WordBiz Report

With spam filters on high alert, delivering a newsletter by email is not as easy as it was even one year ago. Should it reach your subscriber's inbox (without getting siphoned into a junk folder), it still has to vie for attention amongst dozens – or even hundreds – of new messages.

1. A blog is not "email"

A Weblog or blog, on the other hand, is a page on your site that can be updated several times a week with fresh content. If a reader has “subscribed” to your blog, he or she gets an alert (consisting of the headline and brief summary) every time you post new information. Er, much the same way you may offer a teaser paragraph in your newsletter with a link back to the full article on your site.

It's just not true that e-newsletters "come" to subscribers while readers have to "go" to blogs!

One subscribes to a blog using downloadable software called a newsreader. (NewsGator www.newsgator.com is a popular one; there are lots of newsreaders, many of them free). No email is involved. So, no filters and no delivery problems.

2. A blog is an easy content managment tool

A blog is an easy-to-use content management tool, a way for the non-technical to update Web content. And a blog doesn't have to be “cool.” A steady stream of short tips with links to other sites or articles can be extremely useful. In fact, this is the same kind of useful information you may be cramming into each issue of your newsletter. With a blog, you can parcel it out in digestible bits - with more impact.

3. A blog makes your site search engine friendly

Search engines love blogs. By incorporating a blog into your site and naming each new posting with keyword phrases relevant to your business, you can raise your search engine rankings.

Of course, don't forget to link back to your blog through each issue of your newsletter. You'll probably need to explain to your newsletter readers what your blog is, where to find it and how to subscribe it. (See below, right.)

OK, but are blogs a fad or a trend?

A subscriber asked me this recently; I love this question. Here's my answer:

Newsletters or ezines are still the e-vehicle of choice for most marketers. Two things are slowing the adoption of blogs as a channel for business communication:

1. They're associated with highly personal, often unedited musings

2. Most folks don't know what a news reader is and why you need one to subscribe to a blog or any kind of RSS feed. (Again, see box at right.)

Use a blog to extend the reach of your e-newsletter

My advice for now is to continue publishing an e-newsletter. If you're sending it in HTML, trim your design down to the bare minimum and make the file size as small as possible. This will give you a better chance of getting past the spam filters and other blocking tools being used by major ISPs like AOL.

At the same time, consider adding a blog to your site for 2 reasons: as a content management tool and as an adjunct to your email marketing efforts. You may find you can use a blog to trim down the extraneous information that's clogging the regular issues of your newsletter and making it less effective.