Should You Start an E-Newsletter?
Back in February we blogged about the kerfluffle that sprouted as a result of Thomas Gensemer’s argument that email newsletters are a waste of time, and the ensuing backlash from the digital community. After a meeting we had with a client last week to evaluate their online communications strategy – in which a monthly e-newsletter has played a starring and very successful role for over a year – we felt it was time to revisit this matter to help you decide whether or not an e-newsletter makes sense for your organization.
1. Do you have a lot of little things to say – events, updates, member highlights – that are important to you and your list members, but not important enough to warrant their own emails?
The general rule of thumb for sending email messages is they need to be short, sweet and focused. However, trouble often arises when you have a lot of “little” things going on that you want to get out to your members, such as drawing attention to new web content, reminding folks about upcoming events, or highlighting a special member or donor. These things need to be shared, but doing so often becomes your communication strategy, which then leaves no room for actual messaging, action alerts or contribution asks.
Having one space – your newsletter – that acts as a “catch-all” for things you want members to see can be a great sanity saver, as well as a great tool for driving other goals.
2. Do you have a hard time keeping up with your email communications calendar?
This can be especially true of small organizations who don’t have dedicated on-line staff. If you are finding it difficult or overwhelming to create, and then stick to, a regular e-communications plan, a newsletter can be a great tool for helping you stay on track. At least you know that every 1st Tuesday is “newsletter day” and you can work that into your monthly calendar.
Anytime a random piece of information, event or whatever comes up in the month, add it to your “for the newsletter” file, then pull that out Monday morning, type it up and hit send! No more trying to juggle your beautiful and strategic communications plan with these newly gathered (but important) tidbits.
3. Are you ready to start segementing your list, or want to test specific ideas?
Having one regular piece of communication is a great way to segment and test your list. Tests can be as simple as learning whether a PS or a button at the bottom of your email leads to more action; or as sophisticated as learning which narrative draws a better response. Whatever you’re testing, the fact that a newsletter is regular, consistent and expected by your members makes it the ideal format to learn something from your people to then use in other communication formats.
I don’t know if this is true or not, but I have read that one of the best times to send out a regular enewsletter is Friday morning around 10:30 or 11 a.m. Apparently, this is a time of the week when people aren’t as rushed and might be more likely to take a break and read something that isn’t urgent. In any event, I like the idea of sending out a newsletter at a regular time, say every other Friday at 11:00, so people can plan to expect it — or at least it will hit their inboxes when they are their desks. Thanks for the post!
Thanks for the comment, Margot! The data on effective times for e-newsletters is all over the map, and seems to vary by season. Friday morning emails are sometimes more effective during the summer – maybe we’re all checking out a bit early during the summer?.
The biggest variances I’ve consistently seen have been by domain: emails sent to personal email domains (@google.com, @hotmail.com, @yahoo.com, @verizon.net, etc.) have very different open and click patterns than those sent to non-personal email domains (er… everything else).