You've been sending out regularly scheduled e-newsletters forever, but when was the last time you thought about how you are deploying them? These offerings need to get to recipients quickly and efficiently to maximize the from-me-to-you urgency of the message. After all, open communication is the key to any successful relationship.
There are a plethora of choices out there, so here a few things publishers should keep in mind when considering a next-generation e-newsletter deployment service:
1. Look for list building and upkeep capabilities
Along with Firefox, BusinessWeek and Robb Report, we at eMedia Vitals are a MailChimp client, and the decision to use the service had a lot to do with list building and upkeep capabilities.
“They have boiled down complex subscriber management tasks into a very intuitive solution,” says Vital's vice president of product development Milind Shah. “Subscriber lists can be uploaded from multiple sources including Excel, .csv, Salesforce.com, etc. The list is then purged of generic emails such as info@, editor@, webmaster@, etc. automatically. A single subscriber list can be segmented in several different ways. Unsubscribes are handled automatically, leaving me with little to manage on that end.”
Shah is also a fan of the system's user rating, which illuminates which subscribers are valuable readers, helping segmentation and list paring needs.
2. Offer your content where your audience reads/views/hears it
Some of your audience will open your newsletter on their mobile devices, others on their laptops and still others on e-readers. Portugal-based E-goi (Electronic Global Outreach Interface) is able to deploy personalized newsletters on a behavior basis. "Publishers can use E-goi to launch an e-mail newsletter to a subscriber database while at the same time scheduling an SMS to be sent out the next day to everyone who did not open the newsletter,” says communications manager Hugo Pascoal. “The message will reach virtually all subscribers through the channel they are most used to.”
3. Understand your content creation capabilities
For publishers with editorial skeleton crews, E-goi's scheduled deployment capability promises to automatically update your newsletter with custom database-generated content. The company claims to have the only system with a single online platform that deploys email, MMS (texts with images or other media) and voice messaging.
Durham, N.C.-based iContact counts Boston.com and BtoB magazine contributor Paul Gillin as clients, and was named Website Magazine's number one email marketing service in September 2009 (based on average daily unique visitors and page views). Ease-of-use has a lot to do with the nod, according to Chuck Hester, iContact's communications director. After all, time is money and with all their integrated responsibilities, busy editors don't have time to fight with a complicated deployment service.
"I'm a legacy newspaper guy,” says Hester. “If I can use the service, anyone can.”
4. Look for time-saving solutions
iContact's ease-of-use also involves simple time-saving solutions, including the ability to paste copy directly into the service's templates from Word—an action that can often lead to garbled formatting in many a CMS. Templates are available with graphics already built in, and opt-in lists can be quickly uploaded into the system, according to Hester.
Publitas ePublishing solution—both the Professional and Enterprise versions—includes custom reporting for flash content and promises to publish digital editions via a hyperlink or thumbnail banner that can be embedded into your website. Based in the Netherlands, the solution will send email alerts when a new newsletter is embedded, saving you time and driving traffic to your site.
One of MailChimp's neatest features is its integration with iStockphoto, so that editors can curate newsletter content with dynamic imagery in one less step and quickly get those newsletters into the hopper for deployment.
While open source options like these are easy on the wallet, keep in mind there are drawbacks that can range from relying on an Internet connection to sketchy tech support. And if the service is not based in your home country, getting in touch with a help desk may mean reaching out in the middle of the night.
No matter which system you use, it's always good to double check that things are running smoothly. Shah uses Litmusapp.com to test emails before deployment to see that the newsletters are formatting correctly in various email clients and if they trigger spam flags in client-based filters.
