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 Enewsletters

• the most important component is the personal note from someone at the company

• creating enewsletters through service provided by POS companies is not recommended. 

In most business examples, use companies for what they're in business to provide. POS companies sell POS systems... email delivery companies like Constant Contact and others are in business to provide email services. Stick with the pros.

• stay timely... stay helpful... stay friendly... resist using enewsletters as an electronic print ad.

• never base marketing decisions on personal preferences

It's a big world... not everyone is just like you.

• it's ok to use the enewsletter to help sell products, just use a template design that separates the"story" intro from product promotion.

• allow people to choose their areas of interest with short article copy and links to website content or     PDF sheets.

• Robert has a favorite enewsletter template design available to anyone who asks.

• garden centers with nice enewsletters sent once a week have a higher open rate than those sending once a month in fear of sending too many.

It's quality, not quantity that matters to enews receivers.

• since most garden center marketing is placed close to weekends... an old habit that should be given a fresh look... consider sending enewsletters early in the week.

Less competition and more shopping opportunities. 

• not unusual for garden centers to have an open rate of +/- 30%

• the "best" day and "best" time to send enewsletters is a moving target based on which research is being discussed

• one center had poor open and shopping results when enews was sent on Friday

Both improved when enews is sent on Monday.

• one recent survey found that people spend up to 6 hours a day checking email, three hours checking personal email at work, three hours dealing with work emails at home.

• 4 Enewsletter Bees: 

be consistent

be interesting

be helpful

be fun

• Dell's offers a "news" enews and a "sale" enews

Customers can choose both or just one. Not surprising the sale enews has a higher open rate.

Question proposed... is the purpose of enews to get a high open rate or develop a relationship?

Answer... depends on the attitude of the company and their individual goals.

-first rule of successful enewsletters... don't annoy... which can be defined not just as frequency but also in perceived value.