Case study: Using e-mail newsletters to engage with your audience

Chris Brogan, a well-known blogger in the social media sphere, has recently started disseminating information related to social media to an audience that can opt in or out of it (primarily readers of his blog), through e-mail. Chris Hambly, our very own Godfather of the SMM, blogged about this recently as well. I wanted to use e-mail newsletters as a case for understanding how to channel your social media knowledge in a way that benefits others, and create a legacy of sorts, so to speak.

No matter what everyone says about their social media consumption patterns, e-mail is here to stay. I don’t think Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed or any new application can replace e-mail, and the reasons are that it is personal and targeted. When you e-mail someone, it isn’t just to say ‘Hi, how is it going’ (those kind of  one-line enquiries are best used on a Facebook wall, if you ask me) - it is to communicate something of value. It could be about work, your personal life, something you think or did, but it is not usually purposeless (unless it is a silly forward, but that’s a different issue).

I’ve already admitted I don’t use RSS feeds, so e-mail newsletters are a great way of sending me information that I want. Chris Brogan’s newsletter is short, to the point, and packed with useful information. Newsletters are a great way of having an impact on someone’s life even if it isn’t written just for you. This particular newsletter, for example, sent me information about social media tools like Zoho Show, Tiny Paste, Mixx and Evernote that I wasn’t aware of before.

Similarly, our SMM newsletter keeps us in the loop with SMM-related information.

I say way to go, e-mail newsletters.

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June 28, 2008 | Filed Under Anjali Ramachandran 

Comments

4 Responses to “Case study: Using e-mail newsletters to engage with your audience”

  1. Jo on June 28th, 2008 3:24 pm

    Your post made me think of network theory, Anjali.

    Network theorists identify three positions in a network.

    The hub or person connected to many people.
    The gatekeeper who is a connection between one part of a network and another.
    And people at the “end of the line” so to speak.

    I think it often we chose to be at the end of the line. The secret of course is finding the gatekeeper or hub who will “feed” you.

    My question would be: how did you find the email feed? Do you have a routine for reviewing the email messages you get? What do you do with the information you get - scan and delete, or read and act?

  2. Chris Brogan... on June 28th, 2008 6:59 pm

    Let’s go with Jo’s network theory. Here’s another way to look at it. If you know that networks have different payloads, different routing costs, and different access points, then you can better understand why I bother to build one type of content for an email newsletter and another type for the blog. I know that the email newsletter will travel slower to a more diverse community, across more circuitous routes than my blog will reach.

    Another value (to me, not you): I know who signs up for the email newsletter. Suddenly, I know that my blog is crawling with Microsoft, Intel, IBM, and other large company marketing types. That alone is a high value to me.

    But for my audiences, the blog is faster, more centralized information. The newsletter is stuff you can marinate in for a while.

    Make sense?

  3. The Godfather on June 29th, 2008 3:52 am

    Yes, it’s good to know who is visiting, in fact I’d go much further and say it is essential from a marketing point of view (no matter what niche) that you know who is visiting, and much more importantly you do something with the data, not just give yourself a pat on the back.

    Segmentation

    I learnt this many years ago when I witnessed top brand names and big audio companies visiting one of my niche business areas, what did I do? I targeted then, I segmented them into categories and sent them related content, that’s where Blogs will never ever be able to compete, unless of course you have category rss feeds, but even then you can’t personalise the dialogue, you can’t enter personal info.. well, until someone invents smart Blogs with keyword insertions based on passed behaviour… (think Phorm).

  4. Anjali on June 30th, 2008 7:29 am

    Jo: I found the email feed from his blog, which I read because I find it interesting. I do have a routine for reviewing emails I get, and depending on the information, I usually read and keep emails in my inbox for future use, act if there is a pressing need(to blog about it, for example), or delete if it is not useful/relevant to me. In this case, I usually keep them.

    Typically, I think most of us are at the end of the line. There aren’t very many gatekeepers or hubs, but where they exist, they perform a very useful function to people they appeal to.

    Chris: The newsletter is absolutely stuff you can marinate in for a while - I can always bookmark specific blog posts in delicious, but emails are more permanent, in a sense, and if this makes sense, more accessible. At least, that’s what I feel.

    The Godfather: Intriguing thought about category feeds there…

    Thanks all for your comments!

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