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Why e-newsletters can be a marketing recession buster

Written by: Deborah Hastie

Article Overview: email newsletters and e-alerts - the new equivalent of an old TV newsflash - are coming into their own as marketing and PR budget tighten. Fast, cheap and as far reaching as your database allows, no wonder print marketing is finding it hard to keep up!

Why e-newsletters can be a marketing recession buster

Electronic newsletters (e-Ns) and e-alerts have created a win/win scenario for companies in search of the elusive marketing tool to reach their key audience.

Compared to their paper counterparts, the electronic newsletter offers a cost effective marketing tool with touch of a button delivery. Pre-email days, the company newsletter was a labour intensive exercise that took time, resources and a lot of patience to deliver on time and on budget.

One slip by the proof reader could send thousands of copies to the shredder without ever seeing the light of day. Add to that the printing, packing and postage costs, you needed to have something pretty important to say to justify the whole exercise.

Thankfully with the advent of e-marketing, the e-N has effectively taken the effort out of the equation. With skilful designers to produce the template, the ease and frequency of producing the e-N has never been more appealing as budgets are squeezed and Directors demand value for money.
e-Ns can be written, produced and delivered to inboxes within hours – slicing days off pre-and post-production times. Mistakes can be wiped out at the stroke of a key and in the case of crisis management; the most complex of messages can be delivered to internal and external audiences simultaneously.

Thanks to the latest software you can check the click-through rate of any given article to track what issues are pushing the clients’ buttons – literally.

Just as important from the recipient’s point of view is the Opt-out. Again, just one click and your database is being cleansed of unwilling and unappreciative audiences. Those left are partners in the two-way flow of information and will provide necessary feedback and sales opportunities straight to your in-box.

As long as you ensure your e-N is concise, consistent and relevant it will easily become a staple communication tool to widen your profile and professional reputation to existing and new audiences - and it won’t involve a single postage stamp to achieve.

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Article Tags: communication tool, company newsletter, cost effective marketing, crisis management, electronic newsletter, electronic newsletters, external audiences, intensive exercise, latest software, marketing tool, necessary feedback, paper counterparts, postage costs, postage stamp, professional reputation, proof reader, sales opportunities, seeing the light, shredder, time resources



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