One of my favorite pet peeves is newsletters, or more accurately, promotional emails. I know it's somewhat heretical coming from a lifelong marketer, but nearly all newsletters are a colossal waste of time for everyone involved.
Why? Because 95% of newsletter content is completely self-serving, developed to announce new capabilities, stay in front of customers, nurture prospects. Okay. But think for a minute. Would you play "Where's Waldo" with your newspaper/news sites, hunting for a single nugget of news buried in 10 pages of advertising? Would you eagerly anticipate the arrival of a new edition? Would you open more than a few issues before you headed directly to the recycle bin? Guess what? Your customers don't either. In fact, most of today's email newsletters don't even generate enough passion to significantly increase opt-outs. Which may sound like a good thing, but actually creates a false sense of security, leading vendors to imagine they have a larger audience than they actually do.
Developing newsletters typically requires a significant commitment of time and effort – too much to justify negligible, perhaps even negative results. If you want to announce new capabilities, stay in front of your customers, and nurture your prospects, develop newsletters that they will want to open and read: Short tips and tricks or whitepaper-like articles. Embed a nugget of self-promotional content within the broader context of information your audience is researching or monitoring. Think like a reporter, not an advertiser.
Better one small message received than one hundred ignored.
