If you have your own business like me, you don’t have much time to cheat on new programs. Here are some tricks I’ve learned while using Constant Contacts email marketing software to create my business newsletter.

First, gather some customers

Before you dFo anything, place a subscriber field on your website and where your portfolio will appear online. You can’t send a newsletter if you don’t have a subscriber! Once you learn the ropes of constant contact, there will be at least a few readers who will be interested – but hopefully much more!

Keep your guest registration form as easy as possible.

One day you will be lucky because someone will take the time to take care of you. The worst thing you can do right now is work for her to become a subscriber. To simplify the process, go to the Additional Constant Contact Features section, where you can “Customize the guest registration form.” In-addition-to-their-name, company name, and state, clear all the checkboxes for contact information. You can always pick up their information later if they decide to become a real customer.

Write and/or collect your articles in advance.

If you are a writer, hopefully, you have some decent material on hand stored on your hard drive. If you don’t have any articles, it’s time to write something. Do not enter it directly into the newsletter from the links. Navigating an unknown program is a big headache without trying to make a mistake. Use a word processing program that you know, and then save and save the files so that you can easily access your articles as a project.

If you are not a writer and do not want to be one, go directly to Ezinearticles.com. This website has thousands of talented writers who offer valuable tips. Many allow you to publish their work without asking (although some require a quick request for permission via email). Asking for permission to use someone’s article is a great way to expand your circle of contacts! Once you find the articles you want to list, copy and paste the text into a file on your computer.

Prepare your company logo in advance.

Constant contact allows you to insert your business logo and adjust it to match the site’s prescribed dimensions. My logo is 300 x 180 pixels, but you can shrink it to any specification. Save it as a .jpeg file and upload it to your website. You can access it later from this URL.

I decided that my imprint would look cooler than the boring type Arial as part of my logo, so I suggested the title of my publication “The Good Word: Wordfeeder.com’s Writing and Marketing Newsletter” directly to the logo. With that in mind, Go ahead and break all formatting rules.

You don’t have to type suggested details where Constant Contact is displayed. If they offer you a place where you can enter the name of the company newsletter, but your name is already in your logo, don’t just write it in the field! If you don’t like her letter Privacy Policy, write your own! All right, break the rules. If you want, delete the line where they ask for the date. Do not add useful tips as they suggest. You know you’re a deep rebel.

Set global colors and fonts before creating your articles (not after!).

The format of your newsletter should reflect the same style as your website. The selected font is Arial, color 996600-Wordfeeder’s signature Sienna brown. If you’re not sure about point sizes and headline colors, use Article 1 as your experiment template. Some types of jokes and fake names. Play with the font size several times until you are satisfied with the overall look. Then design your global colors and fonts to match. When you are ready to publish your article, you can make sure that it is designed to your liking.

Note: Global color and font changes do not affect the current text. If you entered your first article in Verdana and then Arial created your global font, guess what, your first article is still in Verdana. To save yourself a big headache, insert colors and fonts BEFORE inserting content.

When you enter the text of an article, Control-A, Control-C, and Control-V

God willing, you already know that these keys mean to mark, copy, and paste everything. This is the fastest way to transfer all text from one file or program to another. Open the original file with your article, press Control-A, and Control-C, respectively. Your text is highlighted and then stored in your computer’s memory. Now go to paragraph 1 of the constant contact article template and perform Control-V. The whole article flows into the box. Use the down arrow to lower the body of the article and insert part of the HTML paragraph in each paragraph. Use the Preview screen to make sure everything is consistent.

“But wait!” You say. “The Constant Contact article format displays one frame per paragraph. That means they want me to copy each paragraph into each frame at once.” Smell! Constant contact does not matter how you create your newsletter. They just want you to register with their software. If you want, you can copy each paragraph at once, but I do not recommend it. Just fill in the paragraph breaks and the pain of creating a newsletter will be gone before you know it.

Add images by uploading photos to your website and then pasting the URL into Constant Contact format.

It’s a difficult process and you don’t care enough about inserting a photo, but I want my newsletter to look jazz, so I use it. You can search for royalty free pictures just by visiting (www.picturequest.com) or your regular source if you have one. Select images that are relevant to your content. For example, I found a photo of a turtle pod that I used in an article about Slow Work Days. It’s up to you how much time you devote to the aesthetics of your e-mail newsletter, but I appreciate a quality presentation, so I can say go for it!

Use quick links as an opportunity for free advertising.

Again, I recommend that you deviate from the newsletter template. Here you can connect anything you want; Choosing the product you are selling, samples of writing or designing your website, or even the website of a friend or business partner. Don’t create a new information campaign from links every time you want to send your subscribers.

The “Copy Campaign” button is a much more useful tool that duplicates a newsletter that you have already completed and submitted. All you have to do is rename the campaign and replace the old articles, headlines, and photos with new ones. So if you have trouble subscribing to the first newsletter, breathe. You don’t have to worry about that again. Be sure to update all the information so that you don’t accidentally post dupey articles you came across last month!

Constant contact is a bit tricky at first, but with a little patience, you can also print articles, have your own e-newsletter and use it quickly.

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