eAdvisor - Feature Article

Make Your Message Stick

Marketers face mounting challenges as they compete harder than ever for customers and prospects. The people you are trying to reach are bombarded by a constant barrage of information and sales messages, all competing for their attention. Email inboxes and electronic devices are a great place to get your message out, but the key to success is choosing the most effective way to make your message stick.

Marketing glue: eNewsletters

In these tight economic times, marketers are looking for a way to build a better mousetrap — but do it under budget. In the online arena, advertising, email blasts, and RSS news feeds are all options that can enhance your branding efforts. But they are no substitute for the direct connection you make through a regular eNewsletter.

Why do eNewsletters work better? Nielsen Norman Group's groundbreaking study of "Email Newsletter Usability" demonstrated that readers engage with eNewsletters differently than other information sources and respond to them on an emotional level.

The study found that when your message appears in a newsreader, for example, it's clustered with a flood of headlines from myriad sources. Thus, readers scan these headlines ruthlessly, often giving them only a cursory glance.

And even though news feeds bring readers only information that they asked for, having to peruse yet another source of information actually produces feelings of resentment in many recipients.

A positive connection

The Nielsen Norman Group study, which examined reader responses and tracked their eye movements during reading, revealed that readers spent about 51 seconds scanning an eNewsletter. In addition, when readers perused links from newsletters to a Web site, they spent an additional 33 seconds on the site.

That might seem like a very short time; however, those few precious seconds have enormous value. Readers in the Nielsen Norman Group study identified in successful eNewsletters three significant, specific benefits:

• Email newsletters are informative and keep users up-to-date (mentioned by two-thirds of the users).
• Email newsletters are convenient and are delivered straight to the user's information central; they then require no further action beyond a simple click.
• Email newsletters have timely information and real-time delivery.

The heart of the matter

The practical benefits readers describe go even deeper; over time, eNewsletters establish a connection on an emotional level:

• Readers view eNewsletters as personal.
• Newsletters are social (frequently forwarded to colleagues).
• Readers anticipate a regular newsletter and make it part of their email-reviewing routine.

When readers feel a personal connection to your communication, they don't unsubscribe — even when they're not buying. They keep getting the newsletter. Then, when they're ready to buy, they have a specific, familiar resource to turn to.

This benefit is so powerful that Jakob Nielsen, co-founder and principal of Nielsen Norman Group asserted, "Newsletters are a much more powerful medium than RSS feeds, and I would not be surprised if it turns out that companies make 10 times as much money from each newsletter subscriber."

When you have a great message, an eNewsletter will give you the best opportunity to communicate it — and get through all the other messaging noise. To learn how to personalize your eNewsletter, contact the professionals at Proven Systems at (800) 720-5398 or info@provensystems.com.

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