Should You Dump Your Newsletter?
With social networking becoming more and more popular, many of my clients are asking me whether they should ditch their newsletter and use social networking web sites instead. Here is an email I have received from a client (she is a life coach) recently:
“Biana, I have been using all of the social networking techniques we’ve been discussing recently, and I am seeing great results! I recently signed on two clients, whom I’ve met through Twitter.
Since I am getting such great results with social networking, I am wondering whether I need to continue my newsletter? Should I stop sending out my newsletter and concentrate on using social networking web sites to connect with my target market?”
This sounds great, doesn’t it? You can stop sending out your newsletter, and you can spend the extra time that you now have on getting more done on social networking web sites.
While it certainly sounds good, you shouldn’t do that. You should not get rid of your newsletter and spend the time that you gain from not publishing it on social networking web sites. Not sending out your newsletter is a bad business decision.
Social networking web sites and your newsletter both play very important, but different roles in your marketing plan. Your participation in social networking web sites helps you let your target market know about you and your business. It also helps you invite your target market to join your newsletter.
Your newsletter is the next stage of your marketing plan. It helps you build relationships with your subscribers and invite them to take the next step with you: buy a product, attend a teleseminar, etc.
As you can see, social networking and newsletters are two different pieces of your Online Marketing Plan. Social networking helps you introduce yourself to prospects in your target market. Your newsletter helps you continue building relationships with them and let them know about your offerings. If you do not have a newsletter, you have a huge piece missing in your Online Marketing Plan, which helps you turn people you meet on social networking web sites into clients and customers.
Make sure to include both social networking and newsletters in your marketing plan. Doing this will help you see results from your marketing much faster. Learn how to create your social networking plan with the Ultimate Social Networking
Biana Babinsky
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Good point. But how do you equate newsletters and blogs? Are they of equal merit? Does one need to run them simulataneously?
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Great question, Mel! Yes, I recommend having both a newsletter and a blog. Your blog serves exactly the same purpose as the social networking in the above post – initial introduction to your target market.
Once your potential customers get to know you a bit on your blog, you should invite them to subscribe to your newsletter, so that you can use your newsletter to build a lasting relationship with them.
Biana Babinsky
April 22nd, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Great point Biana. And different people like to read the same article/tips in different mediums, don’t they. Some people love email, yet still don’t understand how to “read” blogs yet others love RSS fed in to their i-phone and hate email. Different horses for different courses :)
April 22nd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Karen, you are so right about providing information through different media! When you do that you are able to reach more people with the same content, without having to come with all new content all the time. Thank you for the great reminder.
And love the “Different horses for different courses” saying :)
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:07 pm
I agree, getting rid of one’s newsletter could be more detrimental than one might think. The thing about a newsletter is that it’s always there, and people can read it on their own time. With social media, things can come and go fast, and you never know what people will miss that you want to share with them.
Of course, I also have a blog, but I don’t put the same content on both except on a very rare occasion.
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:11 am
All good points! Trouble is, I’m an author first and foremost. And ALL proceeds from sales of my books go to two charities benefiting children / young people.
My blog carries no ads and makes me no money. That’s my choice. But putting different content up on my blog plus producing a newsletter would leave little time for book writing.
Still – interesting to read what you have to say. Thanks for that.
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Mitch, great point on social networking moving very fast. If you have many friends on Twitter or Facebook, it is hard to keep up with everything everyone says.
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:43 pm
I love that you asked this question, with this provocative headline, on your blog. It shows how different a blog and newsletter can be. Newsletters are for the people who have already “bought in” to the idea of who you are and what you have to offer…and they’re ready to make that “commitment”, no matter how small, to allow you into their mailboxes on a weekly or monthly basis.
Blogs, on the hand, are those ice cream parlor freebies flavor tastes. They give you the chance to share your info with the public, but it’s “commitment-free” and has the added “social networking” angle.
If you only blogged and did social networking, you’d only ever capture the information from the non-lurkers out there. If you only did a newsletter, it would be hard, w/out social networking in this modern, busy world, to encourage subscriptions.
So, even though you were intentionally provocative with your post title, the answer is obvious: NO! The newsletter and the blog (and all the social networking) work in concert, an orchestra instead of individual instruments.
And ditto, Karen, because each person has her own preferences as to how information is received. Keep it all, nurture each method, and say something worth reading. :-)