I overheard a conversation the other day between two very experienced business people about newsletters.
One felt that e-newsletters were better, arguing that they are the way that many people prefer to receive information these days. The other felt that the rush to email meant that paper newsletters stand out more in these days of depleted post bags. Both felt that their preferred format was the one most likely to get read.
So which was correct?
They were both right, to an extent… I will explain why.
An e-newsletter has lots of plus points: It’s quick to assemble and even quicker to deliver; It’s cost effective; With less copy, it saves a significant amount of time over its paper rival; It’s the easiest way to deliver direct clicks to your online shop front – your website; It’s trackable, you can monitor how many people opened it, what they read etc.
BUT (yes that’s a big but) it does have to compete with the plethora of emails we have hitting our inboxes at a higher rate than ever. Email has become one of the marketer’s favourite tools, so we all receive a lot of htmls.
Added to this we have become a texting, emailing nation. Just about everyone has an email address and very often an email is sent from friends, relatives, business associates and colleagues when a phone call would have done just as well, if not better. How many times have you emailed someone a desk or office away, when you could have just popped your head around the door or picked up the phone?
Put those factors together and your e-newsletter is not just competing for attention with other businesses, but with the rest of the recipient’s business and personal connections.
If you are anything like me you probably sort your emails by deciding which you can delete without ever reading. It’s the online equivalent of sorting your junk mail over the waste paper bin.
Which leads us to paper newsletters. Like e-newsletters, the old fashioned paper versions have many plus points: They stand out in a e-obsessed world; They can go into greater depth than an e-newsletter; They can have eye-catching design and photography; They stick around – while an email gets lost in an inbox if its not read quickly, a paper newsletter can sit on a desk for a long time, constantly reminding people of your company.
The downside is mainly cost and time (the latter of course also goes back to cost) and those are the two things many businesses are most cautious of wasting. With a paper newsletter you can’t be 100 per cent sure what people liked and read, or even if they read any of it at all.
So which is best?
The answer: Great content is best!
Think for a moment what newspapers, newsletters, magazines, websites and emails you read, aren’t they the ones with the engaging content? Aren’t they the ones with the tips, the advice and the relevancy to your business and life?
Whichever method you choose, the best newsletters have great content. Those are the ones that don’t make it into the wastepaper basket or the trash folder.
The single biggest mistake that I’ve seen newsletters make is to be devoid of anything entertaining, interesting or valuable. Those are truly the biggest waste, sure of not getting attention and sure of ending in the virtual or physical trash.
Time and effort spent thinking about engaging, well-written content will make either option a more effective marketing tool.
Find out more about Accord PR‘s newsletters services here.
Latest Tweets