The terms Market Research and Mumbo Jumbo are synonymous to many people. A lot of people tend to dismiss research and planning as unnecessary tasks in getting their newsletters started because it sounds like a lot of work and maybe it even conjures 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.  Use our EZU Questionnaires and you will soon be on your way to developing a successful E-Zine!

Market Research: The 3 Question Approach

Mission or Purpose:
Why do you want to publish an E-Zine?

Target Market:
Who do you expect to read it?

Goals, Objectives and Meaurable Results
What do you expect to happen (or want to happen) as a result  of publishing your E-Zine?

Answer the questions to the following questionnaire and quiz and you will have assembled the basic components for your Market Research.

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?

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!