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Looking at Newsletters in a New Light
by Brian Cavoli
The good old newsletter has always been an important customer communication tool, but with services like iMakeNews they’ve become an increasingly more important part of the marketing mix. Most people know how effective a newsletter can be for updating customers with product and company news, but how many think of it as a powerful new business marketing tool? In fact, this may be one of the least expensive and most effective tactics you can use.
The Battle of Clutter
The battle of clutter is one of the big problems marketing managers face. There always seems to be too much competing noise and not enough budget in your pocket. Email is no exception as there is more commercial email being sent than ever before and new filtering tools will make it even harder to break through. A newsletter marketing plan may be your answer. Whenever you can touch a prospect, (in person, on your website or in your advertising) try driving them to your newsletter. Now, instead of always contacting a customer to ask them for something, you can give them something. Give them a dose of your company’s insight, knowledge, and information so they can be smarter about their job…and in turn about your product.
A Tactic
Think of your newsletter marketing strategy as another tactic to close the consideration gap for new prospects. A prospect of any product goes through a process from awareness to different levels of consideration until they reach the point of purchase. The web has been a great tool to accelerate that process by enabling consumers to interrogate a product and learn about it on their own terms. When you understand how your customers progress through this process, you can use your newsletter as another touch point to reinforce your solution and move them towards the point of purchase.
Consistent Timing and Quality
Remember, once you make the commitment to start a newsletter, you have to follow through. No, your phone wont be ringing with angry readers if you are a few days off your regular schedule, but building loyalty and trust is a difficult enough challenge without battling against yourself with inconsistency. You are building an image of your brand with every communication you make so it is very important that your look and feel, timing and content quality are always consistent.
Consistency is critical. Consistency breeds familiarity and familiarity breeds trust. Trust is the magic word for any marketing effort.
Just Point and Click
As easy as Powerpoint has made it for anyone to build a slick presentation, tools like iMakeNews have gone even farther to help anyone build a powerful image with your own images, colors and logos. When the setup is as easy as this, you can spend your time focusing on developing great content and customizing it for your audience segments. Since email is one of the most personal methods of communication, your email newsletter has got to take advantage of this. There is just no reason beyond laziness for you not to have custom versions of your newsletter for your different audience segments.
Get the Big Payoff
The time and effort you take to segment your database, even with the most basic parameters, will payoff with greater involvement and higher interaction rates. Don’t know what people like what content? Send a few diverse newsletters and then study the detailed reporting to see who is reading what articles. These reports can be one of your most important tools to understand your prospects.
Lay Plans for Quality Content
Finding quality content is really one of the easiest parts of the process if you plan ahead. Various department heads and category experts within your company may have some very compelling insights and visions to share but trying to get them to submit an article to you on time may end that great working relationship. Try sending them a list of several thought-provoking questions on a topic and then you can whip up the answers into an article in no time. In addition, I’ll bet you know a handful of contractors, vendors, or even motivated job seekers in the industry who would love the chance to provide their insight to your audience to gain some valuable exposure.
Brian Cavoli (bcavoli@attbi.com) is one of those motivated job seekers and a contributor to iMakeNews. Brian specializes in innovative interactive marketing programs.
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