08/ 22/ 2008
by Pamela Mills-Senn
I've been pestering my auto mechanic to do a newsletter. He has a website. He's launched a referral program. A newsletter is the next logical marketing step and would complement what he's doing. But he's resistant, and I can understand that. As an already overwhelmed small business owner, the idea of adding one more to-do to an overflowing list isn't appealing, especially since, compared to his other tasks, generating a newsletter probably falls somewhere near the bottom of the urgency scale. But it may be time to move it up the priority list because newsletters can offer a big (and fairly inexpensive) assist when it comes to keeping your company in peoples' forebrains.
Take the case of Phil Berstein, a media rep for Clear Channel in Portland, Ore. He started his newsletter, "Phil on Advertising," when one of his past prospects completely forgot about him.
"She called in to my radio station and gave her business to another rep," he recalls. "I found out when I heard the prospect's commercials on the air--not a good feeling."
Berstein decided he needed to find a way to stay in front of people until they were ready to advertise. His newsletter turned out to be just the ticket.
"I get a few deals from the ads I put in the newsletter, so I can point to a direct profit each year," he says. "But the real value is staying in front of several hundred people twice a month and keeping a dialogue going."
That was the primary objective for Mark Gross, president of Data Conversion Laboratory, a Fresh Meadows, N.Y.-based company that converts data for government and defense agencies.
"In our business, people don't stay up all night worrying about data conversion," Gross says. "So the question was how do you stay in front of people until they need you? The newsletter ("DCLnews," published monthly) has definitely brought us business," he continues. "There are customers who have come in because of this."
Of course, success is contingent on how well you manage the effort. In addition to determining your objectives, consider:
The form
Print or electronic? Print newsletters hang around longer, stand out more, and their pass around can be higher, says John Mariotti, author of "The Complexity Crisis," and president/CEO of The Enterprise Group, a consulting company located in Columbus, Ohio. But they're costlier than electronic ones. E-newsletters are fast and cheap, but they have to compete with full mailboxes and are easily overlooked, sent to spam, or deleted.
You also have to decide how people will access your e-newsletter. Will you send an email containing headlines and descriptions, allowing people to link to your website to read the article in full, as Mariotti and Gross do? Or, will it appear fully contained in the e-mail; the approach taken by Bernstein.
The content
You want to advertise your company/services but take a light touch and don't slant the entire content towards this objective or you'll turn people off. You have to strike a balance between advertising and communication, says Mariotti.
Try to give people information that will be immediately useful. For example, each of their "Strategy Check" newsletters includes one quick strategy readers can implement, says Erica Olsen, vice president of marketing for 3M Planning, Inc., a Reno-based consulting and software development company. Also, remember your newsletter is a reflection of your company and therefore must support your brand, she adds.
"Our brand is making strategy easier and so our newsletter has to back this up," Olsen says. "Our tag line on the newsletter is '90 Seconds of Strategy Secrets' and our position is that you should be able to read it in 90 seconds."
You can write the content yourself or enlist staff assistance. Gross says that along with articles generated internally, they also run those written by customers, potential customers or experts.
Whatever route you take, be consistent. Publishing a newsletter one month and then letting months go by until you come out with another one will undermine your company's image. Make it part of someone's job description -- even if that someone is you. And hold the responsible party accountable. Shoot for a frequency of least once a month, says Mariotti (he sends his out weekly). Anything less won't be effective.
Other tips
- Headlines must be eye-catching, especially if you're taking the click and link approach. If it doesn't grab people instantly, they won't read.
- Keep your structure uniform so people know where to find what they're most interested in from one newsletter to the next.
- Mix up long and short pieces; make it visually interesting.
In-house or out?
Gross's company sends out their newsletter from in-house using an off-the-shelf software program. But it's more common to hire on outside companies to manage distribution and even formatting. Here are a few to check out:
- Constant Contact: www.constantcontact.com
- Emma: www.myemma.com
- Mail Chimp: www.mailchimp.com
- FireDrum: www.firedrum.com
- iContact: www.icontact.com
- ExactTarget: www.exacttarget.com
