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| March 13, 2003 Dear Reader, There's lots going on, including an article on why people prefer text over HTML, some great e-mail stats and a good primer on questions to ask when you're looking for an e-mail broadcast service. Enjoy! Table of Contents 1. Publisher's Note: What's The Point? Jeanne S. Jennings 2. Cost to Business Escalates: Bulk Email Threatens Communications Arteries The Washington Post 3. Why Readers Prefer Text or HTML MarketingProfs.com 4. Cut Online Ad Costs by 90% & Raise Sales -- 5 Tips for Search Marketing marketingsherpa.com 5. Questions to Ask a Vendor in a Request for Proposal InsideDirectMail Sponsor  Content 1. Publisher's Note: What's The Point? Jeanne S. Jennings If you publish an e-mail newsletter, it's good to every once-in-a-while do a sanity check on why you're spending the resources and what you hope to gain from it. I have a client that publishes a very well done e-mail newsletter. It's long (almost 10 pages printed out!) and a single feature story can run 3 of those 10 pages. They get e-mails from readers saying how valuable they find the content. Sounds great, right? Well, yes, until you realize that the e-mail newsletter is a marketing piece, and the goal is to turn readers into paying customers. Although it's well-liked, it's not meeting its goal. I'm a firm believer that e-mail, even a newsletter that is a marketing piece, has to have valuable content. But it's often difficult to know where to stop. And even the occassional piece of fan mail from a reader can make you feel so good you forget that the point is to get new paying clients, not new non-paying readers. My recommendations to the client: instead of lumping all your promotional information at the end, after all the juicy content, move it up and intersperse it with the good stuff. And consider publishing a shorter e-mail newsletter more frequently, to get your name out there more often but not create more work for yourself. Finally, think about why you're spending this time. If you really enjoy publishing for the sake of publishing, that's great -- maybe you should look at shifting your revenue model. But if you're looking to develop new clients, you may need to revamp this e-mail newsletter so it's meeting your needs -- as well as those of your audience. Drop Jeanne an Email: mailto:publisher@jenningsreport.com 2. Cost to Business Escalates: Bulk Email Threatens Communications Arteries Jonathan Krim, Washington Post, March 13 2003 Written for the lay person, not the industry, but a good in-depth article non-the-less that touches on what measures AOL is taking to address the problem as well as a legislative update and an amusing story about a filter software company sending unsolicited e-mail. Quotes from AOL, the DMA and others.  3. Why Readers Prefer Text or HTML Lynda Partner, MarketingProfs.com, March 4 2003 Note: You may need to register on the site (it's free) to read the full text In Lynda's survey, rather than just asking which format readers preferred, she went one step further and asked why. Number one reason for wanting text over HTML (drum roll please!): 'Just want the meat without the distractions (32%).' Read the article to find out the other reasons--and get Lynda's ideas for delivering an HTML version that meets the needs of this group. 4. Cut Online Ad Costs by 90% & Raise Sales -- 5 Tips for Search Marketing B2BMarketingBiz, marketingsherpa.com, March 11 2003 What, you may ask, is an article about Search Marketing doing here, when our topic is e-mail? Hidden away in this piece are some gems for e-mail marketers -- including a figure on conversion from website visitors to free e-mail newsletter subscribers (2.6%), direct sales from the free e-mail newsletter (1% of circulation) and reader poll reponse (3.5%). And don't miss the part about how they modified the e-mail newsletter to achieve these metrics! 5. Questions to Ask a Vendor in a Request for Proposal Brian Wm. Niles, InsideDirectMail, December 2002 Years ago I managed an RFP process to find a vendor for a large e-mail newsletter publisher. Wish I had had this list to start from. While it's still just the tip of the iceberg, if you're looking for an outsource or in-house e-mail solution this is a great place to start. Closing We'll publish again on Thursday, March 27. Happy almost St. Pat's! Jeanne publisher@jenningsreport.com |
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The
Jennings Report
