How Many Ways Can You Spell "E-Newsletter?"

What?

So, it's not so simple.

There are many ways to skin a cat. Many fish in the sea. And, you have many newsletters from print versions to the electronic variety called enewsletters.

Think of how many ways you might do them (or even spell the word, with or without a hyphen). A successful enewsletter can be informal, formal, long, short; humorous, colloquial, cut and dried, filled with coupons and offers, devoid of coupons and offers, friendly, superficial, detailed, in-depth, frequent, infrequent, published regularly or whenever you get to it.

The only requirement, to paraphrase the late Somerset Maugham, is the enewsletter must "interest" the reader. But wait. Your enewsletter will also benefit from a regular schedule, a solid reason for being, and a steady dedication to the reader's self interest.

So what does your enewsletter look like? Is it breezy and short... Or, full of detailed information? How many ways can you do it? Have you ironed out the big questions? Have you arrived at a style that will last?

If you are a serious marketer with a point of differentiation in your product or service, this final question will become important. Style matters to nearly the same degree as subsance. Without getting lost in that question, you don't want to be re-inventing the program with every issue.

So here's a baker's dozen for important points on how many ways to spell enewsletter:

1. Maintain an attitude of simplicity in how you structure the program (which doesn't have to mean "Keep It Simple Stupid" or KISS), because the simplicity may be a subtle thing that helps you organize and express sophisticated content in a reliably consistent manner. Think of simplicity of structure as having a lot to do with your publication strategy. Simpicity of structure will help you maintain your enewsletter and keep it fresh.

2. Seek to surprise your audience or customer with interesting content. There is no substitute for this. It's the linchpin for permission marketing (see point numer 4). Few people will sign up (or opt in) for boring, illiterate, insubstantial or non-existant content. It just won't happen. Okay, so maybe a few friends or family members might humour you, but no one else will. You can hire a writer, or an firm such as ours to help you with this, but you must have good, interesting content in order to succeed at permission marketing. If that seems frightening, then you should a take a breath and think about where the digital revolution is going and how you may need to change. Your company or product is boring? Then perhaps you need to consider what made you get into the business. You might be surprised what a good writer, a bit of original research and a few interviews, and a commitment to talk to your customers on a regular basis can do for your company.

3. Design, graphics, typography, and color will help you outperform your competitors. Research has shown this conclusively with testing. HTML graphics based emails outpull text based emails. This happens over and over despite what people say about annoying ads, pop up windows, and download time to their email preview panes. Graphics make a big difference. You will need to understand preview panes, and where to put the most important message components.

4. Permission based marketing is everything. Your customer, or audience is paying for it on their ISP account. You must have permission to send. The sole reason is the value you're providing in the messages you're sending: the timely offers, the insider news they will be getting, etc. The reason YOU like it so much is that it's so much cheaper and efficient than all that printing and postage you were formerly having to pay for. Now, it's their quarter and they rule. You can't just send stuff, or do a Blast email to thousands of addresses. You will be following a new set of rules.

5. But don't forget to do some selling. It's okay once you have established good will, and the trust in you as a provider of valuable content. People realize the email newsletter has an objective or purpose. As long as you put their needs first, you'll have no problem with them coming on board for your brand. Just remember to put marketing before sales, and everything else should work out just fine.

6. Delivery is huge. Remember, this is a arena where technology is the medium. Personalization, subject lines, spam filters, working with lists, managing bounces, subscribes, unsubscribes, and feedback. This is where the right kind of technical support is so crucial.