Why do you still need a printed newsletter? With budget pressures, many groups look to alternative ways to get information to their audience. Some think that if they eliminate a printed newsletter, they can cut printing and mailing costs and still get the information out. But a printed newsletter is still an important communication tool. And for many, the best way to communicate via newsletter is using both a printed newsletter and an electronic newsletter.
The following are points to consider when discussing how to proceed with your newsletter.
- Most media experts believe that printing a newsletter can be much more effective than some of the modern trends of sending e-newsletters for both businesses and organizations. The main goal of a newsletter is to build and maintain customer loyalty. Newsletters are a tangible medium. Readers will have more opportunities to focus and understand the message when they sit back and read during their personal downtime. Printed newsletters are small and mobile, read away from the computer, shared with others, and filed away for future reference. Many audiences can still only be reliably reached with a printed newsletter. There is one major advantage of print newsletters over electronic ones is everyone has a physical address, so newsletters will definitely be received. And to date the targeting and demographic information a user can get for physical addresses is superior to that contained in most e-mail address databases.
- If you are considering eliminating a printed newsletter, you need to consider if your audience can be reached online. If the audience is an older demographic, not everyone is using the Internet or so overwhelmed by SPAM that they delete what is not important to them at the moment.
- You will also have to find a way to gather email addresses and keep them updated. This can be a time consuming and costly task. It also may be necessary to train yours audience how to keep the newsletters from being flagged as SPAM. Studies show that the average person reads emails quickly and when they do come across a newsletter in their email inbox, they tend to simply scan it and delete it. With printed newsletters, people are more apt to carry them with them, and read them on their own time, when they can actually comprehend the message that is being communicated. Printed newsletters also never require a certain type of software or connection speed on a computer. Anyone can view the printed newsletter at any given time.
