5 ms·

Email Newsletters Are Serious Business

88 points by jasonlbaptiste 17y ago

keltecp11 17y ago
Emails work well because of the 'Echo Effect.' Basically meaning: You are reminded of something without having to do anything. Think of the product 'Head-On'. Though their commercials are annoying, you will never forget them...in fact, you probably are finding yourself saying/thinking it right now... Head-On Apply Directly To Your ForeHead The beauty of the Echo Effect is that people are constantly reminded and people eventually think of your product/concept. So even if they just go to your website once, they will more likely be repeaters as long as they are given incentives to remember.
- roder 17y ago
  Emails are the original "push" and it still works. The "FWD:" is like the original retweet. Emails are part of nearly every person's life in the modern world at varying degrees. How can Email lists not be successful? It may not be sexy, but it's real.
coglethorpe 17y ago
Wasn't Craig's "list" originally emailed?
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  Yes it was. I was looking into that last week, but forgot about it. Update: Added it in as a bonus case. Credit gave to coglethorpe for the reminder. Gracias!
mrshoe 17y ago
You don't have to run an email newsletter to make money in this business, either. Check out this very cool (and successful) piece of Mac software by HN user jhammer: http://ethreesoftware.com/directmail/index.php http://ethreesoftware.com/directmail/index.php It does pretty much everything you'd need to run one of these newsletters.
aaronblohowiak 17y ago
Also, most of the customers from VerticalResponse, MailChimp, and Constant-Contact all derive value from their email lists.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  Very true. I love mailchimp (the others are good too.) We just started playing around with them for ramamia.
  - JacobAldridge 17y ago
    I've been using Vision 6 [1], the biggest one here in Australia. Started writing my team's weekly business email about 12 months ago - it adds value to my clients, and both potential and alumni clients get great value from work which is scalable. 'Nobody' visits my blog, but hundreds open my email each week. [1] see http://www.shirlawsonline.com/blogs/322-eeek-marketing http://www.shirlawsonline.com/blogs/322-eeek-marketing
eli 17y ago
My employer makes most of its money on free business-to-business email newsletters. Advertisers love them because they're very targeted (only people who really care about a topic are going to want to subscribe to a daily newsletter on it). They're also much more personal than a web banner ad and, in some ways, easier to track. And because marketers are more confident that potential customers are in your audience, they are willing to spend at CPMs that are very high compared to the web.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  Care to share?
  - eli 17y ago
    Oh sure, and feel free to link us, but kindly leave my name off the webpage :) FierceMarkets, and we're in a bunch of industries. For example: http://www.fiercebiotech.com http://www.fiercebiotech.com and http://www.fiercetelecom.com http://www.fiercetelecom.com One interesting thing to note is that pretty much everything that's in the email newsletter is also posted to the web (and there's even a full text feed!), but lots of people prefer getting it as an email anyway. We now obviously make money from web ads, webinars, conferences, etc. But for years we were only an email newsletter company. Incidentally, we're one of the very few media companies (let alone b2b media companies) making money right now.
    - jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
      very cool! I've stumbled upon the site before in biotech research/news (family business). Email is easy and convenient. Really great to hear more stories of companies that aren't listed in the post.
    - jwesley 17y ago
      "Incidentally, we're one of the very few media companies (let alone b2b media companies) making money right now." Not every media company is a dying newspaper, and a lot of them besides yours make money. Unless you have access to the finances of thousands of private companies, you should really think a second before making such statements.
thinkzig 17y ago
Thanks for the good read, Jason. I'm looking to build a newsletter for my travel site and am always looking for examples of companies that are having success with one. Another company that is doing really well with newsletters is Dogster. Sarah Lacy interviewed the Dogster founder for Yahoo a year or so ago and I was amazed to discover how lucrative they can be. Link to the interview here: http://blog.dogster.com/2008/12/01/sarah-lacy-interviews-ted-for-yahoo-tech-ticker/ http://blog.dogster.com/2008/12/01/sarah-lacy-interviews-ted...
swellular 17y ago
Great post Jason. I was chatting with a colleague about this and he used to work for a small-ish NYC-based mailing list that focused on high-income young professionals. He mentioned that the metrics advertisers were sold on (subscribers, CTRs, bounce rate, etc) were largely embellished and misrepresented. It seems like these numbers would be easy to fudge and that advertisers would rarely ask for further documentation (even analytic screenshots can be misrepresented). Are people finding this a concern among advertisers?
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  So the media kit #s were fudged (not the selling prices)? Most media kits on the site are out-dated, but you should obviously have an updated one for distribution. I'm sure people do this. Kind of scummy, but if I were an advertiser I'd want to see something valid. If I were running a list or considering creating a startup like Dailycandy, thrillist, ideal bite,etc. I'd build a great system for advertisers that somehow ensured my numbers were legit. (there's a hint somewhere in this comment).
  - eli 17y ago
    There have been some attempts at setting up an auditing system (as there is for newspapers), but they never took off, and I don't think that's really the issue. Ultimately, advertisers can tell if there ads are working because they get more hits, more leads, and more sales. For most clients, if ads are generating sales, it doesn't really matter what the CTR is.
- eli 17y ago
  It's like any business. Sure, you can lie to make a sale, but don't expect many repeat customers. And most advertisers (and all ad agency clients) also do their own tracking on click-throughs. Many also track image loads. (Open rate is the other big metric. If you're doing a branding campaign, you want to know how many people saw your ad, not necessarily how many clicked on it.)
omgsean 17y ago
I'm not sure if this is the kind of feedback you want, but I didn't really read that article because the text was fairly small. Laziness on my part yes, but I'm sure I'm not the only one. Sorry for giving you unsolicited typography advice, I just thought you might like to know :)
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  Just switched to a new design a few weeks ago, and this is the first new post, so actually great feedback. Just increase the size or change the font with it as well? thanks sean.
  - ars 17y ago
    Increase the font size and get rid of the double spacing. Or at least don't double space larger than the actual font! I personally don't care which font you choose, I hardly notice the difference.
- smokinn 17y ago
  You should check out Readability then: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/
  - omgsean 17y ago
    I use that for content that I'm really interested in that's hard to read, but for stuff that I'm only kinda interested in... ehhhh. Internet ADD :)
chrischen 17y ago
Email seems so old compared to new tech available with instantaneous feedback. A good startup idea would be to redefine email. Email 2.0. Not unlike google wave.
farida77777 17y ago
Oh sure, and feel free to link us, but kindly leave my name off the webpage :) FierceMarkets, and we're in a bunch of industries. For example: http://www.fiercebiotech.com http://www.fiercebiotech.com and http://www.fiercetelecom.com http://www.fiercetelecom.com One interesting thing to note is that pretty much everything that's in the email newsletter is also posted to the web (and there's even a full text feed!), but lots of people prefer getting it as an email anyway. We now obviously make money from web ads, webinars, conferences, etc. But for years we were only an email newsletter company. Incidentally, we're one of the very few media companies (let alone b2b media companies) making money right now. farida77777@yahoo.com

Emails work well because of the 'Echo Effect.' Basically meaning: You are reminded of something without having to do anything. Think of the product 'Head-On'. Though their commercials are annoying, you will never forget them...in fact, you probably are finding yourself saying/thinking it right now... Head-On Apply Directly To Your ForeHead The beauty of the Echo Effect is that people are constantly reminded and people eventually think of your product/concept. So even if they just go to your website once, they will more likely be repeaters as long as they are given incentives to remember.

roder 17y ago
Emails are the original "push" and it still works. The "FWD:" is like the original retweet. Emails are part of nearly every person's life in the modern world at varying degrees. How can Email lists not be successful? It may not be sexy, but it's real.

coglethorpe 17y ago

Wasn't Craig's "list" originally emailed?

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
Yes it was. I was looking into that last week, but forgot about it. Update: Added it in as a bonus case. Credit gave to coglethorpe for the reminder. Gracias!

mrshoe 17y ago

You don't have to run an email newsletter to make money in this business, either. Check out this very cool (and successful) piece of Mac software by HN user jhammer: http://ethreesoftware.com/directmail/index.php http://ethreesoftware.com/directmail/index.php It does pretty much everything you'd need to run one of these newsletters.

aaronblohowiak 17y ago

Also, most of the customers from VerticalResponse, MailChimp, and Constant-Contact all derive value from their email lists.

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
Very true. I love mailchimp (the others are good too.) We just started playing around with them for ramamia.
- JacobAldridge 17y ago
  I've been using Vision 6 [1], the biggest one here in Australia. Started writing my team's weekly business email about 12 months ago - it adds value to my clients, and both potential and alumni clients get great value from work which is scalable. 'Nobody' visits my blog, but hundreds open my email each week. [1] see http://www.shirlawsonline.com/blogs/322-eeek-marketing http://www.shirlawsonline.com/blogs/322-eeek-marketing

eli 17y ago

My employer makes most of its money on free business-to-business email newsletters. Advertisers love them because they're very targeted (only people who really care about a topic are going to want to subscribe to a daily newsletter on it). They're also much more personal than a web banner ad and, in some ways, easier to track. And because marketers are more confident that potential customers are in your audience, they are willing to spend at CPMs that are very high compared to the web.

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
Care to share?
- eli 17y ago
  Oh sure, and feel free to link us, but kindly leave my name off the webpage :) FierceMarkets, and we're in a bunch of industries. For example: http://www.fiercebiotech.com http://www.fiercebiotech.com and http://www.fiercetelecom.com http://www.fiercetelecom.com One interesting thing to note is that pretty much everything that's in the email newsletter is also posted to the web (and there's even a full text feed!), but lots of people prefer getting it as an email anyway. We now obviously make money from web ads, webinars, conferences, etc. But for years we were only an email newsletter company. Incidentally, we're one of the very few media companies (let alone b2b media companies) making money right now.
  - jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
    very cool! I've stumbled upon the site before in biotech research/news (family business). Email is easy and convenient. Really great to hear more stories of companies that aren't listed in the post.
  - jwesley 17y ago
    "Incidentally, we're one of the very few media companies (let alone b2b media companies) making money right now." Not every media company is a dying newspaper, and a lot of them besides yours make money. Unless you have access to the finances of thousands of private companies, you should really think a second before making such statements.

thinkzig 17y ago

Thanks for the good read, Jason. I'm looking to build a newsletter for my travel site and am always looking for examples of companies that are having success with one. Another company that is doing really well with newsletters is Dogster. Sarah Lacy interviewed the Dogster founder for Yahoo a year or so ago and I was amazed to discover how lucrative they can be. Link to the interview here: http://blog.dogster.com/2008/12/01/sarah-lacy-interviews-ted-for-yahoo-tech-ticker/ http://blog.dogster.com/2008/12/01/sarah-lacy-interviews-ted...

swellular 17y ago

Great post Jason. I was chatting with a colleague about this and he used to work for a small-ish NYC-based mailing list that focused on high-income young professionals. He mentioned that the metrics advertisers were sold on (subscribers, CTRs, bounce rate, etc) were largely embellished and misrepresented. It seems like these numbers would be easy to fudge and that advertisers would rarely ask for further documentation (even analytic screenshots can be misrepresented). Are people finding this a concern among advertisers?

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
So the media kit #s were fudged (not the selling prices)? Most media kits on the site are out-dated, but you should obviously have an updated one for distribution. I'm sure people do this. Kind of scummy, but if I were an advertiser I'd want to see something valid. If I were running a list or considering creating a startup like Dailycandy, thrillist, ideal bite,etc. I'd build a great system for advertisers that somehow ensured my numbers were legit. (there's a hint somewhere in this comment).
- eli 17y ago
  There have been some attempts at setting up an auditing system (as there is for newspapers), but they never took off, and I don't think that's really the issue. Ultimately, advertisers can tell if there ads are working because they get more hits, more leads, and more sales. For most clients, if ads are generating sales, it doesn't really matter what the CTR is.
eli 17y ago
It's like any business. Sure, you can lie to make a sale, but don't expect many repeat customers. And most advertisers (and all ad agency clients) also do their own tracking on click-throughs. Many also track image loads. (Open rate is the other big metric. If you're doing a branding campaign, you want to know how many people saw your ad, not necessarily how many clicked on it.)

omgsean 17y ago

I'm not sure if this is the kind of feedback you want, but I didn't really read that article because the text was fairly small. Laziness on my part yes, but I'm sure I'm not the only one. Sorry for giving you unsolicited typography advice, I just thought you might like to know :)

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
Just switched to a new design a few weeks ago, and this is the first new post, so actually great feedback. Just increase the size or change the font with it as well? thanks sean.
- ars 17y ago
  Increase the font size and get rid of the double spacing. Or at least don't double space larger than the actual font! I personally don't care which font you choose, I hardly notice the difference.
smokinn 17y ago
You should check out Readability then: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/
- omgsean 17y ago
  I use that for content that I'm really interested in that's hard to read, but for stuff that I'm only kinda interested in... ehhhh. Internet ADD :)

chrischen 17y ago

Email seems so old compared to new tech available with instantaneous feedback. A good startup idea would be to redefine email. Email 2.0. Not unlike google wave.

farida77777 17y ago

Oh sure, and feel free to link us, but kindly leave my name off the webpage :) FierceMarkets, and we're in a bunch of industries. For example: http://www.fiercebiotech.com http://www.fiercebiotech.com and http://www.fiercetelecom.com http://www.fiercetelecom.com One interesting thing to note is that pretty much everything that's in the email newsletter is also posted to the web (and there's even a full text feed!), but lots of people prefer getting it as an email anyway. We now obviously make money from web ads, webinars, conferences, etc. But for years we were only an email newsletter company. Incidentally, we're one of the very few media companies (let alone b2b media companies) making money right now. farida77777@yahoo.com