The information is in there.you just never know when someone will read it!
Let's face it, you have a business and you need to let people know on a regular basis what you are up to , BUT, you don't have a millionairs budget to spend on TV or print advertising. So, what other options do you have available?
You could try radio, that's less expensive, but, you should have an expert assess where and when to spend your budget so you can get more bang for your bucks.-
Hmmm, what else? A Direct Mailing piece? OK, lets analyze that .
How much "junk mail" do you receive daily? How much of it do you actually open? Do you realize that your painfully expensive piece could be among the ones you just deposited in the trash can?
A Direct Mailing piece involves a strategy, design, artwork, printing, an address database, printing and pasting labels, postage plus manpower. With a great campaign, the most you should expect is a .5% to a 2% response. And how will you measure this??? And besides, you want something that will remind your public of your existance on a regular basis. You want to tell your story and have people learn about your services and what a great guy you really are.
OK, you know I've been leading you on so I can tell you all about the virtues of Newsletters, right? Guilty as charged!
Newsletters are a great way to let people know on a regular basis what you are up to, what your next proyect is or how your new product works. You can be as friendly or as formal as your market and business require. You can publish weekly, monthly or at whatever schedule best fits your needs. Furthermore, now in the era of electronic media you have different options of which to choose from when you decide to publish your piece. It really comes down to what you want to accomplish with it (and what your budget permits).
When you embark on the "newsletter ride" there are a lot of things you should take into consideration among which are: What do you want to accomplish with this publication? Who is your target market? Is your material time sensitive or does it have a long shelf life? Is it educational? Do you have the infrastructure for generating the material that will go into this publication on a regular basis? What type of a response do you expect, and how do you measure it?
As I mentioned before there are several new options available to marketeers among which are electronic newsletters or e-zines. Just like the traditional paper printed newsletters, e-zines have to be designed and you still have to write (or ghostwrite) the content. BUT, they are easier (and cheaper) to distribute you see, e-zines don't need to be printed, they don't need labels nor do they need for you to spend on postage. Electronic newsletters only require that you have an e-mail database and a service provider (that can be as complete or as basic as you want, or can afford).
A traditional printed newsletter can cost you up to $3,000 more that its electronic equivalent. This can be a big plus for your budget but, in terms of marketing it isn't the most important characteristic of this new medium. Marketing wise the most important aspect of an e-zine is its trackability .
What does this mean? It means that different from their printed counterparts, all e-zine articles and images are trackable. You know exactly who and when received your ezine, who opened it and what articles they read, what image they clicked on and even if they forwarded it to a friend or collegue.
No more guessing around to see if they opened and read the fortune cookie.you have a complete report that lets you know and further customize your content. And after you have published several issues you can even compare your results so you can learn more information about your public, what they want or like, what they dislike or avoid. This quantifiable data is priceless to any serious marketing person and is only available with the electronic version of the newsletter .
So you see, there is a way of knowing if your fortune cookies are being read you just have to send them the right way and gather all the feedback that will fall on your lap.
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Marina Rivón of Maremar Graphic Design, Inc. has been designing marketing driven solutions for her client's communications problems for the last 25 years. As part of a new business alliance with Active Media Group, Maremar now has the capability of offering their clients interactive electronic solutions that they can add to the long list of award winning pieces. For more information, visit www.maremar.com or www.activemediapr.com.
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