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Email newsletters have continued to grow in leaps and bounds. And their widespread use only goes to show that the newsletter has several benefits for internet businesses. But email newsletters have their limitations and disadvantages too. Thus, every budding internet entrepreneur must be careful to weigh both pros and cons before they plunge headlong into using a newsletter.
The Pros
First off, the newsletter is a great means of communication. It is a simple way for businesses to generate rapport with new and existing clients. Through a newsletter, the online entrepreneur creates an avenue to exchange ideas with customers.
Another advantage derived from the newsletter is regular contact. By its very nature, a newsletter has a predefined frequency – whether it is weekly, fortnightly or monthly. This regularity ensures that the interaction with subscribers is ongoing, consistent and long term.
The newsletter opens up avenues for networking.
Some of the subscribers to a newsletter may not necessarily be clients. They could be potential business partners or websites that have an interest in a similar type of product. The newsletter could eventually lay the ground work for collaboration.
An email newsletter is easy to disseminate. Once the newsletter is ready, it only takes a click of a button to make it available to the recipients in a matter of seconds. Compare this with print newsletters that have to be sent through postal mail and may take days or weeks to get to all subscribers.
In addition, the cost of an email newsletter is cheaper than a print newsletter. Also, and with today’s automatic emailing systems, one need not send the newsletter manually – all that is required is inputting the newsletter then indicating the date and time the email should be sent.
The Cons
Being trapped in a rigid schedule – Once a business commits to subscribers that they can expect the newsletter every week, two weeks or month, the business is under obligation to fulfil this commitment. This can be tiresome, especially if the business is understaffed and cannot commit the time required each time for research and writing the content.
Space in another downside. A business may want to communicate certain information in the newsletter but the newsletter can only be so long. A long newsletter is unlikely to be read in its entirety.
There is no guarantee that the recipients of the email newsletter will read it. People will find it easier to delete an email newsletter before they read it than they would a print newsletter. However, auto responders can provide statistics on the subscribers that have read the email and those that have not and help online entrepreneurs make changes to the newsletter.
Spam is another major challenge of email newsletter. Email servers often mark newsletters as spam especially if recipients of the newsletter flag the mails as spam. That means the newsletter will not reach the intended recipient and hence this is considered as a loss in the number of visitors.