Case History: E-Zine Helps Small Businesses Help Themselves

People who dream of packing in the nine-to-five and striking out on their own will need a business plan. But the cost of quality business advice can be prohibitive.

That’s where the SCORE Association comes in. This national organization, which has 400 chapters and 10,500 volunteers, receives an annual grant from Congress for the sole purpose of providing free business counseling and training.

SCORE provides help in various ways: Through volunteers who bring real world experience to the table, through workshops and online workbooks and, of course, through free e-mail newsletters.

SCORE eNEWS (sub-titled Small Business News and Resources) delivers small business news and information on the latest resources to 53,595 subscribers. SCORE Expert Answers, with 29,522 subscribers, features interviews with different small business experts each month. Both e-newsletters were launched in 1996. “E-newsletters are an important way for SCORE to keep in touch with their members and volunteers,” says Laura Graves, director of marketing and Web services for the nonprofit group.

According to Graves, about 85% of the newsletters are delivered and 25% opened. But those aren’t the most important measurements.

“We try to promote our counseling service with links and we always see spikes to on-line counseling requests when we launch the newsletters,” she says. For example, on April 5, the day SCORE eNEWS was sent, there were 305 counseling requests that day. “Although we don’t do a lot of statistical stuff, all of our counseling cases are reported to us, Graves adds. “If there is an interaction in Omaha, that case is reported to our office. And we’re trying to grow the numbers from year to year.”

Subscribers can opt in to receive SCORE correspondence on the group’s Web site. And when individuals chose and contact a SCORE counselor, they receive an automated response that invites them to opt in to the e-newsletter.

Also contributing to the subscriber list is a forward-to-a-friend feature. “In May, we had 26 people forward to a friend and five of them subscribed,” Graves says.

In total, the subscriber base of SCORE eNEWS grows at a rate of about 1,500 a month. And Graves doesn’t see may opt-outs because it’s, “material they want.”

SCORE works with MagnetMail, for its content management system. MagnetMail also distributes, tracks and provides back end reports.

Based on the success of the initial two e-zines, the group will launch a third newsletter on June 15: SCORE Small Business Bonus. “The point is to drive traffic to our site,” Graves says.

SCORE Small Business Bonus is more news focused. The first issue will be sent to the subscriber base of SCORE eNEWS with an opt-out option.

All releases are monthly and their deliveries are staggered with eNEWS distributed on the 5th, Expert Answers on the 10th and the Small Business Bonus planned for the 15th of the month. Subscribers can chose to receive newsletters in either text or HTML, but Graves prefers HTML due to a “nicer presentation” and increased branding benefits.

Another way the organization generates income is through newsletter sponsorships.

Graves says her biggest challenge is dealing with the undeliverables and cleaning the database, “The way we manage it is that we try and go in every month and delete 500 to 1,000 of the bad e-mails so we can manage staff time and keep on top of it,” she says. One thing that Graves plans to change from the established e-newsletters is the story topic locations. “We list topic headings in the left column going down and I think it’s better to have them across because that’s your prime real estate,” she continues.