E-Zines & Blog
As part of your website, you may want to publish an e-zine for an added feature. This is an ideal way to showcase your business. By sharing your knowledge and expertise, you build credibility as an expert, while spreading the word about your services and products.
Not sure how to start? It's easier than you might think. Start out by sharing general information about you and why you started your business. Give a short biography about your background, how long you've been scrapping and what your credentials are. This will lend to your professional image and people will take you seriously as a scrapbooking expert.
Tell success stories about customers you've helped in solving a problem. Then use that as a springboard into more general advice tips. IF you show potential customers that you are creative in solving problems, they're more likely to take you seriously. Plus, by giving general advice, they'll appreciate that you know what you're talking about.
Think of questions your past clients have asked you about scrapbooking and publish these as an "Ask The Expert" section. You can use one or two of these questions in each issue and answer with a short article addressing the problem. If you compile a list of 8 questions and use 2 per month, you've already got some great content to start with. If you publish monthly, that's 4 months of content right there!
You can write a review and summary of a recent article published in a trade magazine. This is a great way to expound on ideas that are already out there and add to any suggestions that article presents. Plus, you could prod people towards subscribing to the magazine that the article is in – we're pretty sure the magazine would be happy to have a new subscriber!
Try to do interviews with experts in the field. You can conduct this interview completely through e-mail. Look through your trade magazines or find other business owners. Send them 3-5 short questions through e-mail and then edit their answers. Be sure to give their business a short plug in your e-zine. This will make them more eager to participate – everyone loves free advertising!
Invite readers to send in their own questions or profiles along with any advice they may have and feature them as a loyal reader. They'll love to see their name "in print" and it could get the ball rolling for others to do the same.
If you're really in a crunch for content info for your e-zine, you can borrow an article for reprint. There are many available online that are free to use, but you must use the entire article and include the author's information.
One note about using other people's articles, you shouldn't do this very often. If your e-zine's main objective is to get you more clients and customers, you should not feature other writers' articles more than once in a blue moon. Showcasing other professionals on a regular basis undermines the idea of establishing YOU as the expert in your readers' minds.
Blogs
As part of your website, you will also want to include a blog section. Although we're relatively sure you know what a blog is, for clarification, it's a place where you can write down thoughts, musings, suggestions, give advice – practically anything you can think of.
A blog is another form of communication with your customer base. A blog allows you to keep visitors informed of new arrivals, shipment delays, and pre-orders. It also allows you to share your enthusiasm for the hobby, and what products you're excited to play with.
Best of all, it allows for two-way communication – you can present information, and visitors can leave comments, so you can get a sense of what they're thinking and what they want. The comments feature of a blog also allows you to solicit feedback – ask what products customers want you to stock, offer choices of this product line or another.
You can encourage participation by asking a question of the week, or offering product challenges, or holding a contest for the name of your newsletter. All of this can be done with a blog.