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Re: email newsletters...honestly
C.L. I too have a newsletter (several actually) but they're all part of
the overall marketing scheme of my business - and all aimed at home
gardeners. They are all double opt-in so you can't be subscribed without
your permission. So this note is a bit of a business-oriented response.
You (and others) are dealing with two or three separate issues here. 1) the
business of sending out a newsletter 2) open rates for subscribing to
newsletters you get 3) getting newsletters you don't want. In reverse
order...
#3 is called spam. We all have companies sign us up for their newsletters
without our permission. This is simply stupid marketing in this day and
age. These companies don't "get it" on the Net. Frankly, they're doing
their own brand a huge disservice by doing so on both the marketing and
technical side. The marketing side (annoying the media) you get right away.
What these companies don't understand is that by sending out information
that is potentially marked as spam by readers, they are destroying their
ability to use their mailing systems for good mail. A sizable proportion of
readers unsubscribe from newsletters by marking them as "spam" rather than
using an unsubscribe link and with enough of this kind of response, all mail
from that sender will be marked as spam by the new email filters. It's a
constant battle even for professional mailers to keep the lists clean and
the damage can be done surprisingly quickly. This is the first stat I look
for every time I send out a newsletter and one I track and test. :-(
2) Open rates are variable and are one thing I look at constantly. Again,
this is a technical issue and copywriting issue along with the nature of
your audience. But speaking personally, I regularly unsub from newsletters
I don't read. Why keep 'em if they don't do anything for you? And as a pro
- I have to decide if the potential upside is worth the time I spend
reading. I suspect most of us are in the same situation - your time is
valuable and you get to decide what to read and whether that content is
going to teach you anything or inspire you. Otherwise - they're all
electronic chaff. There is also a churn rate with e-newsletters just like
there is with dead-tree magazines. We live with it.
1) The business side of things. The advice to "get a newsletter" is trendy
again. Marketers have discovered that response rates to blogs and
twitter/social networks are not great - and response rates to newsletters
are higher. Hence the gold-rush back to newsletters and the "new advice".
But newsletters take time and effort and in my .02, they have to be part of
the overall marketing plan for your business. Unless you can tie that
newsletter into the other parts of your business, I'd question why anybody
would bother. Think of the newsletter itself as a business all by itself
and how you're going to use it/monetize it - if you can't do this at the
beginning, you'll make more money writing something else. That is unless
you like to do the writing for the fun of it. :-)
Hope that helps a little bit.
Doug
On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 7:04 PM, C.L. Fornari <clfornari@mail.com> wrote:
> Anyone in business is frequently advised to have a newsletter that is
> emailed on a regular basis. I get several of these, some from garden
> writers, some from PR people, some from nurseries and other green industry
> sources and a few from speakers or coaches.. and truthfully, the vast
> majority of these I delete before I even open them. Occasionally I'll open
> one and glance at it, but not read it all the way through.
>
> I'm wondering how typical this is. Do you, HONESTLY, take the time to open
> all the e-newsletters you receive? If there are some that you open and
> others you don't, and if so, why do you read some and not others?
>
> I'm just curious, but I think that the answers would be interesting to
> those on this list who write and send such newsletters.
>
> all the best,
> C.L.
> www.gardenlady.com
> blog www.wholelifegardening.com
> "Looking for relaxation and inspiration? It's all in your own backyard"
>
>
Doug Green
Editor-in-Chief
SGF Publishing www.simplegiftsfarm.com
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