Adding up the 3 C's of an e-newsletter that sells, Part I

By Debbie Weil
Publisher, WordBiz Report

How do you know if the content of your e-newsletter is on the mark? Answer: It depends on your goal. If you're writing your e-newsletter as a communications and update tool, you'll measure your success by the kind of feedback you get.

Messages from readers such as "I loved the article in your latest issue" will be enough to make your day. But if the goal of your e-newsletter is to sell your product or service, then you're looking for a different reaction to your content: a purchase, immediately or in the not-too-distant future.

The 3 C's: Content, Community & Commerce

You might want to benchmark your newsletter against the three C's: content, community and commerce. Remember them? At the height of the dot-com boom, the three C's were the value proposition of every Internet business plan for a sticky Web site or portal.

They translate to an e-newsletter like this:

Digestible content

First, the content of your e-newsletter should be useful and relevant to your audience. It should be presented in digestible bites, offer food for thought and prompt readers to open your publication issue after issue.

You're creating a feel-good community

In addition, your content should make readers feel good about themselves. They should feel that they've made a wise choice by opening your latest e-mail; that five minutes of reading time yielded an insight or best practice tip to use that day or tuck away for the next project.

This creates a sense of community, along with a distinctive, one-to-one voice. In fact, your most loyal readers may be contributing to your community by sending regular feedback or writing a guest article.

Commerce: propelling your reader to become a customer

Finally, you clearly present your subscribers with buying opportunities. If they know and trust you and your organization, they'll purchase from you, right?

Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way. Good feelings are not enough to prompt a purchase through an email. Budgets and approvals stand in the way. You have to create a sense of urgency, a gotta-have-it-right-this-minute proposition.

This is where it takes some experimenting. Maybe you need to offer your newsletter readers a low-priced loss-leader. Get them to cross the threshold from reader to customer just once, and you can up-sell them later.

Bottom line, you need a formula to add up the three C's properly.


Part II: A veteran e-newsletter publisher serves up a 3 C's formula that sells








This article first appeared in BtoB Email Marketer Insight on Jan. 15, 2004 and in slightly different form in the Jan. 14, 2004 issue of WordBiz Report.