Julie's Ocean Writing Consultancy

Last week, I looked at email marketing. In some ways, email marketing now takes the place of traditional newsletters. Many companies, however, still create traditional newsletters for their customers. Let’s look at newsletters and how you can succeed with them.

Content drives choice between newsletters and email

Newsletters differ from email marketing in a couple of significant ways. First, true newsletters are typically print pieces, although many companies choose to do electronic publication. Second, they have more in-depth, more significant content.

You don’t have to choose between newsletters and email marketing. You can do both successfully to achieve different marketing goals. When you’ve got a lot of different content, choose a newsletter format. Newsletters can combine text, graphics, photos and videos, assuming you plan to distribute them electronically.

Use the newsletter to promote product announcements, how-to videos, new products and/or services, company and staff information and other similar content. These items are “deeper” than what you might put in an email marketing item, and they can be very timely without being time-sensitive. For example, if you’re planning a 25%-off sale next weekend, you probably want to put that in an email marketing piece. If the first shipment of the XL-9000 just arrived, but you need to introduce it to your customers, the newsletter is your go-to marketing tool.

Newsletters allow you to create standard features. A standard feature may be a column written by an especially knowledgeable staff person, or an interview with an industry expert. You can also create detailed product features or product demonstrations using video. “How-to” pieces make great standard features. These kinds of content are very valuable to the customer, but they don’t fit well in an email marketing piece.

Newsletters and email marketing aren’t “either-or” choice

You can use mail marketing and newsletters together. Use email marketing to call attention to your newsletter, and provide a link to the website where the newsletter can be downloaded or viewed. Include special newsletter-only offers to test the effectiveness of the newsletter and/or the email marketing “call-to-action.”

If you’d like more information about creating a company newsletter or need someone to help you generate content regularly, please contact me at eileen@juliesocean.com or call me at (734) 961-0408.

Photo Credit: Penny Matthews, via FreeImages.com