There are few things more permanent in the digital world than email. It’s tangible in your inbox, takes effort to delete, and can be passed along to others easier than any other medium of communication. Yet as marketers we often forget about email when it comes to establishing a connection with our intended audience.
When I was growing up, I helped my father print and mail a quarterly newsletter to his clients that he called the Performance Line (playing off his company name the Strategic Performance Group). To this day, he still mails quarterly hard copies to his list of clients, contacts and prospects. There are companies who have been receiving this newsletter for over 15 years. Talk about a long term relationship!
How many companies do you see sending this type of newsletter today? The truth is that many companies switched over from printed newsletters to an email based communication stream many years ago or discontinued sending newsletters altogether. In many ways the newsletter has become a lost art for companies, with established companies having their newsletters on autopilot and young companies overlooking the need for a newsletter and moving toward blogging and social media instead.
Maybe it’s because email is not as sexy as blogging or social media, or maybe it’s just that email a forgotten art. Whatever the reason, email remains an excellent form of communication that I have big plans for here at Jeffalytics.
Since launching this website in late 2012, I began collecting email addresses from visitors who wanted to receive my blog posts by mail. Some of you may already be subscribers to this list, but the majority of readers have paid no attention to the email signup box on my right sidebar. You should start paying attention.
Last month I sent out my first newsletter for Jeffalytics and revealed some highly personal information that I will not be writing about on this site. If you want to learn the news, read the introduction to the first Jeffsetter newsletter below.
^ Did you catch it? ^
Last month’s newsletter started with a bang and didn’t let up after that. I shared three analytics tools that I recently started using as well as two awesome tools for managing your editorial content in WordPress. Readers of the newsletter added more weapons to their digital arsenal just by opening their email.
Reading my Newsletter Will Make You Smarter
Over time, I hope that my newsletter can evolve to be a key resource for discovering and evaluating tools for analysts and digital marketers. Then I would like to round-out the newsletter by sharing with you more about both my personal world and the world around us.
Who doesn’t want to become more knowledgable?
If you’re not yet convinced of the utility of signing up for my newsletter, then here’s 5 more reasons why you need to subscribe to my newsletter.
1) Stay Informed with Emerging Digital Tools and Technologies
There are so many technologies being developed that it’s hard to stay current with your options. I am constantly becoming aware of new technologies and promise to shed light on interesting new products each time I publish the email newsletter. Not every tool will be appealing to you, but all it takes is one to enrich your life!
2) I “Open the Kimono”
Please forgive me, but “opening the kimono” is my all time favorite statement in the business jargon lexicon. It’s mildly offensive, the mental image is totally inappropriate and the whole process may result in loss of appetite. But it does have a meaning: to open the Kimono is to reveal personal details.
I do not share many personal details in my blog posts because they are rarely relevant to the story I am writing or the case study being presented. The newsletter is a little different and allows me to provide more detail behind the scenes into what is happening in my professional life.
3) We Form an Unbreakable Bond
This remains to be seen, but I get the feeling that if you read my newsletter, we will become closer. That’s what happens when you share in my hopes, dreams and fears.
4) Maybe Our Paths Will Cross
It’s not even 2014 yet and I have already lined up speaking gigs in 3 countries and 6 cities in the new year. As I start to speak more frequently and in a variety of locations, you may see me coming to your city. In those cases, I would very much appreciate the opportunity to meet up with you! December's Newsletter will feature a list of all of the places where I have committed to speak in the future.
*Shameless Plug* If you are really interested in seeing behind the curtains of my travel, you can check out my Jeffsetter travel blog for even more details.
5) Reply, Forward, Flag, Folder, Archive, Delete, Mark as Spam
You can perform all of your favorite email tasks on the email I send each month! Have you ever wanted to experience the satisfaction of deleting an email from Jeff Sauer? Now is your chance! What about forwarding an awesome tool recommendation to a friend? Just hit forward, dude! Disagree with something I am saying? Hit reply and we are magically connected. It’s the easiest way to get in touch with me.
What’s Holding You Back? Subscribe Now!
Fill out this little form and you will receive my next newsletter in mid-December. The newsletter is written once a month and contains brand new content that is not available in blog posts.
If I haven’t compelled you to subscribe to the newsletter yet, what will it take?