Creating a newsletter has many, many advantages. You’ll be able to follow-up on current customers but also get potential customers interested and kick them off the fence.

What’s more, it will help you promote your business and in return help you sell more products because of the relation you build up.

What you should write about

The goal is to turn potential customers into real customers. Simple but true.

What you write about in your publication should be informative but not bore the crap out of people. Also you should try to avoid hype. Simply add your own personality and see how it will boost the response of your readers. It really helps.

Don’t forget to acquaint your customers about the new stocks, offers and discounts in your web store.

Layout of the newsletter

You have to avoid making people think you are spamming the living daylight out of them. For instance using html messages is, in my opinion, a big no, no.

Make sure you send out each newsletter at a given time frame e.g. once a day or once a week. In this way people expect your newsletter and you’ll boost your response.

Your newsletter should have proper way of subscribing and unsubscribing.

Promoting the newsletter.

You definitely want people to read your messages right? But what is the correct way to go at it? After all, there are a million and one ways to do it.

One of the easy ways to go at it is ezine advertising. You simply spend some money, and you can either get a solo, classified, top or bottom sponsor ad. I would try to go for a solo ad as much as possible.

The owners of these lists usually took a lot of time and effort building and maintaining those subscribers. And they allow you, for a small fee, to tap into that list. It will help you focus on more important stuff like creating content for your newsletter.

If you wish to be completely independent with your newsletter, you can install your own mailing software or use your existing email software if it has developed mailing facilities.

To handle all your subscribers you need a permanent Internet connection and ample time to send all the newsletters to registered readers handle the hassles of subscriptions and un-subscriptions any time of the day which might take you just too much of your time.

Jarod Hunter kicks ass at building a list. He does it 40 hours a week and it’s fun.discover his methods and ways to make money online at homeand check his website now.

Last week, another sign that dynamic digital signage is entering media adolescence emerged with the announcement that global information and media company VNU and the In-Store Marketing Institute will jointly launch a new service to help marketers better understand how to reach and influence consumers while they shop.

A key component of the effort is the measurement of the audience for a new array of in-store marketing vehicles, including digital signage, television and radio, shelf talkers and other point-of-purchase displays.

Offered by a new VNU business unit called Nielsen In-Store (part of NielsenConnect), the service aims to give marketers and retailers alike a way to quantify in-store audiences and measure the impact of their in-store marketing efforts. The service also will deliver a means for marketers to assess the value of their in-store marketing strategies when compared to other media and marketing approaches, said VNU chairman and CEO David Calhoun.

VNU’s partnership with the In-Store Marketing Institute will allow the newly created business unit to leverage work the institute is spearheading known as P.R.I.S.M., or Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric. An important aim of the P.R.I.S.M. research is developing statistical tools to deliver audience metrics “to the category or area of the store, by retail format, and by day of the week,” according to the In-Store Marketing Institute.

Just as the recent announcement from the Screen Association of the first-ever U.K. digital signage directory reflects a maturing of dynamic signage from a technology into a legitimate media made up of identifiable networks, the announcement of Nielsen In-Store and the P.R.I.S.M. research demonstrate another aspect of its coming of age as a media, namely definable audience metrics.

With audience metrics, in-store marketers can develop a sense of confidence about the reach of in-store media in general and digital signage in particular. Out of that confidence will emerge media buys that fit the traditional mold of media decision making. In other words, marketers can justify the purchase of in-store media in the same way they justify buying radio,
television and print: based on audience size and demographics, not simply advertising rates and a wish. An article on the In-Store Marketing Institute Web site put it this way:

“Adoption of the P.R.I.S.M. model by the industry would deliver a common language for retailers, manufacturers and media buyers to assess the value of retail as a marketing channel and compare its effectiveness to other media such as TV, radio and print. It also would give marketers a metric through which to evaluate the store as a vehicle for generating brand awareness and trial, putting the store on a level playing field with other forms of mass media.”

In announcing the launch of Nielsen In-Store, global managing director George Wishart said the business unit will offer those in the ad, media and retail communities “a new currency standard that can increase the efficiency of the media buying and selling process.”

That currency -quantifiable audience metrics- is precisely what’s needed for retail digital signage to advance to the next level and take its place among mainstream ad-supported media. If Nielsen In-Store can deliver on its promise, digital signage as a medium will catapult from the media backwater reserved for funding from discretionary ad and marketing budgets into a position as a legitimate contender for top-tier advertising dollars. Immediately, it will shed the stigma that shrouds any media that come to the table without audited circulation statements or independently measured audience ratings. With
quantifiable metrics, digital signage networks can stake their claim to being a bona fide media choice and one that marketers can safely choose to carry their out-of-store advertising message past the store doors into specific departments and ultimately to the cash register.

David Little is a digital signage authority with 20 years of experience helping professionals use technology to expand their marketing messages with alternative media. Visit http://www.keywesttechnology.com and find how you can expand your marketing horizons. For further insight, download my free white paper Why Digital Signage Works.

Here we go with a few tips that might be useful for you (or your designer) you when creating the next Advertising to be broadcasted on your LEDwall. If you want to get the most out of your LEDwall (and your Customers) in terms of recognition from the audience, this article will tell which are the worst mistake people make when creating a new ad. If you don’t have a LEDwall yet, but you are thinking about getting one to start your advertising business, I’m sure you will find the next few posts very interesting as well. So lets start.

First of all, the ad duration: some people make the huge mistake of creating 30/40 seconds ads. 30 seconds? Are you crazy people? Your audience is not sitting on a sofa waiting for the next TV show! They are most probably driving-by at 30/40 km per hour and hopefully they are more focused on the street rather than your screen.

Still they should be able to see the entire Ads, from start to end while passing by. So what’s the point of creating a wonderful Ad, if they can not read the advertiser’s phone number and address at the end because the ad is too long?! From my experience an Ad should be maximum 10 seconds in length (rarely 15).

Longer ads are pointless because either your target sees the beginning but not the end, or vice-versa. In both cases, 1. you didn’t get the message across, 2. the audience did not find an interesting message on your LEDwall, therefore will have no interest in doing it again in the future and 3. your Customer didn’t get much in return for his investment, which should be your very first concern if you want him to come and buy your services again in the future.

Of course there are exceptions to the “10 seconds” general rule, say for LEDwalls installed in pedestrian areas, where people have more time to watch the LEDwall. But as I said, those are exceptions. They are rare. And anyways 30 seconds is still too much, even in these cases.

If you read my past articles, you know why text and numbers appear blurry on a LEDwall with virtual pixel. You can not solve that, but at least try not to make it worse! The first rule of formatting when creating text (ie. the address, phone number etc) for a LEDwall AD is… Ready? Make letters BIIIG! At least 1/4 of the screen! I cant understand those designers that create super small text, that might look nice on their PC or MAC monitor when they create it, but its terrible when broadcast on the LEDwall.

Second rule of formatting: do not apply shades or glossy effects on text. Get it? As said before, this fancy effects might look nice on the monitor, but they definitely they are not cool on the LEDwall. The reason for it is that, despite of its huge size, the LEDwall has actually less pixels than you PC monitor. Much less pixels. So it is pointless to create special shining effects on a 5 centimetres letter that look big on a PC but its invisible on a LED screen.

Third rule of formatting: use sans serif fonts only. If the text looks blurry on the LEDwall, we should make any possible effort to make things better. Serif fonts (ie. Courier, Times New Roman etc) are very nice on the PC monitor but they do have the serifs which add pointless “noise” to the text and make it look less clear. Imagine this situation amplified by the “blurry” effect of the virtual pixel. Not good.

Instead use Sans Serif fonts such as Verdana or Tahoma, as they appear much more readable on the LEDwall. And if you absolutely have to use a “noisy” font, at least please use it in big size.

Fourth rule of formatting: use contrasting colors. Over 20 years ago Ms Karen Claus published a table, indicating the color-match with the best contrast ratio. She did it for the classic static signage, but the principle is still valid today. According to her research and studies, the best matches are: black on yellow; black on white; yellow on black; white on blue; yellow on blue; green on white; blue on yellow; white on green. Please use text colors in such combinations and try to avoid such things as pink-on-red.

Fifth rule of formatting: the most plain the text is, the better. On LEDwalls, you have 10/15 seconds to make your ad memorable. It means that if the text is not clear at the first sight, people wont give it a second chance. Remember that they are most probably driving at about 35 km/h and hopefully they are more concerned about the road rather than about a fuzzy headline.

Fabio Aversa is marketing manager at Euro Display Srl, the manufacturer of LED walls, giant screens and LED displays and author of the FREE ebook How to make money with your LED giant screen in 7 easy steps