Live From NCDM: Lifetime Builds Loyalty With Newsletters
Lifetime Television, the network for women, has found a way to help both its viewers and itself.
In 1999, the network started sending monthly newsletters reminding women to check their breasts for signs of cancer once a month.
Today, Lifetime has over 1.1 million HTML addresses on its database and over 782,000 text addresses. And the breast cancer letter is only one of nine e-mail newsletters being sent out regularly, according to Gabriela Linares, vice president of marketing for L-Soft International Inc.
The newsletters have increased TV viewership for programs like Golden Girls and Designing Women, while helping women, who turn to the network and its Web site (www.lifetime.com) for advice on everything from health to careers. And the e-mail technology probably costs no more than $30,000 per year, Linares said.
Lifetime decided back in ’99 that it needed to “push the message out rather than have women come to it,” Linares said. To do this, it needed a program that was “stable and scalable.”
The network opted to manage the e-mail program in-house, using Listserv technology from L-Soft. The content is created by editors.
Women register on the Web site, which promotes the newsletters on related pages. Personal information is stored in the firm’s Oracle database, which can be accessed using Listserv.
While some newsletters are devoted to health issues, some are entertainment oriented. The most popular newsletter is the Sweepstakes letter, which has over 589,000 text addresses and 128,000 HTML addresses. Why more text? “They promoted text the most for this newsletter,” said Linares.
The Golden Girls fan list includes almost 18,000 text subscribers and over 129,000 HTML addresses. The weekly TV highlights letter has 141,000 HTML addresses, and 22,000 text.
A shopping newsletter has over 143,097 HTML and 25,000 text addresses. It offers products from sponsors, and links visitors directly with the sponsors’ Web sites.
The benefits? The newsletters “provide women with a service, while promoting the TV shows,” Linares said.
