it's hard to see the forest for the trees. Let's look at a few other industries that might help us see the big picture:

* Consumers can instantly compare prices from more than a dozen life insurance companies. Do they need agents anymore?

* Manufacturers can sell directly to the public. Do they need reps and distributors anymore?

* New web-based competitors are springing up all over the place. For example, a few years ago, almost all executive recruiting in the $30,000-$150,000 range was done offline. Suddenly, job boards like Monster.com have started stealing business from both offline recruiters and newspaper ads. Monster even advertised on the Super Bowl. But new players are emerging, and they offer employers more than Monster.com. Will they eat Monster.com's lunch?

* Consumers can find massive amounts of free information on the web. Do they need paid subs to magazines and newsletters?

Maybe--and maybe not. We do know that they need information that is:

* Untainted by special interests. That can be hard to find on the web!

* Reliable and accurate. That can also be hard to find on the web.

* Balanced, providing opposing viewpoints of an issue. You don't always get that from web sources.

* Interpreted, so you know what its significance is. Again, that's a scarcity on many sites.

Now these are all things newsletter publishers have delivered for years. So can't we just keep on doing what we've been doing? No way! Because the internet has changed things for us big time, in three ways:

1. With so much "free" information available, a lot of people are confused about the value we add--yes, even our own subscribers. So we have to make the case for the value of our content. And we have to be outspoken about it.

We have to monitor the "free" competition, find their errors, and show both prospects and subscribers the real cost of "free" information. How much will it cost you if you make a strategic decision based upon wrong data--that you got from a free" web site?

2. The second way the internet has changed our playing field is that our subscribers and prospects are exposed to information that is packaged in many new ways. As a result they want us to package our information differently now.

They want it on demand. They want it in smaller, less expensive portions. And they want it in different formats. When you think about it, that's not really new, it's just a variation on a theme. Only more so than ever, and with more of an electronic component than ever.

3. Another way the web has changed things is that we have new prospects we haven't reached before who are now visiting our web sites. They may be interested in our subject matter, but they may not be ready to pay for an expensive subscription yet.

If you have some free content on your site, you have a chance to keep them interested and a shot at getting them to visit again. If you don't, why drive them there? There's nothing there for them.

If you have low-cost content, you have a chance to convert them to paying customers--even though they are not subscribers in the traditional sense of the word. And since these prospects may take a longer time to buy, you need a strategy with a variable sales cycle.

Other products besides newsletters use this tiered strategy. For example, hotpaper.com, a document creation service, offers a fee-based version and a "lite" version that is free. So do software makers.

Yale's First Theorem of Web Site Success

"Now why in the heck is he talking about marketing strategy," you may be asking yourself. "He promised to talk about driving traffic to my web site." You're right, and I'm getting to that.

But Yale's First Theorem of Web Site Success is that you can't separate driving traffic to your site from what happens on your site when the traffic gets there. That's why you need to look at marketing strategy first.

Here are some of the smaller, but still critical, strategic questions you must consider before you start building your plan to drive traffic to your web site.

How are you going to take charge of the selling process once a visitor arrives at your site? Will you let your prospects wander, or will you guide them where you want them to go? You have to be very careful here, and do much of your guiding with suggestions and visual cues, because people have come to expect freedom of movement on a site.

What options will you offer prospects who are not ready to buy now? This is where relationship marketing comes into the picture. If you can involve prospects in your site on an ongoing basis, you have a better chance to make a sale. This is called locking them in. Here are some ways to involve them:

* Provide products they will want to use on a regular basis. A site for a building contractors' newsletter could provide a calculator for determining heating and air conditioning requirements. Contractors will want to use that calculator for every job they do.

* Give them a framework to construct a database that you update regularly. For example, a site for a raw materials newsletter could let manufacturers enter a list of the raw materials they use and your site could update the cost for the materials daily.

* Offer prospects a free e-letter that provides useful information--and that sells, as well. Food For Health Newsletter attributes 20 percent of their sales to their free e-letter. Check this one out. Publisher Judy Doherty does a masterful job with www.foodandhealth.com/epicks.htm.

Yale's Second Theorem of Web Site Success

Now this brings us to Yale's Second Theorem of Web Site Success: We have to pay attention to three areas when we seek to drive traffic to our web sites:

* What we do on our sites

* What we do online, but not on our sites

* What we do offline.

Why the online-offline mix? The latest research by Forrester shows that large web site managers are splitting their ad dollars down the middle: 52 percent offline and 48 percent online. That is why we need to change our marketing mix, which has traditionally relied largely on direct mail.

Yale's Third Theorem of Web Site Success

But no matter which media you use to drive traffic, you have to persuade your prospects to come to your site by motivating them with an offer. And that offer has to be fascinating and unique to get them to act. This is Yale's Third Theorem of Web Site Success. We know this as direct marketers. But we don't always apply it to this newfangled web thing yet.

There are a number of powerful online tools you can use to drive traffic to your web site.

First are the search engines. Unless you're in a highly specialized niche, 80 percent of your search engine-generated traffic will most likely come from the top ten engines. See Robert Woodhead's study that proves this at www.selfpromotion.com/research.t?CF=Annie&MAG=1.

Maximizing your results with search engines is a continual process. Thousands of new web sites are added daily, so even if you have top billing now, you have to make sure you still do tomorrow. You can quickly become a search engine maven by reading Danny Sullivan's free newsletter, Search Engine Watch, the source on search engines anywhere. Check it out at www.searchenginewatch.com.

The next tool for driving traffic to your web site is links. But be careful here. To get a link, you probably have to give a link first. Links on your web site divert traffic away from you--traffic you've worked very hard to build.

There are two good ways to handle this:

1. Cluster your links on a few of your pages--and leave the others linkless.

2. Use links that open up a smaller window on your site, and close that window when the user is finished with it. Although users can view links on your site, they never leave it.

Still another online promotion tool is e-zine marketing. E-zines are web-based magazines. There are thousands of them. Some e-zines reach highly targeted audiences you may not be able to reach otherwise. E-zine ads can cost as little as $10, and they have a better reach than some smaller mailing lists, with an average circulation of 9000.

About half of e-zines accept ads. Ads at the top of an e-zine screen, and ads and ads mixed into editorial work best.

Would an e-zine on your topic be a competitor? Maybe. But that's not the question. If they'll take out your ad, it doesn't matter--and they can help you reach a segment of your marketplace. And if they won't take your ad, they may accept content with a credit line. Or they may be open to other mutually beneficial arrangements.

Here are two e-zine directories that can help you find ones for advertising and publicity: htttp.//EzineCentral.com and http.//List-Resources.com/s/Promotion/Directories.

Our next tool for driving traffic to your web site is media publicity. That's where you earn coverage in newspapers, magazines, and e-zines--and on the radio, television and web news sites.

How do you earn coverage? By providing journalists with interesting, accurate, newsworthy material. You have an advantage here. You are journalists. So you know exactly what other journalists need to develop newsworthy stories.

But you're objecting again. I can hear you. "I'm in a unique niche. My competitors won't accept my stories, and the more generalized media aren't interested."

Now hold on a second! Remember, you're journalists. You have a huge advantage. You can figure out a news peg in your sleep. So figure out a news peg that interests the mainstream press. You could get high-visibility coverage as a result.

Even though they may be interested in your niche, beat reporters at Business Week, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and similar publications may not know enough to develop a story without your sparking the idea and helping them along.

Keep in mind that even the journalists at prestigious national publications need publicity material--especially now that the web has increased deadline pressure. There are thousands of electronic journalists who face hourly deadlines, and they continually need material for their stories. [*]

But there's a big problem. With the explosion of dot-coms and high tech companies, there aren't enough seasoned publicists to go around. So, many of the PR agencies are using inexperienced people. People who can't explain the product. People who can't write a news story. And people who don't know the ground rules of publicity.

Journalists are furious. They are deluged with press releases and phone calls that are not newsworthy. "I cannot remember the last useful phone call I've received from a PR representative," says Joel Garreau, features and assignment editor at The Washington Post, as quoted in Soft-letter, October 28, 1999.

He's one of many who are saying this. But you are a journalist. You know what journalists need. You could be the shining exception in Joel Garreau's day. Especially if you don't send journalists press releases.

What do you send them instead? Pitch letters. Give them

(*.) An excellent example of what David Yale is talking about is M. Lee Smith Publishers' new Workplace News Source, taglined "The Business Journalist's Source for Workplace Story Ideas, Trends, and Authoritative Sources Available for Interviews and Features." It's sent free to about 250 media outlets.

Stories ideas are culled from 125 workplace-related newsletters published by Smith. One sidebar is just a list of catchy headlines from the newsletters--to entice journalists and editors to ask for more.

And because Smith's newsletters are state-specific, journalists are able to localize their stories by asking for information on sources in any of the 50 states. a one-paragraph synopsis of the story. Explain why this story will interest their readers. Tell them what resources you can help them with, including documents, studies, and experts to interview. Suggest other sources they can turn to, besides you. Give them links to documents on your web site.

Will those so-called free web sites have the resources to get this kind of information? Will your competitors?

Finally, there's one thing you must always keep in mind when you're involved in developing strategy and driving traffic to your web sites. You've got a great product. Now don't let your prospects forget that for one minute, okay?

Tell them your story, loud and clear. Make them an offer they can't resist. And they'll drive to your web site in droves.

David R. Yale, Direct Marketer is based in Bayside. NY. He specializes in breakthrough DM and web site creative, web marketing strategy, and information product design. His client list includes AT&T, Fujifilm, Georgetown Publishing House, Staffing Industry Analysts, TradeWins Publishing, and Verlag Norman Rentrop. The author of The Publicity Book, a Fortune Book Club selection, Yale has published articles in Direct, DM News, NEPA's Hotline, Meetings & Conventions and NL/NL. You can view his work at