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How Fiery Phoenix Will Run A Newsletter Project?
By Babs Rudlin - SEO Consultant

So now you have decided to commission Fiery Phoenix to produce your newsletter, this is a description of the methodology that they will use. The project is split into the following four phases:

• Exploratory Discussion and Planning
• Design and Coding
• Testing
• Delivery and Support

First Phase – Exploratory Discussion and Planning

The most important phase, bar testing! Your whole newsletter campaign hinges on the discussions you have at this stage. Here are just a few of the things to consider.

The client decides, in consultation with Fiery Phoenix, the differing types of newsletter/email marketing they wish to send out. For example quarterly news, e-coupons, discount codes, holiday e-cards, event invitations, internal newsletters to employees, etc. This will determine the initial number of managed lists and the associated email templates that need to be designed. For example, four general seasonal templates and the various holiday templates.

Fiery Phoenix and the client will discuss the targeting of their marketing and sales. Do they send direct mail to customers based on region, by industry, or by their company title? For example, if the client is a franchise, and they send updates to franchisees by region, the signup form will include a “region” field. Good planning at this stage is vital to the success of the project.

Which email account will the client use for their email marketing? They will decide whether it should appear to come from something like “newsletters@abcd.com” instead of bob.jones@abcd.com. Decide on appropriate names, because they need to be used consistently and for a long time to ensure spam filters become accustomed to accepting emails from this address.

Fiery Phoenix will discuss the clients’ privacy policy with them to discover any possible conflicts, i.e. like “giving emails to a 3rd party”. When email marketing is sent out, a 3rd party site usually hosts your list. This is all quite normal in email marketing, but some privacy policies are written with web-browsing privacy in mind, and are too broad.

Second Phase – Design and Coding

This is the technical phase - don't worry this is our bit! Fiery Phoenix will create your newsletter request, your newsletter designs, holiday emails, internal emails, etc. These will all be based on the discussions you have had during the exploratory phase. Fiery Phoenix will populate the designs with the content that you will have supplied.

Third Phase – Testing

As with all our projects the email newsletter will be thoroughly tested and quality checked before release. It is surprising how many minor spelling and grammar mistakes creep in and that is why Fiery Phoenix uses independent assessors who have not done the coding!

Fourth Phase – Delivery and Support

With the delivery of the newsletter you will get support from Fiery Phoenix on any questions you may have. Fiery Phoenix will produce statistical reports, even providing ROI figures where appropriate, on the campaign once it has been delivered and will discuss them with you, including what they may mean for future campaigns. You will not be alone!