Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Promotion/advertisement In Newsletters: Evidence?

Posted by Anonymous on 10/20/2004 at 5:02 AM ET 125 Points
I have been tasked to develop and edit an online newsletter for the business. We have created a CMS to store articles on the website, and the newsletters will provide abstracts and links directly to the site. So far so good.
The problem is that my boss comes from the 'product-oriented' school of management and believes that a) every article needs to be about us and what we can do; b) no mention can be made or reference to any external content - therefore I can't produce articles where the firm's highly-qualified experts can comment on published works or industry developments; and c) the purpose of the newsletter is to advertise and not promote.
Best practice says that a newsletter is a soft sell and needs to gently cement the idea of authority, rather than drive a sales message. However, I won't get anywhere without hard figures to back me up.
Does anybody know of a source for hard figures about newsletters - in particular, open rates, read durations and ROI, whether written as promotion or as information?
If not, how would you suggest I convince my boss that an inwardly-focussed sales promotion newsletter will collapse under its own weight?
Or should I accept my boss's seniority in business and assume that my understanding of newsletters is inappropriate?
Probably a bit of an unusual query here, but this seems like a likely place for advice. And if my boss is reading... no offense, I'm just concerned to get the best result from this newsletter!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/21/2004 at 3:40 AM Member
    I would have thought the whole point of the newsletter is to cement relationships and establish your company as a thought-leader within its industry niche, whatever that is.

    If your manager wants a catalogue go ahead and produce one and mail it out to people or offer it on-line.

    But don't build a Trojan horse by sending the prospect something purporting to be helpful and informative which turns out to be a like a cuckoo. If you do, I can assure you from bitter experience your unsubscribe rates will go through the roof.

    No-one wants to be sold to. People want to be informed. ESPECIALLY in on-line newsletters...

    So show them new ways to use products, show customers gaining benefits by adapting the product for use in ways you never contemplated (as long as you're not in the pharmaceutical business!), and so on...

    BTW there's a KHE expert on e-mail marketing you should talk with (I guess he may provide an answer anyway over next few days) and that's Pepper Blue https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/profile.asp?userID=232943

    No, I'm not related and I don't get commission!

    Cheers

    ChrisB

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