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Printed Newsletters or Digital Newsletters & Emails?
Internet Marketing
So which is better... Printed Newsletters or Digital Newsletters & Emails?
There is a definite school of thought that suggests that with everyone plugged into their computers today it’s nice to receive something in the mail.
And that’s where physical newsletters can have an important place in your marketing mix.
If you’re in a service business like an accountant or a lawyer it has been accepted practice for newsletters to have a really important place in your marketing. Traditional thinking has been that newsletters let you keep in touch with your client so they’re an essential part of your customer retention strategy.
... And there is no question that one of the most basic human needs is the need to belong and newsletters do keep people feeling as though they’re important to you.
Not only that but you get to showcase your knowledge and results and this reinforces what your business is all about to your customers.
But it’s not an all or nothing approach to relationship building and personally, I don't think printed newsletters work as effectively as short, sharp, valuable content rich emails for a number of reasons.
* People are struggling to find the time to read the Sunday papers let alone a printed newsletter.
* Printed & posted newsletters cost a lot of money compared to digital communications.
* Printed newsletters give you no business intelligence compared to emails / emailed newsletters.
* You have no idea if the printed newsletter is going straight to the recycling bin whereas with digital communications you know at least the number of delivered emails, the number of opened emails, the frequency of openings and the number of click throughs to any offers you make or references to more information on your website.
* And compared to the newsletters going to the recycle bin, you know who is not opening your emails so you can work on a different strategy for those people
However, there’s a trend in the United States to return to printed newsletters and it’s being touted that printed newsletters outperform e-newsletters by huge numbers.
Marketers like Rich Schefren and Dan Kennedy are saying that hard copy is the way to go. But the truth is that those guys don't waste money sending printed material to unqualified lists. They are posting printed newsletters to hot qualified prospects that have been pre-qualified by their responses to various email marketing campaigns.
So if you don't know the yings and yangs of your database, email marketing is a very economic option for gaining that knowledge.
And armed with that knowledge you can then segment your database to use the right marketing tool to talk to the right segment of your database (target market) at the right time.
Overall, it's all about using the right marketing tool to talk to the right target market at the right time and unquestionably both printed newsletters and digital newsletters and emails do have a role to play.
With the 360 Email Marketing & Design Platform ... we don't talk about free templates and off you go and good luck... we hold your hand and build your brand.
keep your powder dry,
Warren Cottis
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