ComputerLink articles by Brian Pitre

Email Newsletters are the Backbone of Internet Marketing

The most widely used service on the Internet is email. The virtues of email are numerous, the convenience is hard to beat. And besides being efficient, it is also an extremely cost-effective direct marketing vehicle.

The incremental cost of distributing a digital product over the Internet is zero. That’s right – the big “goose egg.” This very important concept is dramatically changing the way to do business over the Internet. In relation to marketing campaigns, this concept has created a new economic model and process that makes it very cost effective to market over the Internet.

The key cost to consider in digital products such as newsletters is the cost of its creation. Once it has been created, there is no incremental cost of distribution regardless if there are 300, 3,000 or 3 million copies produced. This “no cost of distribution” is one of the great leveraging principles of an email-based marketing campaign.

Direct digital email marketing is dramatically more cost effective when compared to other forms of direct mail marketing using the US Postal Service. In the analog world, you have to consider the cost of paper, envelopes, and postage and multiply that cost per unit by the number of copies distributed. In digital distribution, none of these costs apply.

The only negative feedback people express about email marketing campaigns is that they are sometimes mistakenly confused with dreaded unsolicited messages commonly referred to as spam. Spam is certainly hated by all of us email users, but the chief difference in email marketing is that it should be based on the permission of the recipient. Permission-based marketing is generally defined as the ability of a person to determine what they are included in or what they receive, and more importantly, their ability to opt-out at their own discretion.

A privacy policy is also important when supporting permission-based marketing. A good policy makes users aware of how their personal information will be treated by your organization. This does not mean to restrict what you do, just to declare what you will do. There are two general schools of thought on this topic. The first is that personal information is not released outside the organization and only referred to in aggregate statistical form. The second is that by providing added value to users by disclosing their demographic information and tastes, they will be presented only with offers that they may be interested in.

Another important distinction in email newsletter marketing, is that the newsletter should be individually addressed to the name of the recipient, such as “Dear Brian.” This important distinction is useful in just getting the newsletter read upon arrival. I rarely (if ever) read an email that isn’t personally addressed to me.

In order to support email newsletters, there are a few system and infrastructure elements needed. First, you need servers, software and Internet systems able to run and manage the database process. This should consist of a database designed to handle the capacity of registrants you expect to reach. This system should have a browser-based administration capability into an Internet Online database. When properly designed, this will allow the administrator to perform add, edit, and delete maintenance capabilities through a standard browser from anywhere with proper username and passwords for that function.

Second, there should be a few Webpages established to provide a “privacy policy” and a simple opt-in through an Online registration form. Even more important, there should be a simple opt-out procedure, such as returning an email message with the title marked as “Unsubscribe.” A privacy policy and opt-in/opt-out procedures are essential user elements to this form of direct marketing.

Third, by constructing the proper support systems, the distribution process becomes almost automatic through a database connected to a mass email package. There are numerous mass email packages available over the Internet. They frequently support database interfaces to Microsoft Access and other popular databases. Once these systems are set up and operational, they simplify the process of distribution. After the infrastructure has been put in place and tested, simply compose the newsletter and let the system process the distribution of your digital product. A good mass mail package will individually address and personalize the recipient of each message or newsletter. In addition to the newsletter, any correspondence you desire can be emailed to everyone designated in your database. This also works well for news flashes, seminar alerts and other hot news items.

Monthly distribution seems to work best for email newsletters. This is not too frequent that people become annoyed, but just frequent enough that they don’t forget you. At Dockside, we have been using a newsletter for a number of months to distribute this Business Advisor column along with additional information to interested people. This has been a great success. Each month we receive praise, feedback and suggestions from a number of subscribers that we greatly appreciate. There is another interesting correlation that we have noticed with our newsletter at Dockside. Each month when it is distributed, I receive a couple of telephone calls from business associates that have been meaning to call me and the newsletter was just enough prompting to get them to take action and do it! Mission accomplished.

If your organization feels that the preceding was too complicated, simply find an Internet Marketing service to help with the process. Many providers can supply the systems and infrastructure required to make email distribution easy. This will allow you to focus on the content of your newsletter and make it an effective marketing tool. Email newsletters, permission-based marketing, special targeted offers and other marketing vehicles can be easily taken advantage of in your business or organization. And because these vehicles are so cost effective, you are able to reach a broader marketplace than ever before.