The Email Newsletter Model Is Not Broken

By Cory Miller

Blogs are hot.

That’s a real understatement, actually, of the immense and growing popularity of blogging.

But this week … I was reminded that email newsletters are still a hot strategy and shouldn’t be neglected.

Here are three examples of websites with email newsletters as their primary strategic “vehicle”:

Photojojo — a photo tips and advice site that has soared in popularlity over the last year or so, claiming over 100K email subscribers
Authority Blogger — well-known blogger Chris Garrett started this site on the blogging topic … but powers it by an email newsletter.
Fuego — just another example … this is a site for “busy, professional men” powered by an email newsletter

I must say … I absolutely love the strategic models of these sites.

Here’s 6 reasons why I love this model:

EASY TO USE – Blog are awesome, but a huge majority still don’t understand how to use that big, gooey orange button called a Feed. But people DO understand email.
STICKY AND PROACTIVE — You can see who your readers are … you’ve got their email addresses at least. And you have a powerful, built-in, permission-based way to easily invite them back to your site.
INTEGRATES BLOG TECHNOLOGY – This model still uses blog technology, but it plays second fiddle to the email newsletter. They call the blog the “Archives.” Your email newsletters can link back to your blog posts.
VIRAL MARKETING – Email forwarding remains a powerful force for viral marketing. Send out your newsletter filled with content that makes your reader salivate and watch what happens.
SOCIAL NETWORKING – This model also works well with social networking … enter Digg, Del.ico.us, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc. PhotoJojo sends their email newsletter out at 3 a.m. and saw it make Digg later that day.
EXTREMELY AFFORDABLE – I’ve been using Aweber to power my email newsletters. I love their pricing and features (particularly unlimited emails and autoresponders) … they are the best solution I’ve seen and for less than $20 a month.

Sidenotes

10 Questions with Matt Mullenweg

I use Aweber for our email newsletters and they just released some stats about their users’ email open rates. Neat stuff.

Lorelle was getting soundbites from people at the Dallas WordCamp and I made the cut

Help Wanted! If you know of some good blogs or websites on the topic of ecommerce and online marketing, please send me an email or make a comment on this post … I’m looking to expanding my knowledge!

CNN has a neat story called Get Your Blackberry Out of Our Bed! that cites 37% of people use their laptop in bed “frequently”

One Response

Scott Hurff Says:
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:18 pm

Hey Cory –
Thanks a lot for the mention. I just found your referral in my server logs — I’ve gotta say that I completely agree with your analysis. I think email newsletters are especially valuable coupled with a lightweight social networking component. This will probably be the next phase of Fuego.

Thanks again!