To Email or To Blog?
I sometimes get asked “Now that our company blogs do we really need to be sending out e-mail newsletters?”. Sorry to those you were hoping to get off lightly but my answer is always yes. Email newsletters and blogs are both tools in a company’s arsenal to help spread the message effectively but each serves a different purpose and is aimed at reaching a different audience.
The best use of a newsletter is to keep in touch with existing contacts and clients. Newsletters are about retention rather than new opportunity. What you’re really doing when you send out a newsletter is to say: “Hi, remember us. We’re still here doing great things we want to tell you all about them, think of us next time you need…..”. The purpose of a regular newsletter is to keep your company at the forefront of the minds of clients and contacts so that they will continue to generate business and referrals.
Are all your company’s customers, prospects, partners blog smart? Right now the majority aren’t so a newsletter offers a valuable connection to the majority most comfortable with e-mail. A newsletter is a one way push from you to the customer. It arrives in their inbox and with any luck (and a bit of value ad on your part), they will read and register.
A blog on the other hand is a two way collaborative approach. In most cases your audience choses to find the blog, read, subscribe and participate. A blog is a communication tool that helps your company establish itself with new audiences and entrench itself with existing ones and it can be a great forum to learn about your market. Blogs allows users to have their say in a many dimensional dialogue: unlike email newsletters they are alive and organic.
When writing your blog and newsletters, remember to use different material for each. If the content of your blog is exactly the same as that of a newsletter then members of the audience that do read both (there are always a few zealots), will be bored. Its a good idea to chose a completely different area of focus for each i.e. a blog could focus on customer service issues while a newsletter may talk of upcoming events your company is participating in.
Use your newsletter to drive traffic to your blog and vice versa. It does no harm whatsoever to mention your blog URL at the end of the newsletter or to drive people to your blog “for more information”. It will serve to drive traffic to the site.
A blog and newsletter strategy both serve to enhance perception of your organisation and should be used in conjunction to each other to drive awareness.