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eNewsletter Expert Interview |
Newsletter Wars: Email Vs. RSS
Lockergnome voices pro-RSS opinion
Chris Pirillo, Publisher, Lockergnome
speaks with Meryl K. Evans, Editor, eNewsletter Journal
How big is your bookmark (or favorites) file? Since the file is a basic text file, they are small. However, many of us keep adding to the file and never deleting a single URL. We arrive at a site and think, "Cool! That will come in handy when I …" The next time you go surfing on the Web, think about how many times you clicked on your bookmark (or favorite) to get to a Web site as opposed to other methods such as links in a Web page or email, a suggestion from a friend or print magazine, or just old-fashioned entering the URL into the address book.
I'm guilty. Using the freeware,
AM Deadlink, I checked my bookmark file and there were too many broken links to count. These were links I've had for over four years! As organized as I am, it's a challenge keeping the file orderly where I can find anything, anytime. Most of the time I have to do a find to locate a URL in the file. In the long run, over 75 percent of the time I go to Web sites via links from other places or typing in the URL. Yet, why do I continue bookmarking Web sites? Safety net. I just never know when I'll need it.
E-newsletters keep the company in the forefront of a customer's mind. They're a friendly trigger saying, "Hey, remember you wanted to check out this product or information? Here's the link reminding you." Of course, there are blatant e-newsletters, usually B2C, that bug you too often and instead of reminding you, it annoys you. Consistency is a big player in the e-newsletter biz and timing helps.
eNJ: What is your definition of an online newsletter?
Chris Pirillo: An e-newsletter could be information delivered through email, a Web e-zine, bulletins (product updates), content-based (value), or advertising. Lockergnome e-newsletters deliver technology-related information, which serves readers and advertisers. The trick is to find the balance between the readers and advertisers.
eNJ: What differences exist between producing a B2B vs. a B2C newsletter?
Chris: They’re different in tone. B2B wants strategies and numbers that work. B2C takes a relaxed approach using more personal opinions than facts. Lockergnome is a combination and it could be either.
eNJ: How are online newsletters effective for marketing a business?
Chris: Think of how many bookmarks or favorites you have. Do you EVER go through them? E-newsletters come to me and remind me that there is good information that I can use. I don't have to make the decision to look for the information.
eNJ: What value do online newsletters bring to their readers?
Chris: Value should be something that they can not get anywhere else. What makes information valuable is the gains in productivity, money, or time. They must be relevant to readers' lives.
eNJ: How do online newsletters develop trust with prospects and clients?
Chris: They take time so publishers must have patience. They help support 'word of mouth,' which builds trust. How to develop trust? Ask readers for their opinion. Bring your readers along with you and ask for feedback. If they feel like they are part of the process, they begin to feel trust.
Be careful not to lose the trust once it is built. For example, if the e-newsletter goes from being free to fee, it could crush the trust you’ve built when not handled correctly.
eNJ: What are some of the tactics you use for getting and keeping your readers’ attention?
Chris: Get attention, offer decent content that is compelling making the reader think, "Gee, I'm glad I read that this morning." It should be relevant to their lives. Keep their attention… when readers start to disagree, you know you’re on the right track because you know they are paying attention to you.
eNJ: What role does an e-newsletter play in an overall marketing plan? What specific ways does it accent or overlap your other strategies?
Chris: For Lockergnome it is 100% of the plan. E-newsletters bring readers back to our Web site where they can buy our e-books, sign up for the annual conference, or purchase advertising. We like e-newsletter marketing so much that we are building a paid subscription model.
eNJ: What interesting fact or tidbit do you have about a response to or outcome from an online newsletter?
Chris: The first time, I realized, "WOW! I need to be careful about how I deal with negative feedback." I received a flame about something and I got upset and felt terrible. What am I dong wrong? How should I change how we do things? Then my friend reminded me that I have 30,000 readers and just one bad flame.
eNJ: In your experience, what are the top three reasons to use e-newsletters for Marketing?
Chris:
eNJ: Any other comments about e-newsletters you’d like to add?
Chris: Publishers must keep up with how the Internet changes and adapt. For example, spam, blogs, and RSS.
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Spam fighting - Ann Mitchell with Habeas.com has great idea and product. Where other anti-spam services identify and / or block email that is likely to be spam. Only Habeas' patent-pending Sender Warranted Email (SWE) program identifies email that is guaranteed *not* to be spam. Through the licensing of a set of headers, Habeas enables senders to warrant their email is not spam. Habeas is then able to enforce that warrant by prosecuting spammers for violation of both copyright and trademark law. Recipients are able to prioritize SWE messages and to eliminate the issue of spam filters that misclassify non-spam mail as spam (which is known as the false positive problem).
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Blogging is huge - watch for changes
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RSS - Really simple syndication. See Dave Weiner for more. It takes away the spam issue.
To quote Arnold Kling, "
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eNJ: You're an advocate of RSS over e-newsletters. The drawback of RSS is that it requires the user to take action to open it and actually read the feed out of the many feeds he may have loaded, whereas newsletters come right to the mailbox. What are your thoughts on that?
Chris: Information overload is information overload, no matter where you face it. E-mail newsletters require people to take action, too. In fact, some users will go as far as to automatically turn their HTML mail into text, rendering essential page design elements and advertisements moot in the process. You don't have that problem with RSS.
eNJ: It's easy to add a ton of resources to RSS readers just like Bookmarks and Favorites. People are less tempted to subscribe to a ton of newsletters. How do businesses make people notice their newsletters in a big pool of RSS resources?
Chris: Who cares? The delivery vehicle is (ultimately) not important, so long as the user is receiving the information s/he is requesting. E-mail is replete with junk, and often the baby gets thrown out with the bath water. With RSS, the user controls the subscription - helping cut down on innocent losses.
eNJ: Some people are reporting that even if RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, they're having trouble understanding it and trying it out. How would newsletter editors ensure such readers can read their content if their material goes all RSS?
Chris: Just as publishers would test their Web site(s) in different Web browsers, and e-mail newsletters in different mail clients, they'd check their feed in the popular news aggregators. Simple.
With an exception of a few sites, how often do you remember to look up something at so and so Web site? Where do you go when shopping for books and other items? Does something pop in your head right away? For me, it's Amazon although I've shopped at many other places. I often go there first, but don't always make the buy. Where do you go for news? Sports? Weather? Something relating to your job?
Don't rely on search engines or third party resources to get visitors to your Web site. In other words, have control and use the e-newsletter as one way to do it. If readers like it enough, they'll share with others. So does this mean we should stop putting energy into search engine placement? Not at all. Just be aware it takes effort on the visitor's part to enter keywords into the search engine to get your site in the results. With e-newsletters, there is no keyword searching or guessing games. It's all right there for the reader to take a step closer to the action you want to happen.
