A good deal of websites these days offer visitors a free monthly email, all one has to do is sign-up and provide their email. The contents vary from: news, articles, special offers, etc. This is all well and good, but what really is the purpose of a newsletter? What is it supposed to do? What is the ROI of a newsletter?
A Newsletter is NOT a Salesletter
When a person signs up for the newsletter he does so in hopes to receive regular useful and valuable information about topics/areas which concern him or interest him. He does not sign up in hopes to be sold things by ads and special offers, he gets enough of that from life already. The average person sees about 5000 ads per day, according to CBS news. [ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cutting-through-advertising-clutter/ ] Therefore there is no tangible ROI of a newsletter, it does not generate revenue and is not designed to. An email which is designed to sell things and close people is a sales email, and is completely different from a newsletter.
A Newsletter IS Content Marketing
For those who are familiar you will see at once, since newsletters have no tangible ROI that they are in fact: content marketing. Content marketing is defined as: free, useful, needed content provided on a regular basis, to a specific audience, done over a LONG period of time. With the purpose of creating trust, authority and a relationship with the content consumer. It is not designed to close and sell.
The sales email seeks to get one to click on a link, go to a landing page, and buy a product. The newsletter seeks to give the reader valuable information, that is all. You might say that sales letters sell your company’s products and service, while newsletters and content marketing sell ‘your company’.
Which should I use?
Both, obviously. A newsletter sign-up form is clearly marked: “free monthly newsletter, useful tips and important updates… etc”.
A sales letter takes an ENTIRELY different approach. For example, you offer one specific piece of free content on your website, such as an e-book, or a white paper, or industry data, or free test results in exchange for a visitor’s email. When the person gives his email, he then gets this piece of data. Afterward gets a followup email offering him a different but related product/service to his free one, and it seeks to convince him to buy it. It will have a link to a landing page where he is convinced to buy.
Conclusion
Don’t be dismayed if your newsletter isn’t raking in sales, because it is not supposed to. Do one or the other or both, but whatever you do, don’t mix them into one email campaign. If you keep each separate you will keep your list happy.
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