Newsletters

Do your projects have “legs”?

In this economy, the best public relations projects are the ones that can gain your company exposure in several venues. If you’re going to make an investment, it’s important that it has “legs”. In other words, that it’s something you can use more than once.

For example, if you have a subject matter expert speaking at an industry conference, you can leverage this investment in time and preparation in several ways both before and after the event:

  • Promote the presentation before the event. This helps position your speaker as an industry expert. A little extra work can reap significant rewards by making each of your efforts work more effectively.
  • After the event, turn the presentation into a Webconference or Podcast. This is a great way to reach the people who couldn’t attend the industry conference but who are interested in the topic.
  • Write an article based on the presentation and place it in an industry trade publication.
  • Use the information as the basis for a White Paper on the subject. If you post this on your Website you can harvest email addresses by requiring that people register to download the paper.
  • Feature the topic in your company newsletter (or e-newsletter) by linking to the article, Webconference archives, or White Paper.

Lead Generation is the Bottom Line

What are clients looking for today? Lead generation. Not impressions, not visibility, not any of the intangible leadership positioning that they would have embraced in prior years.

Right now they want names, titles and contact information so they can convert those interested parties into customers.

And who can blame them? Almost every company I know is cutting staff. Recently I went to a meeting that had been scheduled less than two weeks earlier and found that one of the two people I’d been planning to meet with was gone . . . and the other looked nervous.

So how do you deliver what your clients need? One effective way to garner names is to give away information in exchange for registration: Webinars, white papers and “how to” information is highly sought after, especially as remaining employees are working harder to be smarter and more productive. Contests are also an excellent way to capture names. Your best tool in this regard is your Web site. Use it effectively and you can cultivate prospects and engage existing customers without a large budget or a large staff.

When your client becomes an industry resource, you can help them stay relevant and stay in touch with all those prospects that might become customers.

Is the Paper Newsletter a Thing of the Past?

Recently I had cause to change the service I use to produce HTML newsletters and I was amazed by how many options are now available. Just a few years ago, the choices were limited: if you didn’t know html or have a designer on staff, there were only a few companies that offered solutions with good templates and WYSIWYG software. Not any more! With the options that are now available, there’s no longer any excuse for not integrating an electronic newsletter into your program.

There are several compelling reasons to choose an electronic newsletter over print.

  1. Measurability. With an electronic newsletter you know who received it, who opened it and what they read. It’s a real eye-opener when you find out what topics your readers really care about and it allows you to leverage that knowledge by making your outreach tools more relevant.
  2. Interactivity. Print newsletters are just another way that we push information on readers. An electronic newsletter enables you to create a dialogue with your readers. It’s simple now to insert surveys, enable direct purchases, or enter promotions.
  3. Integration. Your newsletter is part of your image. An electronic newsletter allows you to create actual links among your communications outreach tools to bring the reader full circle. Most important is that the electronic newsletter helps drive traffic to your company – or client – web site, where they can get more information about your products or services. Plus, you can archive your old newsletters on the Web site, keeping that information just a click away.
  4. Cost. No printing and no postage. Need we say more? See how to choose a supplier (below) for more on distribution costs.
    Timely information. HTML newsletters typically allow you to get news out faster because the production time is so much shorter.

What’s the downside of going electronic? The only one I can think of is that people no longer have the paper in their hands. This can be a problem when your customers are not comfortable reading information on a computer screen or when they use downtime such as airline travel to read the newsletter.

E-Newsletters are Simple with the Right Supplier

Now that this technology has gone main stream, there are a lot more vendors to choose among. Too many, in fact. If you do a Google search, pages of different companies offering email solutions are listed. To choose a supplier, there are several criteria to consider. I’ve listed several of the features that I look for below. I also always take advantage of the free trial period offered by most companies to try out the features. In this article I’m only looking at hosted solutions, not software which would allow you to distribute newsletters from your own computer or server. I have assumed that the services all offer standard subscription management, the ability to import and export data, and preview and scheduling capabilities.

  1. A proven track record and a stable product. You want a company that has already worked out all the bugs in their product. You might also ask about recent and intended upgrades and how the company handles them. I had an account with a company where one day I tried to log into my account only to find out that in the upgrade process, they had changed the log-in procedures so that my password no longer worked. Even worse, so many customers were having problems with the upgrade that it took days for customer service to get back to me!
  2. Outstanding customer service. Many companies now offer extended – or even 24 hour – support. This is really important for those days when you’re working after hours and come up against a technical problem. Make sure that the customer service reps are available and knowledgeable. You don’t want to wait hours for a call back, find out that the person is not well versed in their product or learn that customer service shuts up shop at 5 p.m. I suggest making a few calls during the trial period to find out how each company handles questions. Some companies also limit how much free support you get, make sure you understand what is included in your standard fee.
  3. Flexible templates. If you are not a coding wizard, good templates are one of the most important parts of the package. Look for a variety of templates that have interchangeable modules. For example, you should be able to add blocks for new articles, for promotions, Web links, etc. Plus, none of the graphics should be fixed; you should be able to import your own to fully customize the templates. Some companies try to generate income money by selling you their services to customize their templates. With an intuitive interface and range of standard modules, this shouldn’t be necessary.
  4. Survey capabilities. Not all e-newsletter providers also support the ability to write surveys. This is a real shame because you can learn a lot from your readers by inserting questions into every issue. Many companies offer integrated products.
  5. Excellent reporting and tracking capabilities. You need to know more than just open rates, you want to be able to track who clicks on which links within your newsletter or how someone answers a specific question.
  6. Data segmentation capabilities. There are going to be times when you want to send different newsletters to targeted segments, or from separate email addresses. Your supplier needs to have the flexibility to allow advanced distribution while enabling comprehensive and integrated tracking.
  7. Finally, if you are an agency, you need a supplier that will allow you to maintain multiple accounts with separate identities. This will allow you to collect statistics over time and maintain graphics for each of your clients. Some companies want to charge you separately for this feature which can add up quickly if you are using them for several clients.

So what does all this cost?

HTML marketing companies typically charge a monthly fee based either on the number of contacts in your stored database, or the number of emails you send each month. The range in pricing can be large. For example, maintaining a database of 5,000 contacts can cost anywhere from $300 to $75/month. Some companies charge a set up fee in addition to the monthly fee, some companies charge more for an “agency” account that enables you to maintain separate identities. This is a case where doing some research can result in significant savings.

A Good Investment

In conclusion, with the cost of html email distribution services coming down and the range of services increasing, there is capability that no PR firm need (or should) do without. I find that I use html regularly and for more than just newsletters – it is an ideal way to send out press releases, invitations, surveys and announcements, all tools that benefit from the medium’s measurability, interactivity and reasonable cost.

Getting Started

Here are a few companies that offer these services to get you started.