Blogs Vs. E-Newsletters: Which Are Right For You?
Tick, tock. Every second a new blog is created. That’s 31,556,926 blogs per year! So, should you be blogging? Or, are e-newsletters a better option for your business?
Blogs are typically less formal, more conversational and can deviate from the topic at hand more readily. E-newsletters are usually more formal, have clearly defined and somewhat rigid content and must entertain, educate, inform and then sell to be effective.
In either case, it’s imperative that you create content that is relevant to the target audience(s) you’re addressing, and that is so compelling they’ll look forward to receiving your content every time you post it.
Blogs are easy to set up (you could be blogging in 5 to 10 minutes from now) whereas e-newsletters, usually HTML formatted, take more time and effort to construct.
Look at it this way: blogs allow you to express your personality; e-newsletters showcase your company culture. They are not always one-in-the-same.
As with any marketing endeavor, it is critical to start with guidelines. Here are the rules I suggest:
- Know your target audience(s)
- Establish goals/benchmarks and track
- Differentiate yourself/company
- Produce fresh, relevant content on a regular basis
- Expect criticism and encourage debate
- Determine how to drive visitors
- Test, test, test
Tips for the First-time Blogger
The typical casualness of a blog is ideal if you’re trying to appeal to either Gen X (born between 1965 and 1976) and/or Gen Y (1976 and 1994); groups that make up 25% of the American population and which generally distrust mainstream media and advertising. They appreciate and respond to openness and informality.
Here are seven tips to help you warm-up to blogging:
1: You must determine whether your target audience uses blogs. If they don’t, then you shouldn’t.
2: Be prepared to support your blog on a daily basis. Don’t ask your administrative assistant to ” manage” your blog. Unwatched blogs, or those that go without updating, will be dead before they hit the ground. Worse, they sometimes attract ” cyber whiners,” those odd online troublemakers who are just looking for a forum to express their nutty views, even if they have nothing to do with your blog.
3: Blogs are not that much different than other methods of reaching your audience … but they are dependent upon your willingness to ” get out there” and position yourself as the experts.
4: Use your blog to learn more about your target audience. Most bloggers are incredibly open and will tell you many things about themselves and what they buy.
5: If you decide to use a blog, establish it on your company’s Web site to take advantage of search engines’ natural inclination to reward the frequent appearance of new information. A blog is an excellent way to draw search engine interest to your site!
6: Not too many people realize it, but about 70% of American reporters say they read blogs … and more than 40% say they use information found in blogs in the stories they write. Enough said!
7: Like everything else a good marketer does, you should test your blog. What works? What doesn’t? Throw out some ideas and see if your audience responds positively or negatively.
E-mail Marketing Strategies and Considerations
No matter what form of e-mail marketing you choose, every campaign should start with a strategy to:
1. Set Clear Objectives
Just as a direct response program requires strategic planning, an e-mail campaign does too. The plan should identify what you want to accomplish and how to implement your program to meet your objectives. Unlike traditional direct response, however, an e-mail program can be executed very quickly, usually within 24-48 hours or less. This offers a huge advantage over traditional mail methods, allowing a marketer to react quickly to events, situations and circumstances…nearly instantly.
2. Plan for Constant Improvement
E-mail marketing allows you to test your programs continually, hourly or more often, offering a huge advantage over traditional direct response testing. The components of an e-mail campaign that are test-able include the subject line/teaser copy, headline, body copy, call-to-action, creative style, format, offer, your list and the timing of your program. The nature of electronic marketing allows you to put the results of your tests into action immediately.
3. Create an Effective Subscription Page
Getting people to subscribe to your e-mail alert or newsletter isn’t easy, but it is critical. If you request too much information on the subscription page or the e-mail alert/newsletter description is weak, you’ll lose prospects. Many, many Web sites solicit a visitor’s e-mail address without providing a description of what the alert/newsletter will offer. Remember to include a brief description of your e-mail alert/newsletter.
4. Produce Appropriate Editorial Content
E-mail alerts and newsletters alike should always include a valuable offer. An e-alert can promote a special price for a particular product or category of products, for example. Or, a free value-add – free shipping or two-for-one offer. E-newsletters will offer valuable information, tips, guidelines, advice, etc. Finding good quality offers and content that is highly targeted to your audience(s) is often difficult. That’s where working with a direct marketing expert will become invaluable to the success of your e-marketing efforts.
To generate a higher quality e-mail campaign, be organized and plan each e-mail ahead, with enough time to develop your offers and prepare the content.
Other things to plan ahead for:
- CAN-SPAM Compliance: Handling opt-in e-mail marketing correctly is a necessity with recent CAN-SPAM legislation.
- E-mail Template Design: Strive for professional-looking HTML e-mail templates that are customized specifically for your marketing initiatives. That means, your brand identity come across, including campaign-related graphics to coordinate with related marketing efforts such as direct mail, microsite marketing, advertising, etc.
- E-mail Tracking and Reporting: Measure the success of your e-mail campaign with real-time e-mail tracking and easy monitoring of key campaign success metrics including open rates, forward-to-a-friend, bounced, click-throughs, and detailed message level user actions.
- Database Management: Focus on ongoing e-mail communications that build on one another, rather than one-off blasts. Take advantage of the technologies available to enhance your lists, maintain contact information and enable your subscribers to update their own contact profile. As with direct mail, the majority of your e-mail success lies within the quality and accuracy of your e-mail list.
So, what’s it going to be, a blog or an e-newsletter, for you?
You’re smiling, right? You knew what I was going to suggest.
Both.
Grant A. Johnson ([email protected]) is CEO of Johnson Direct in Brookfield, WI.
