You are a member based organization, charity, professional association or even a commercial operation with a regular value added e-newsletter. Can you effectively include advertising in your newsletter, charge for it and yet not dilute your branding and your message?
Of course you can. You own one of the hottest pieces of property in the advertising world. Your newsletter is an advertisers dream. Think about it. You have a strong demographic profile of your readers. They trust you and expect your newsletter. If you have been doing your job well you probably enjoy and open rate of 40% and above. You can accurately measure this.
Now, advertisers that get their message carried in your publication know exactly who will be reading their message. The Advertiser can tailor the message to that specific audience for maximum impact.
Choose your advertiser carefully
Deciding who will advertise is the next challenge. If you have a sizeable and qualified database you won't have a shortage of choice, so select well. make sure they company is respected by your subscribers and you. By carrying their ad you may be seen as an endorser of their product or service. Its not like printing a newspaper.
Single or Multiple Adverts
In most cases I recommend that you carry only one advert per edition of your newsletter. You can rotate them from edition to edition or have them rotate automatically using ad serving services if you really have too many to handle. Keeping the ads limited to one increases the exclusive appeal - and the associated cost.
How to charge
This is the biggest challenge. There are several models but I will explain the ones I like best for their simplicity and flexibility.
- Fixed sponsorship. Approach your top selected prospective advertisers. Offer a fixed term sponsorship arrangement (one year is normal). Make sure you set a reasonable figure based on frequency and reach otherwise you may end up negotiating for months and all that time losing revenue
- Open Market. Set up a rate sheet for your ad space and offer it to your advertisers on a per ad basis. This gives you the flexibility to increase rates as demand increases but is a little more work to administer.
What is the downside - you knew there would be one
As I mentioned in the beginning you don’t want to dilute your message or your image. You will need to get top level clearance of course. Once established it is important that you set a standard for the type of advertisers and the style of the message - not only what it says, but the look and feel of it. Advertisers will want high impact and bold positioning. Don't cave into demands that will jeopardize your brand. Don't accept rich media content such as Flash animations. These will not display in many e-mail browsers. If it must be animated use what is called an animated gif.
Why allow ads?
Well I don't know one member based association, NFP or commercial entity that couldn't find ways to allocate extra funds. My personal favourite though has to be using the revenue to upgrade the content and management of the newsletter itself. Hire professional writers and researchers, use a professional service like PeopleLogic that makes your job easier (note the shameless plug) or create a campaign to increase your subscription base so you can up the advertising rates.
Still stuck for an advertiser? Call me. We work closely with advertisers and media owners (yes that's you - there's a mini Murdock in every newsletter). We can help marry the advertiser with the right publication and assist in the implementation and strategy to make everyone happy.
Reach me on 1300 737 277 and ask for Paul.
Story by : Paul Hodgson
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