The Diva Marketing Blog commented that the newest issue of Advertising Age sounded too familiar and it wasn’t just one article. It turns out the whole magazine appeared in its email newsletter and discussed in blogs.
This is a challenge for businesses that diversify their marketing efforts as readers prefer to receive information in various ways: print, email, feeds, web site / blog, some of these, or all of these. The funny thing is that we at InternetVIZ have been talking about blogs and our newsletters. We discussed that if an article is ready to go before the email newsletter goes out — that it might be a good idea to post it in the blog.
Our audience consists mainly of newsletter readers and that’s who will most likely find the blog. Currently, I’m working on a blogging strategy, so I’ll need to keep this in mind as no company wants to sound like a broken record — yet, they want to ensure their readers have the opportunity to see the information no matter how they prefer to get the information.
I read a comment somewhere that a business had no plans to start a blog because its target audience knows little or nothing about blogs. Indeed there are probably industries or groups that don’t put a high priority on technology and may limit to receiving information by print or email. But I believe it’s rare when an industry or group shares this belief.
When I publish a new issue of a newsletter, I usually link to it from my blog along with a summary, rather than publish the whole thing. Perhaps, the best approach would be that wherever the article appears first, the second resource should provide a summary and a link to the full resource along with a note that says “From the July issue of PSJ” or “Originally posted in meryl’s notes.”
I agree with Toby of the Diva Marketing Blog to be careful when incorporating blogs and email newsletters into a marketing plan. The marketing plan should look at all of the venues, rather than treat each venue as individual items. Of course, you can create a strategy for the blog, but also make sure you have a separate marketing strategy that looks at the big picture.
Speaking of Diva Marketing Blog — Toby collects Blogger Stories and kindly published mine. Do you have a story? Take a break and read a couple of stories — they’re a fun read.
4 thoughts on “Email Newsletters, Magazines and Blogs”
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I came across a figure that by the end of ’07, 70% of companies will have a blog.
That’s a pretty big jump from today. There are a lot of varied opionions on how to manage one… legally, especially.
One of the important things I’ve studied about new media forms is that at the nexus of top down and bottom-up conversation (such as with a blog and comments), the interaction needs to be strongly engaged and monitored.
Cheers.
This gets me thinking…What exactly goes into an email newsletter and what goes into a blog? What are their main differences? Is the former supposed to be more formal whereas the latter is more conversational?
Jojo, you’re right — although newsletters can be informal, yet professional (contradiction?). However, the biggest difference is how people get their content. Some prefer by email, some by feed, and some by blog. A newsletter usually has multiple content — not just an entry (I know blogs have multiple content — but I am thinking one post vs. one newsletter). Lines are blurring, obviously.