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Technology issues that affect your business

Do You Have Permission?

How to build your business with an email newsletter.

by Lynn Carlisle, Carlisle Communications, Inc. (June 20, 2005)

Imagine opening a new store, stocking it with popular and well-priced inventory, planning dazzling promotions, even hiring a retail consultant to give it a professional touch � but never telling anyone about it. A store that never advertises, never sends direct mail, never writes a single press release. Even worse, if some intrepid shopper does manage to wander in, this short-sighted store plans to ignore that customer the moment she walks out the door.

That�s just what an overwhelming number of craft websites do. Beautifully (and not so beautifully) executed websites that showcase products and projects may draw traffic occasionally, but unless the site gives consumers a good reason to come back, they won�t. Unfortunately, it�s not a case of "if you build it, they will come."

Your site may be just fascinating, but there is so much to see and do online these days. A consumer may sit down at her computer with the intention of visiting yoursite.com. But first she checks her email. At a site she visited by chance last week � let�s call it theirsite.com � she took a couple of seconds to sign up for free email updates. Today, they have sent her a cool little newsletter. She opens, she clicks, she sees new projects, new ideas, new products, interesting links, she posts to a forum, gets caught up in a blog ... and pretty soon she has forgotten all about yoursite.com.

Simply put, she had given permission to theirsite.com to contact her. And so they did. By sending her a short and sweet e-newsletter that contained nothing more than a simple crafting technique and links to a project or two, theirsite.com deftly snatched traffic away from yoursite.com, and paved the way for greater customer relationship, brand loyalty, and ultimately more sales online or at her local craft store.

Theirsite.com used the power of permission marketing to extend its reach beyond the "borders" of their website and into the more private space of the consumer�s e-mailbox.

Reaching the consumer.

Getting into that "private space" is a good goal. Between the millions of websites, forums, chat rooms, and now blogs, your potential, former, or even repeat website visitor has billions of online destinations from which to choose. The goal is to get her to choose your site, again and again and again.

According to Seth Godin author of Permission Marketing, (Simon and Schuster) in an attempt to cut through the clutter, "of the more than $200 billion spent on consumer advertising [annually] in the US, more than $100 billion is spent on direct mail campaigns, in-store promotions, coupons, free standing inserts, and other non-traditional media."

Unfortunately, even those loosely targeted "non-traditional media" expect only a 2% success rate. That�s right, they are jumping for joy if 2% of recipients respond � and 98% ignore or reject your carefully crafted effort.

While statistics vary, open rates (when the recipient opens your newsletter) and click-throughs (when the recipient clicks on a link in your newsletter that takes her to your site) for permission-based e-newsletters are far greater than 2%, often well above 80%.

According to The Direct Marketing Association, e-newsletters are becoming so popular because, well, they work. A 2004 DMA study found that email newsletters are among the most important ways to communicate with customers on the Internet. Permission e-newsletters build relationships with visitors, with the added benefit, particularly with crafters, that relevant newsletters are shared with friends and colleagues. It can be viral marketing at its best.

If you don�t think the mainstream consumers are getting online enough to justify putting resources toward an e-newsletter or blog, consider this amazing statistic: a June 2005 Neilson study revealed that 21% of online newspaper readers no longer read a print newspaper. "A significant percentage of newspaper readers have transferred their preference from print to online editions," says Gerry Davidson, senior media analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings.

And how do a majority of these online newspaper readers (11.2 million visitors in May for The New York Times alone) discover what�s new at NYTime.com? Through an e-newsletter. Sort of the virtual equivalent of tossing the paper in your driveway. Further, as good permission marketers, "many online [newspaper] editions now feature original content and have developed an online strategy that includes online message boards and editorial blogs, which leverage the medium's strengths of interactivity and immediacy," the Neilson study notes.

But what does it mean to "leverage the interactivity and immediacy" of the web for the creative industries? Clearly what we are looking for here goes beyond just generating traffic to yoursite.com. Consider the positive effects of just sending a concise email newsletter to your permission list (or "permission asset", as Godin calls it) a couple of times each month. You can

A. Maximize your investment in your website by bringing willing customers back for more.

B. Create brand awareness by supporting your brands with consistent, reliable easy-to-access content.

C. Put a human face on the web. Establish someone connected to your company as an expert on painting, cross-stitch, knitting, whatever.

D. Generate good will. An e-newsletter that offers timely, helpful, and valuable information will receive product loyalty and positive buzz in return. Just forwarding your email to a friend represents viral marketing at it�s best.

E. Pull seasonal crafting triggers. With an e-newsletter, you can target the all-important crafting seasons with precision.

F. Leverage your existing content, allowing you to fully mine all the tips and techniques about your product or category.

G. Keep the relationship going. If all your collateral materials (ads, packaging, point-of-sale materials) point customers to your website, without an email newsletter, that's the end of the relationship.

H. Be competitive. For very little investment, you can take your place in your customers' email boxes, right along with your competitors.

Getting started.

So how do you get started with permission marketing with an e-newsletter? It's easier and more affordable than you think. E-newsletter services are available online. Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com) and CoolerEmail (www.cooleremail.com) are two examples. Whether you choose to outsource or generate an e-newsletter in house, a professional e-newsletter campaign can begin gathering email names very quickly and mail its first edition in no time. Categories vary, but some craft-related sites gather from 200 to 1000 new names each week, just through a simple online sign-up page.

Once a few hundred visitors have given you permission to contact them, you can put together a spiffy e-newsletter, making sure it�s quick to download, can be read my most email programs, and delivers the message you want on target. Then just keep doing it, again and again and again and watch your traffic � and relationships � grow.

(Note: Lynn has worked in all media channels in the creative industries for the past 13 years. She has just launched a sweet new venture called craftcandy.com (www.craftcandy.com) that offers chocolate covered web services such as e-newsletters. You can reach Lynn a 252-752-9426 or ljc@carlislecommunications.com. To read previous "Tech" columns, click on the titles in the right-hand column.)

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