Pros And Cons Of Newsletters

Posted on January 04th, 2013 in Marketing

Many companies have some kind of newsletter, a way to reach out to their fans and customers to share information with them in some fashion. I don’t have a newsletter for this side of my business but I do have a weekly newsletter that concentrates on leadership issues. Here’s the latest version of that, which I have to admit is pretty entertaining, its point notwithstanding.

Nintendo Fun Club News Vol. 1 No. 2 - Summer 1987

Rob Boudon via Compfight

Obviously there are good and bad reasons concerning newsletters; just what is there that doesn’t have good and bad reasons, at least for some people? Let’s take a look at 3 good reasons for newsletters:

1. People subscribe to them. This is good because it means you didn’t get that person because you spammed them. They saw something that encouraged them to sign up; way to go!

2. They’re your target audience. If you’re marketing something, even yourself, you’ve most likely found someone who’s interested in what you have to say or sell. That’s a much better use of your time than trying to go out & find those people.

3. If they like it they’ll share with others. You may know how Google’s now trying to set up their searches so you’ll see friends of yours commenting on things higher up than previously, right? That’s because they believe you’ll get more value out of something if a friend tells you something about it than a stranger. Same with your newsletter, if your customer’s recruiting their friends for you, that’s the best compliment you can get.

Now let’s look at 3 bad reasons for newsletters:

1. More writing. Goodness, blogging is already tough enough, but now having to write a newsletter, which is expected on some kind of consistent level, is a much tougher deal.

2. Are people reading it? I’ve been writing my newsletter for 10 years now and it’s rare that I get any feedback. This either tells me people are satisfied with what I have to say or they’re not reading it at all. I have no clue which way it’s going and that’s depressing.

3. ROI; got any? As I said, I’ve been doing my newsletter for 10 years now. I’ve gotten one speaking engagement out of it and sold 2 books; that’s about it. Now, as frustrating as that can be, and it is, my ROI is that it’s helped me to put together my second book on leadership, as I just finished the first edit and I’m in the second editing process now. I guess it’s not all bad.

There are other things you’ll have to consider if you’re going to have a newsletter or not, but these 6 things gives you something to think about.

Tags: business newsletters, newsletters, writing a newsletter

This post has 15 comments

Brian Hawkins
January 6th, 2013
I read every newsletter you send and, seriously, it great reading. Better than most blog posts to be honest. I don’t want to give you a big (bigger lol) head but I could see most of those as articles in a business magaizine. The only thing keeping you from a gig like that is exposure, I’m sure of that.

Newsletters are a lot of work, just like blogging, so it takes someone that wants that extra connection. I consider newsletters different than the typical email marketing list, which I call ezines. Ads and product links still fit well but information is the primary reason for subscribing to a newsletter. We do our best to serve the readership and that is appreciated.
Brian Hawkins recently posted…How To Become A Newsletter Superstar

[Reply]
Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 7th, 2013 at 2:09 AM
Thanks for the comment & the nice words Brian. You’re right, they are a lot of work, but in some ways they could become invaluable as well for businesses if they have the dedication to do them and try to do them right. And a little marketing never hurts, right?

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Courtney James (@WebsiteWriter)
January 7th, 2013
I once worked as a full-time email newsletter copywriter. We sent that thing out as often as three times a week.

Heck, at first, we were sending it out every day. It is a lot of work but it is very rewarding too. I miss having so many subscribers to connect with. The fan mail I used to receive would make me cry some days and I really felt that I connected with people through that newsletter on a level I had never experienced before.

The problem is, for the most part, they didn’t know who I was because I was writing under a pen name for my client at the time. I tell you, when I left that newsletter, it was like losing all of my friends. I had grown so close to these people. I love them.

I just want to recapture that with my own newsletter and as far as the profit goes. I have seen how profitable newsletter can be. But even if I never make a dime I will consider my newsletter a success if I make new friends.

It was actually a newsletter that changed my entire life over seven years ago.

I hope that in some small way my own personal newsletter can help people too.

Thank you.

[Reply]
Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 7th, 2013 at 9:45 PM
Wow, that’s a great share Courtney! I actually write 2 newsletters for other organizations and I’m not sure what most of them think about it. I hear from so few people on all the newsletters, but when I do hear from people it’s not from anyone who doesn’t like what I’ve written. Still, time depends on who you’re writing a newsletter for and what you get out of it. I’m a sole proprietor, so there’s no way I could put one of these things out more than once a week; I also wouldn’t want to overwhelm my audience.

I love your passion with it; I hope you can recapture that again.

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Courtney James (@WebsiteWriter) Reply:
January 7th, 2013 at 10:13 PM
Yes, it helps when you get paid to do it full-time because you can afford to give it every last bit of your soul. But then I guess, that’s why it hurt so much to move on…

You can’t have everything I guess? I was really lucky too because their list was massive compared to anything I have dealt with since and they were already quite engaged with the products being sold.

There’s an old saying that we’re only as good as our clients and I was just lucky I guess. I certainly haven’t had the opportunity to work with such an amazing team since.

I really hope I can recapture a tiny bit of that magic I felt with that newsletter. Thank you.

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Radu
January 7th, 2013
I don’t think i’m reading your newsletter but i will start. As for the ROI, does it increase it significantly?

[Reply]
Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 7th, 2013 at 9:42 PM
Radu, it depends on the newsletter, the topic and the audience. If you’re always marketing, probably not. If you’re giving people just enough information without giving away too much, possibly. Overall it’s all about value; if people value what you give them they may value you even more, hence a great return on ROI. However, if you’re in a niche that’s either saturated or too refined, maybe not. You never really know until you give it a shot.

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Carl
January 8th, 2013
There aren’t any disadvantages of newsletters. First, let’s look it from business point, real businesses benefit a lot from newsletters, usually by sending promos to existing customers, conversion is very high and usually hits about 20% everytime. Now let be a bit more technical, newsletter without proper tracking tools and without proper coding (in-line CSS) would not do any job. Will all due respect to all major newsletter services like Aweber and Mailchimp, those are just very amateurish in both design and tracking, in addition most of their SMTPs are pretty much blacklisted by spam filters. Tweaking titles and content is critical too. Well, this will gonna be very long comment and I can even write a book for it, but again there aren’t disadvantages of any strategy, it just depends on many factors that need to be done properly.
Carl recently posted…Super User added new listing Meta Calculator Review in Internet Apps.

[Reply]
Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 9th, 2013 at 9:10 PM
Well Carl, there’s still the disadvantage of having to write the thing. lol For people like us that seems pretty easy, but we both know that’s a major chore for many folks. And it’s not just the one, but multiple newsletters, even a once a month deal. Still, when done well it works great.

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Christianne Edeltraud Estiola
January 12th, 2013
Actually both are really good,it helps people to know/look the information hassle free. The sad thing is that newsletter is more tiring rather than doing a blog.
Christianne Edeltraud Estiola recently posted…Is the End Near for Reverse Mortgage?

[Reply]
Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 13th, 2013 at 2:15 AM
That’s certainly true Christianne, since I do quite a few. Still, it will work for some people, and if it generates buzz, thus income, it could be worth it.

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Christianne Edeltraud Estiola
January 15th, 2013
Newsletter is a lot of work and effort.. you do have to put an exact information on it unlike in blog that we can create a lot of information and we can get any opinions from the others. So I prefer blogging rather than writing a newsletters. Though blogging is taking too long but its more informative and all-questions asked.
Christianne Edeltraud Estiola recently posted…Can I Afford to Buy a House?

[Reply]
Mitch Mitchell Reply:
January 15th, 2013 at 1:55 AM
I think the purposes of a blog & newsletter are slightly different. Yes, both are there to inform and market, but with a newsletter you’ve been given permission to content people in their space rather than waiting for them to come to your space. So your information needs to be more precise if you’re mailing things out.

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Dita
February 5th, 2013
Hi Mitch,

I believe that Newsletters are great because they keep your list updated and allow you to build relationship with them. I did say list, but I never think of them that way. To me they are real people who want updates from me. I do not offer freebies so obviously who ever signs up must like what I write on my blog. It is a lot of work and sometimes I will just write a short email directing them to a blog post.

Cheers,

Dita
Dita recently posted…How To Change Admin Username In WordPress To Boost Blog Security

[Reply]
Mitch Mitchell Reply:
February 5th, 2013 at 10:39 PM
Dita, newsletters can be great, but there are the downsides that some people need to consider as well. I’ve continued mine for all these years now so obviously something’s compelling me to keep it going.

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