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Most Newsletters Don T Work Part One Success And How To Monitor
Some people think newsletters dont work. Often, theyre right. In a world where most newsletters dont work, it is common to be confused about how to define newsletter success.
Whats it good for?
Over the past ten years, I have paid attention to newsletters. I can tell you why most dont work. It starts with confusion about what newsletters are good for. Confusion about how to monitor success comes from that.
How many next-day phone calls?
Many marketers expect a newsletter to generate results as soon as it arrives. Most newsletters do. However, when the results expected are new sales and referrals following each issue, most newsletter issuers eventually conclude that newsletters dont work. By the way they gauge success, theyre right.
Check your perspective.
From a sales perspective, an ineffective newsletter should be canned. But first, consider other perspectives. For example, think from the perspective of the impression left on readers. What impression would it make on you to receive two or three newsletters, then none at all, from your accountant? your lawyer? your investment advisor?
What newsletters do
Because of mismatched expectations, many who issue newsletters conclude either that newsletter success is harder to achieve than they imagined, or that newsletters just dont work. Yet, I see something in these situations that often escapes people struggling with an unsuccessful newsletter: A newsletter shapes peoples perceptions of you.
Four Brand Effects
It can do other things, such as announce news and complement advertising; still, every newsletter is a reputation-shaping instrument of brand management. Any newsletter will:
*leave a first impression, or
*mould an already-formative impression, or
*validate a formed impression, or
*confuse a formed impression.
A newsletter makes an impression.
How does this fit into a context where more sales and good referrals are wanted now? Consider the following example.
Maintain meaningful contact.
There are people who receive newsletters from their credit union who would never attend a competing banks grand opening in their own neighbourhood. Theyre so loyal to the credit union that they dont want the banks cupcakes or door prizes. The credit unions newsletter refreshes their loyalty every three months. It maintains meaningful contact with them. Its a tool of client retention.
Effective at what?
The problems solved by the credit union newsletter in the example include:
*competition of extrinsic incentives (e.g. Free gift when you sign up!).
*vulnerability to client attrition.
*the cost of acquiring new clients.
*the opportunity cost of losing profitable clients future business.
Watch the numbers.
Watch-the-books managers should direct attention to:
*business per client segmented by profitability per client.
*referrals per client with a profile of clients providing referrals.
*client attrition with a profile of clients lost and why.
*net increase in clientele (including clients gained and lost by all means).
Monitor over time.
Review these metrics on a quarterly basis and compare each quarter. Use this review to set newsletter performance goals in tandem with business performance goals (even if your newsletter is not a quarterly). Why not measure newsletter success this way?
Steady, no spikes.
A good newsletter might not cause a spike in sales. It can prevent losing a client who is being wooed by competitors, though. What business problems do you want to solve? Is it reasonable to expect a newsletter to help solve them?
Client relations success
Newsletters shape market perception, first and foremost, and can help to maintain hundreds of business relationships with meaningful engagement. Those who accept this and apply it wisely can find great success with newsletters. Those who expect each issue to boost sales or to bring new customers are wise to consider other methods. A good newsletter as a client-relations tool improves business measurably over time.
BONUS : My Adventure With Creative Writing
During my last semester of college I had a few hours that I got to fill with elective classes. I had heard good things about the professor who taught Creative Writing and so I signed up for the class without too much thought about the content of the class or what it would require of me. Little did I know when I signed up that the Creative Writing class would be one of the hardest of my entire college experience.
I entered the class on the first day of the semester and was surrounded by what appeared to be all English and Art double majors. I tried to shake the fact that I was surrounded by people who write excessive amounts of poetry and gripping short stories for fun, but I just couldn't do it. In my mind all I could think about was the inevitable failures that were to come as I glanced at the syllabus of assignments for the months ahead. I even calculated my credits for graduation on the evening after that first class to see if there was any way that I could graduate without taking Creative Writing class.
Because I needed the credits, and quite honestly because I was intrigued by my classmates, I entered the classroom on the second day of class and on each day that Creative Writing met for the entire semester. It proved to be the most challenging classroom of my education. Each time I entered it was with a mixture of fear and excitement. I felt fear because I knew that each day things were required of me in Creative Writing that I had never experienced before, yet I was excited because I had so rarely been challenged to think, really think, before.
The first half of the semester Creative Writing was focused entirely on poetry. I spent many late nights and many tear filled afternoons working on writing poems. It didn't come easily for me like it did for all of my classmates. Poetry was what naturally came from their mouths everytime they talked. I was certainly not used to making my words sound beautiful or intentional. The goal of our poetry section in Creative Writing was to come up with ten polished poems that each met different requirements.
After the torture of poetry we moved on to writing short stories and scripts. This half of Creative Writing class proved no less challenging for me. I struggled every day until the last assignment had been turned in.
In the end, Creative Writing was not only the most difficult class I had ever taken, it was also my favorite.
During my last semester of college I had a few hours that I got to fill with elective classes. I had heard good things about the professor who taught Creative Writing and so I signed up for the class without too much thought about the content of the class or what it would require of me. Little did I know when I signed up that the Creative Writing class would be one of the hardest of my entire college experience.
I entered the class on the first day of the semester and was surrounded by what appeared to be all English and Art double majors. I tried to shake the fact that I was surrounded by people who write excessive amounts of poetry and gripping short stories for fun, but I just couldn't do it. In my mind all I could think about was the inevitable failures that were to come as I glanced at the syllabus of assignments for the months ahead. I even calculated my credits for graduation on the evening after that first class to see if there was any way that I could graduate without taking Creative Writing class.
Because I needed the credits, and quite honestly because I was intrigued by my classmates, I entered the classroom on the second day of class and on each day that Creative Writing met for the entire semester. It proved to be the most challenging classroom of my education. Each time I entered it was with a mixture of fear and excitement. I felt fear because I knew that each day things were required of me in Creative Writing that I had never experienced before, yet I was excited because I had so rarely been challenged to think, really think, before.
The first half of the semester Creative Writing was focused entirely on poetry. I spent many late nights and many tear filled afternoons working on writing poems. It didn't come easily for me like it did for all of my classmates. Poetry was what naturally came from their mouths everytime they talked. I was certainly not used to making my words sound beautiful or intentional. The goal of our poetry section in Creative Writing was to come up with ten polished poems that each met different requirements.
After the torture of poetry we moved on to writing short stories and scripts. This half of Creative Writing class proved no less challenging for me. I struggled every day until the last assignment had been turned in.
In the end, Creative Writing was not only the most difficult class I had ever taken, it was also my favorite.
