Your Newsletter: Do You Still Need It If You’re Blogging?

Posted October 8, 2009 · Filed Under Recommendations · 399 views · 8 Comments

needaweber If you’ve been building a business online for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve heard, “The money is in the list.” And back before blogs arrived on the scene, it was not only true, but pretty darn clear. We did everything we could to encourage people to subscribe to our newsletter mailing lists, and we diligently produced newsletters to stay in contact with those subscribers.

But now we have blogs and we publish new content on a regular basis. People can subscribe to our RSS feeds and receive those content updates automatically through a feed reader or via email. Does that mean we don’t need our newsletters anymore?

I think we do need our newsletter mailing lists, but maybe now that we have more options where staying in contact with our subscribers is concerned (not to mention different types of subscribers!), we should become a little more strategic about how we do things.

First, it might be helpful to explore the main difference between an opt-in mailing list and an RSS subscriber list: how you get the message delivered.

With an opt-in mailing list, you send them an email. With an RSS list, you publish a new blog post. Sending an email directly to their inbox is more private than a new blog post published for all the world to see on your blog. That is an important distinction, because you might need to send a message that is either not for public eyes, or you might just not want to muck up your blog, for whatever reason. Being able to get messages through to the people who are interested in what you’re doing without the “public-ness” of blog posts can come in quite handy.

Second, it might be time to rethink what goes in your newsletter.

I’ve seen a lot of newsletters in my day, and many of them used to have several sections to them, one of which was usually an article of some sort. My own newsletter used to be like that. Well, I don’t know about you, but it didn’t take long for me to find myself in a quandary – do I put the article on my blog, or do I save it for my newsletter? I think my blog is a much better use of my articles than my newsletter. More people get to see them and I get SEO benefits for my site from them. So what’s left in my newsletter? Announcements, special offers, all that stuff I don’t want to publish on my site, for whatever reason. You know…news. (Gasp!)

Third, it might be good to know who your subscribers are.

In my case, I have about 4 times the number of RSS subscribers as I have opt-in list subscribers. That’s on purpose, on my part. I also have about 2 times the number of visitors to my site as I have RSS subscribers. Said another way, about half the people who visit my blog become RSS subscribers (and more than half of those subscribe through a feed reader, not through email.) About 1/8th the number of people who visit my site have opted in on a mailing list. (You get a free e-book when you do that.) Then about half that number of people are on a private, invitation-only mailing list I have for clients.

subscribers Here’s a picture of how I see these different groups from a relationship-with-me perspective.

It’s not that my RSS subscribers don’t love me, it’s just that the nature of the relationship we have is a little looser because of how they’re subscribed. Because they haven’t opted in to a mailing list, they don’t get any of the “private information” I send out but don’t publish on my blog. So, they don’t know as much as my opt-in subscribers do. That’s even more true of my client mailing list as compared to my other opt-in lists. They get the low-down on just about everything going on with me. My relationship with my clients is pretty tight.

If I didn’t have an opt-in mailing list service, I wouldn’t be able to maintain these closer relationships with my clients, and that just wouldn’t do…at least not for me. I’m very relationship-driven, and I derive a great deal of pleasure from the relationships I build in my business, and I just wouldn’t be happy in business without them.

I should also point out that some people are on all of these lists. They want to get the “inside” information, and they also want to get each update from the site. You’ll have that situation, too.

iheartaweber So, yes, I still need my mailing list, but the content of what I send out has changed since my newsletter days.

When I take the time to write an article, it goes on my blog…period. With opt-in lists in place, I have the option of “reminding” those folks to check out the latest article on the blog by providing a link to it, rather than the whole article, while sharing information that isn’t necessarily appropriate for my blog. This keeps my blog nice and tidy. Nice and tidy is good.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe to the feed (full posts) or (summary posts) in your feed reader or get full posts or summary posts via email. There are freebies waiting for you, whichever way you subscribe!

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6328 Responses2009-10-08+12%3A19%3A31Suzanne to “Your Newsletter: Do You Still Need It If You’re Blogging?”

Martha Carnahan
October 8th, 2009 12:06 pm

Okay, I have an embarrassing question.

I do not understand how to use the RSS update feature of blogs. If I like a blog and want to be updated to new posts, I always subscribe to the email delivery option because, as a reader, I understand how that works. I put in my address and, voila, I begin getting emails as the person posts new blog articles.

However, when I click the RSS option, I don’t have my brain around what will happen — will I receive something? Or do I have to remember to go somewhere on the Web to find my “feed” of things I’m subscribed to? I think I may have subscribed to a few RSS feeds, but I don’t seem to be getting anything. I just don’t have a grasp on how it works — as the end user. (I have an RSS link set up on my own blog, but have no idea how to be an end user of this gizmo!)

Okay, now that I’ve outed myself on this, I’m peeling off my layer of shame about this lack of knowledge. Why be embarrassed? Frankly, I just don’t know and am asking! So there.

Martha
Martha Carnahan´s last blog ..Bitter about Twitter?
Suzanne
October 8th, 2009 4:06 pm

Martha,

First – ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to be embarrassed about. Promise.

Second, when you click that darling orange thing-a-ma-bob, it may be that nothing happens. That entirely depends on how the site owner has configured their feed (and whether or not they’ve got Feedburner or Feedblitz or some other 3rd party service helping it out) and also how you’ve got your browser configured.

Assuming we leave out the option of subscribing to feeds via email…

Most major browsers (Firefox, IE, Safari, etc.) have feed reading capabilities built right in. And that’s all fine and dandy…IF you always are using your own computer to read your feeds.

Alternatively, you can use a web based feed reader (I use Bloglines…cough, cough…when I use one…cough, cough), so that you can read your feeds no matter whose computer you’re using, assuming it has an Internet connection. Regardless of the fact that I hardly ever go anywhere but right here to this chair everyday, and regardless of the fact that my computer is a laptop that could go with me if I ever did go anywhere…I like the web-based solution best. Cuz, you know…I might get to go somewhere someday (and it’s a holdover from when I used to travel for the j.o.b. so much. When you travel, web-based is the way to go.)

So yes, reading an RSS feed with a feed reader is something you have to remember to do. That’s why it’s a looser relationship than I have with my opt-in subscribers…they have to remember we have a relationship. LOL And it’s also probably exactly why the fine folks at Feedburner offer subscriptions via email…to tighten that a bit. I mean, who doesn’t check their email? (Ok…forget I asked that question. I know there are folks out there who don’t check their email daily. I don’t understand how they live, but I do know they’re out there.)

I have a LOT of feeds in my feed reader, but (and this is why I was “coughing” so much above) I don’t check my Bloglines account everyday. Why? Because I have to remember to do it. I don’t have to remember to check my email…I seem to do that just like I breathe…it’s rather automatic. (Get up…go pee…make coffee…fire up Thunderbird (my email program)…pour 1st cup of coffee…read email… Just ask my kids what happens when someone or something interrupts this morning ritual!) So, even Little Miss Suzanne-Techie-Pants over here still prefers to get her favorite feeds via email.

I say do what works best for you, no matter what everyone else does. It’s good to know how the other options work (which hopefully now you do) but it’s perfectly A-ok to get your feed subscriptions via email if that’s what works best for you.

Thanks for asking! No layer of shame required, so I’m glad you peeled it off!
Suzanne
Suzanne
October 8th, 2009 4:12 pm

OOOPS! It occurs to me that I’ve dated myself by saying that if you travel, web-based is the way to go. I forgot it’s been 10 years since I was a business traveller. Probably these days you’d use a Blackberry or an iPhone or some such. And they both probably have feed reading capabilities, too. I wouldn’t know. I own neither, because…like I said…I never go anywhere.
Nancy
October 8th, 2009 4:24 pm

Hey thanks for writing this! This very topic has been on my mind lately. Each time I write my newsletters I keep telling myself how much simpler it would be if this were a blog post instead. And then I sigh.

I already told one of my newsletter lists that I’m moving over to blogging lately and if they really want to stay current they should go over there and sign up. But did I give ‘em any incentive to do so? Heck no and my bad!

While I do have Aweber I haven’t explored their templates yet and figure it’s too much trouble to switch. Maybe I should rethink that?

Great content here! No wonder you’re in the top 100
Nancy´s last blog ..Autumn’s Rush
Suzanne
October 8th, 2009 4:26 pm

Nancy,

Au contraire, mon ami! ‘Tis not too much trouble to switch! You’ve already got the most important ingredient: an AWeber account. You’re sitting on a BUNCH of options that could make your life easier where your newsletters/blogs are concerned. For example, you could use the Blog Broadcast feature to automatically send a broadcast email to your mailing list subscribers each time you post a new blog post, thereby training them to expect your great content to be at your blog. The beauty of it is, you set it…and forget it. You concentrate on blogging and AWeber makes sure your peeps know about it. And you can still send a regular broadcast email when appropriate, without mucking anything up.

We should talk about this…
Suzanne
Liz
October 8th, 2009 4:27 pm

Suzanne,

I’ve been pondering just this question, so thanks for spelling it out for me. I got a newsletter thingie set up- but haven’t really done anything with it. Just another thing on the LONG list of things to do. But it’s much more fun to think of it as a list of ways to connect with people. Cause that’s fun!
Suzanne
October 8th, 2009 4:32 pm

Liz – you’re absolutely welcome. And you’re right – it IS fun!
Martha Carnahan
October 12th, 2009 1:57 am

Thank you so much for this great explanation. Very very helpful!!