Category: e-Newsletters

So you’d like to start sending out an e-newsletter, that is great, and I highly recommend it. The person who reads your e-newsletter is very different from the person who reads your blog. It is important before you start to understand that you just can’t start your e-newsletter with names you buy from a service or harvest from website or for that matter take off of business cards. There is criteria for the people to whom you can include on your e-newsletter list.

First, I recommend that all websites have a privacy policy and whether you have an e-newsletter now or not, that you cover in your online privacy policy that if someone contacts you by email, you will be adding their email to your newsletter list.

Second, the rule by the FTC, in very simplified terms, is that if you have a business relationship with a person, that means you have estimated something, sold them something, or chatted with them about one of your services or products then you can email them a promotional notice about your services. This does not cover you getting their business card at a mixer or from a bulletin board. There has to be a real “business relationship”.

The FTC clearly states that no emails that are harvested, even by hand, from the Web can be used in creating your new e-newsletter mailing list. There is simply no way around this no matter how creative you think you can be, you will still be in violation. With pretty serious fines for violations, it just isn’t worth the risk of trying to bend the rules for your benefit in trying to start out with a big list.

If your list is over about 1,000 subscribers you will trigger all the filters of any firm you are using to send out your e-newsletter. You may end up finding that they will allow the first email send, but then may force you to validate  your subscribers, by double opt-in confirmation, all your subscribers for your second send or they may ban you all together.

It is by far better to build your list over time starting now from legitimate clients than to try to break the rules and start with a big untargeted list especially when you have so much to lose in regards to your reputation and a CAN Spam Act violation hanging over your head.

Nope they are not! Although e-newsletters are more difficult to deliver to the end user than they used to be, they are certainly not dead. In fact for me, many of my clients come to me from my own e-newsletter. I typically will hear, “I’ve been getting your e-newsletter for a while, and now I need xyz and thought to call you.”

I do a monthly e-newsletter and try to keep what I blog about separate from my newsletter so that there is real value to someone subscribing to it. I do not want the two vehicles to be the same. I use my e-newsletter sometimes to flesh out a point or topic in more detail than I do in a blog post.

Yes, it does take time and effort to create a newsletter but with now over 1,200 subscribers it is a wonderful vehicle to keep in touch with past clients, current clients, and prospects. One of my clients, who was a top long term care insurance client, told me that you need to keep your name in front of a client at a minimum of four times a year to continue to build business with them.

Additionally, it is typically less costly to work your existing client base to increase your sales than to bring in a new clients. I feel that it is important to have a mix of both approaches; always reaching out to new clients and making sure that older and existing clients know what you have to offer and of any new services you add.

I tell customers who do an e-newsletter to make sure you offer value. There is no faster way to be blocked from inboxes if all you do is talk about yourself. If you offer value in regards to tips, information that your audience really wants to know, and soft sell your services in a winning way you will grow your subscriber base.

Even if you don’t have an e-newsletter right now, I strongly recommend that you update your privacy policy on your website to cover that you will keep email addresses if a prospect contacts you and you will use it for your own marketing. I also recommend capturing email addresses of current and new customers. This way if at a point in the future you want to do an e-newsletter you are building your own list. The days of being able to buy an email address list and being able to use that to springboard your own e-newsletter are long gone.

It does not benefit you to not follow the federal Can Spam act. Not only can you have a financial penalty if prosecuted, but you can waste time and money trying to send to a spammy list.

If your e-newsletter list has been created by getting email addresses off of websites, from organization directories, or harvested from publications you read or subscribe to you are in violation of the federal Can Spam act. Your names fit into the “harvested” category. Many clients simply say “no one will catch me” and they decide to play the odds. Yes, it is true they may not be caught, but they may end up spending more money than they bargained for in trying to email to this type of list.

In several cases clients that came to us did not truthfully divulge where their large 6,000 member lists had come from. In both cases they paid money to us to set up subscriber accounts with a service to use to send out their mailings. One client purchased over 10 hours of additional time to scan his printed subscriber lists to create a digital version. In each cases after the first mailing the professional e-newsletter sending services shut down the accounts. One closed the account outright, and two forced these large lists to become double opted in. This means that a confirmation message was sent out and anyone who did not respond would never receive mailings again. Out of the nearly 6,000 that were on these lists under 100 responded that they wanted the mailings. So in essence with a spammy list the customer just threw money out the window in trying to send email to a harvested name list.

The lesson to be learned here is that a spammy list does not do you any good. You may end up spending more money trying to send to this type  list and still end up being shut down. It is simply not worth the effort or risk.

We invite you to review our November e-newsletter online today. In this issue we talk about several topics of interest:

1. Blogging and SEO – Working Hand in Hand

2. Twitter Made Easy with Social Oomph

3. Personal Information on Google – Can You Ever Remove It?

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