The short answer is simple: both! Both of these online marketing tools can give your business a boost, and neither is necessarily better than the other. They each have pros and cons, though, and figuring out which one is right for you will depend on your preferred marketing approach and the needs of your customers.
Corporate Blogs: Easy to Find, Easy to Forget
Whereas an e-newsletter will reach your target audience - anyone who has signed up to receive it - a blog is easily accessible to everyone using the web who might be searching for your expertise. Anyone could stumble across your blog and become a new customer! A well-written, keyword-optimized blog can also boost the SEO of your website, bringing you higher in overall search engine rankings and driving more visitors to your site.
On the downside, a blog is only easy to find if it's well optimized for search engine traffic, and it's easy for even the most loyal readers to forget about a blog and miss a great article or discount.
Newsletters: In Your Inbox, Come Spam or High Costs
Newsletters are a powerful way to deliver targeted news to those who want it, and to reach hundreds (or thousands, or hundreds of thousands) of customers with training, promotions, and limited-time offers. But despite the accuracy and efficiency of email, it's all too easy for an e-newsletter to get lost in an inbox, sorted into a spam folder, or accidentally deleted.
The price of sending e-newsletters is significantly above the free blogging software that's available to anyone with an Internet connection, but a firm setting up a professional website can wind up paying more for a customized blog than an e-newsletter would cost.
Making the Decision: Blog or Newsletter?
Each of these marketing approaches has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the decision often comes down to what's best for the individual business. Is your average customer looking for an ongoing source of information in the form of a blog, or a regular newsletter providing them with education, details on your business, and special discounts? The choice is up to your marketplace and, ultimately, up to you.
© Informatix - visit www.informatix.com.au for more Tips, Trends & Insights For Business.
Despite rumors that email marketing is on its way out in the face of the social media boom, the numbers say otherwise. A recent report from Econsultancy, the UK media experts, shows that email marketing has actually grown by 15% in 2009 and is presently worth 336 million pounds - roughly 58.08 million U.S. dollars or 57.27 Australian dollars.
Why is email marketing growing? The answer is simple enough, according to Econsultancy's Email Marketing Platform Buyer's Guide 2010: it's powerful, it's inexpensive, and it's easy to measure. Unlike traditional marketing, which can be costly and difficult to track, email marketing provides interpretable statistics on readership, click-throughs, and conversions at a very moderate price. Best of all, in a world where everyone uses email, it's easy to connect with your subscriber list and keep people interested and involved in your business, at an extremely low cost.
A big reason for the recent email marketing boom is due to the ease with which it integrates with other online marketing tools, like social media and direct sales websites. Econsultancy reports that, contrary to expectations, social media has actually boosted the effectiveness of email marketing.
There is also evidence that the maturity of email marketing (and the strength of the monitoring tools and statistics offered by current e-marketing services) accounts for a large part of the growth in 2009 and the likelihood of continued future growth.
Their predictions for 2010 include:
• More strategic email marketing
• Increased opportunities as tie-ins with social media outlets
• Greater tools for email personalization
• Greater demand for training and education
• Targeted channels for information to reduce volume of mass mailings in consumer inboxes
Interested in learning more about how your business can leverage email marketing opportunities?Ask usabout our e-marketing and newsletter services today.
© Informatix - visit www.informatix.com.au for more Tips, Trends & Insights For Business.
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There are plenty of marketing methods, but which is the best approach for promoting your products, services, or special offerings? These days, it's all about the "E". Email marketing is easy, effective, and economical. Below are the top 5 reasons that electronic messaging trumps traditional advertising:
1. It's Free. Promoting your business in newspapers, magazines, on billboards, or in TV commercial spots costs a pretty penny. So does advertising on other people's websites  through Google AdSense or other online promoters. On the other hand, sending out your own e-newsletter mailing won't cost you a dime (unless you use a paid email service, and even that will be a huge savings over traditional ad venues).
2. It's Versatile. Marketing experts know that the more common advertising becomes, the less people notice it. In the age of DVR and TiVo, who actually pays attention to TV commercials anymore? When was the last time you took notice of a billboard during your daily commute? Email marketing can be easily adapted to suit your brand and your style, so you can make the right impression and get your message noticed.
3. It's Paperless. These days, "going green" is a big concern for most customers and businesses. Email marketing saves trees, postage, and fuel costs in one fell swoop by sending an electronic message rather than a paper newsletter, making it the ultimate eco-friendly communication.
4. It's Interactive. A billboard or newspaper ad is an entirely one-sided message, but a well-conceived email can include moving links, animation, and even feedback forms that invite customers to get involved, have their say, and learn more about your brand in the process. By engaging recipients with your marketing, you'll build loyalty, relevance, and revenue.
5. It's Mobile. Billboards have to stay where they're built. Television ads can only be seen when people are sitting on their couch at just the right time. But thanks to mobile devices, huge numbers of people now access their email on the go - and your email newsletter or special promotion goes straight to their handheld, wherever they are. There's no better way to put your products in the hands of your customers.
© Informatix - visit www.informatix.com.au for more Tips, Trends & Insights For Business.
If you're sending out an email newsletter to your clients or prospective customers, it's not as simple as clicking "Send", as you'd do with a private email, and assuming everyone will receive your message. Marketing mail is filtered by email accounts in a variety of ways that can prevent people from ever seeing your message; according to some estimates, as much as 10% of mass emails are never delivered.
What can you do to ensure that your emails are sent and to improve your deliverability rate? There are a vast number of factors that go into this equation, but below are a few of the basics to consider as you choose and customize your email options:
• Permission: Every address on your mailing list should have signed up and given you permission to send your newsletter to them. But what if they share an email address with a spouse who doesn't recognize your message when it arrives, or they simply forget that they signed up? It's a good idea to send a permission email or "verified opt-in" message asking the owner of the email address to confirm their subscription to your newsletter. This also makes it less likely that subsequent messages will be filtered out by spam protection.
• Spam Filters: Anti-spam measures protect web users from the multitude of unwanted "junk email" flying around in cyberspace. But they can also block legitimate emails like yours. Confirming permission (see above) goes a long way toward reducing unsolicited messages, and so does choosing a legitimate, reputable newsletter service that's less likely to be filtered out as spam. But it's impossible to get around every spam filter out there.
• List Maintenance to Prevent Blacklisting: ISPs keep track of senders whose emails bounce, and may blacklist you in general if your newsletters continue to get sent to addresses that don't exist or that have blocked you. It's important to immediately remove addresses from your list after more than one bounce, so keep track and act promptly to protect your "reputation" with ISPs.
• Unsubscribe Options: To ensure that your readers always have the choice, make sure that information on how to unsubscribe from your mailing is included at the bottom of every message you send.
• Email Format: Certain types of email content are more likely to be treated as spam by ISPs. These include images, certain types of links, flagged words that appear in a high number of spam messages (e.g. medication, drugs, make money) and attachments. Try to avoid these commonly used words as much as possible.
This advice only scratches the surface of the steps you can take to ensure that your emails make it to their intended recipients. Email deliverability depends on a huge number of factors and precautions, all of which are much easier to manage with the help of a trusted marketing expert like Informatix.
We specialise in providing newsletter programs that enhance the legitimacy of your messages and ensure that your newsletter reaches its target recipients. To take the next step toward boosting your readership and nurturing profitable client relationships.
© Informatix - visit www.informatix.com.au for more Tips, Trends & Insights For Business.
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