The questions revisited - Why are we publishing a newsletter?
part 2
A clear idea of why you are going to put all that effort into a newsletter is essential. However, don't confuse your burning desire to inform the world about the quality of your widgets with the potential readers thirst for that knowledge. Yes the newsletter is a marketing tool, but it is a subtle one.
A newsletter is your chance to show the readership how knowledgeable your company is, how it is involved in cutting edge development, that it is a prime source for valuable information, that it is reliable, trustworthy and a real player in the business ector.
It gives you the opportunity to build relationships with existing and potential customers alike
The bottom line is that to get any other message across the newsletter has to be readable, truthful and a provider of real value. Look at anyone's inbox in the morning and it is a scrum of spam, junk mail and general dross. As the user scans the subject lines, deleting the rubbish, you want your newsletter to be one of those the cursor passes over. But that only happens if there is real value associated with the newsletter.
What value will it have for the reader?
Essentially content is King. Subscribers read the newsletter because it is interesting and has a value in terms of knowledge. There can be other value added items, special offers to subscribers, access to extra content on the web etc, but basically it's the content.
Who is the newsletter aimed at?
This is probably the easiest of the questions to answer. In this case we are addressing a B2B market so the readers are probably going to fall into one of the following categories; existing or potential customers; dealers, agents and resellers; inter company recipients. It could even be a mixture of all three groups. Above all focus is important.
What are the measurable targets, if any?
The newsletter is a cost to the company and clearly there is a need for it to achieve its aims. There are several ways of measuring, if not with 100% accuracy, some indicators that can give a good idea of what is happening with the newsletter.
A straight measure of the number of newsletters opened gives an idea of how many have failed the morning spam test. A count of how many links are opened gives another measure of newsletter and content interest. It also gives us the ability to tailor future content.
Sales can also be measured, either direct sales via the newsletter, or sales leads which result in a sale. Company and product awareness is also measurable.
In short a newsletter can provide a variety of measurable performance targets, it is just a question of selecting one that is appropriate. However, the measure should reflect the core aims and target group the newsletter is aimed at.
What is the "no more" point?
Again a relatively simple question. Vanity aside, the only reason to run a newsletter is to communicate to your selected audience, and to achieve your targets.
Quite simply, if the newsletter isn't achieving the aims then it is time to close it.
What are we going to put in it?
Content is everything. If you haven't got interesting content no-one will read the newsletter and it will fail. Moreover, if you haven't got a budget (either in time and/or money) to pull quality content together stop now.
While the content will vary depending on the readership you could look at things like: