Why a blog and an e-newsletter?

Just last week, I presented to Storehouse Furniture what I do best, an Internet Marketing Plan Strategy. In it I recommended they provide content to their customers and prospects three ways: website, newsletters, and a blog.

"Where website content and FAQs are more factual and educational, blogs can be more personal and of the moment. A blog is an extension of your brand - it enables you to create a relationship with your audience."

Why? Because we all know by now that people want to consume information (and purchase products) in different ways - and you need to make sure you are fulfilling those varied wants. Some will search your website, some will sign up for your newsletter, and some have added RSS feeds to their reading stack.

And what is a Caro post without a top 10 list to answer a question? This one comes from "Top Ten Reasons to Publish an Ezine AND a Blog" by Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman.

Blogs allow you to...

1. Be spontaneous.
2. Show your informal, friendly side.
3. Circumvent those nasty spam blockers and filters.
4. Enhance your search engine optimization efforts.
5. Give your ezine article eternal life - and keep them organized too.
6. Establish yourself as a good resource.
7. Include ads, products, and affiliate programs in the blog side columns (side note: some of those in the blogosphere would debate this).
8. Create two-way communication with your readers, prospects, and customers.
9. Post your ezine articles online without needing to bug your tech guy.
10. Attract more visitors to your website - and hopefully convert them into customers.

Why do I do both? Because it's easier to post my thoughts over time and then send them out every few months to my distribution list... many of those on this list do not follow blogs at this point.

Do you do both? Why?

Addition 10/19/05 - Paul Chaney and Amy Gahran share their perspectives on why they are not using or are no longer using email newsletters.

Comments

[Amy Gahran]

Hi, Teresa

Thanks for mentioning my discussion with Paul.

To be clear, I haven't given up on my e-mail newsletter, I've just put it on hiatus until I can find a less labor-intensive approach. I discussed some options in Contentious: http://tinyurl.com/as3pv

For my publication, my core audience is now reading or discovering me mainly via feed, I've found. I realize this is not the case for many online publishers, so I'm a bit of a special case. I generally recommend that online publishers offer both feeds and e-mail alerts -- and that they also educate their audiences about feeds and encourage them to start using feeds.

So the issue is not really "Should you publish a blog or an e-mail newsletter," but rather that you should publish your content to the web (preferably using a blogging tool) and then figure out how to promote it. A feed should always be part of that strategy, but an e-mail alert can and probably should be part of that strategy too.

Generally, though, I think only offering an e-mail newsletter isn't the best strategy, since you get the least mileage out of that channel when that's the only channel you're using.

- Amy Gahran
Editor, Contentious