The Handbook of Ezine Publishing

An Easy Method of Market Research

Does the mere mention of the word "Research" conjure up visions of late nights at the library, endless searches, or just in general a feeling of---blech!!!

Don't panic. Market Research can be your new best friend! Why? Because it will help you to focus on what you want from your e-zine. Start your Market Research by completing the following Questionnaire, Quiz and Checklist. It's easy and fun. You will soon be on your way to developing a successful e-zine!

Questionnaire: E-zine Profile Questionnaire?
Quiz:  Who are Your Readers?
Checklist: Resource Checklist

E-zine Profile Questionnaire

1. Why do you want to start an e-zine?
2. What is the purpose of the e-zine?
3. Who do you want to read your e-zine?
4. How much do you want to cover in your e-zine?
5. How do you hope to affect your readers?
6. How often do you need to publish to reach your objectives and goals?

Read Our Sample Completed Questionnaire by
The ACME Widgets Company.

Why do you want to start an e-zine?
Our company has decided to use an e-zine to build a customer mailing list for our widgets. We want to keep in touch with our customers on a regular basis and give them pertinent information about our products and services. We also expect to offer "subscriber only" specials and introduce our ancillary products and services to our existing customer base through our e-zine.

What is the purpose of the e-zine?
To develop a customer mailing list and an e-mail marketing campaign using our company e-zine.

Who do you want to read your e-zine?
Current customers, visitors to our site who have not yet purchased from us (potential customers), anyone who might be interested in our widgets.

How much do you want to cover in your e-zine?

Tips List: Our company wants to publish a list of Top 5 Tips for our widgets. We would like our tips list to feature the Top 5 ways to "do something" with our widgets.Our Tips feature will also include suggestions from our customers with a little bit of information about the customer.

In-depth reviews: Our  e-zine will feature an in-depth review of a new software widget in every issue. The review will be an extensive and detailed review complete with a technical opinion.

Digest: Compilation of Lists: Our e-zine will include a list of news articles relating to the widget industry. The list will be hyperlinked to the articles on the web so that our readers can jump to each article.

Questions and Answer: Our e-zine will include a Question and Answers section. The featured questions will be selected from our customer Service Department's list of frequently asked questions.

Guest columnist: Our e-zine will always include an article by a guest columnist. The article will be related to the widget industry and written by an industry expert.

Classified Ads: Once our subscription base reaches 1,000 members, we will accept classified ads on a limited basis. We will accept 10 classified ads - up to 5 lines - at a cost of $50.00 per ad.

Contests: Each issue will feature the winner of our widget software.

How do you hope to affect your readers?
We want to develop a loyal following from our current customers. We want to build a relationship of trust and confidence with our customers and potential customers so that they will buy from us in the future. We want our readers to forward our newsletter to friends for referrals.

How often do you need to publish to reach your objectives and goals.
We want to publish a monthly e-zine. Because our e-zine will be comprehensive, we think our readers will be overwhelmed if they receive it more frequently. Our industry is well-suited to a monthly newsletter.

End of Sample Questionnaire!

Quiz:  Who are Your Readers?

Who?

Men or women: Are your readers mostly men or women or evenly divided?

Age range: How old are your readers?

Geographic location:  Where do they live? Are your readers concentrated in one location? Are they all over the world?

What?

What do they read? Is there any one publication that you would expect most of your readers to read? Do they read the Wall Street Journal, The Journal of American Medicine, Hot Rod Cars, Fishing Magazines, Consumer Magazines, etc.

What are their interests? Is your newsletter a hobby for them or business related or both? For example: If your business is travel related, what else would your customers be interested in? Places to eat? Shop?

What is their income level? Does your product or service tell you anything about income levels? For example: are you selling custom made swimming pool covers in Minnesota?

What is their Education Level? Is your product or service targeted at a particular profession - lawyers, accountants or doctors? Are your readers already knowledgeable about your topic? Is your product or service geared toward beginners, intermediate or advanced audiences?

What is their attitude about your product or service? Is this something they need? Want to have? Is it fun or is it work? Do they feel good after using your product or service? Example: Car maintenance - we all know it has to be done. Some people love this stuff - others (like me) just can't find the excitement in it!

Why?

Why are they unique? Is this a "rite of passage" purchase? First car? First anything?

Where?

Where is the best place to get their attention? At the point of purchase?

Where are they online? Newsgroups? Discussion Groups? Mailing Lists? AOL? CompuServe? Game Centers?

Where do they live? Is your product or service relevant only to certain geographic areas?

When?

When is the best time to get their attention? Morning, noon or night? What day is best? Perhaps beginning of the month, middle of the month, end of the month? January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. Is any one season better than another? Is your business seasonal? Holidays? Tax Time?

How

How are your readers like you? Do you have the same interests? Are you from the same part of the world? The country? The state? They city? Do you all like to wear hats? Drive the same kind of cars? Play the same sports? Eat the same foods? Well, you get the idea.

How are your readers different from you? Is your newsletter trying to persuade someone to "do" something differently from what they are currently doing?

Congratulations. You have completed the basic requirements for research to develop your e-zine. Once you start publishing your e-zine, you can survey your subscribers to stay on top of any changes in your readers' profile!

Back to Handbook Table of Contents!