Interesting interview covering email marketing with Ralph Wilson, the man behind wilsonweb.com, in Technology News.
Here's a little of what he had to say about the benefits of email newsletters:
"One of the things I advocate strongly for businesses and organizations is to start a newsletter even though you are small and just getting started. The reason is this: Let's say you put a lot of effort into getting people to your site, but your conversion rate for what you sell is 1 or 2 percent. That means that 98 percent of the people get away without you having any way to market to them again or have any indication of who they are. So, if you have a newsletter with interesting content, I think it is quite possible to get 10 or 20 percent of the people that visit your web site to sign up for it, and then you can build a relationship with them. When they are ready to buy a certain kind of product, they know you. You have to ask, 'What kind of regular publication might I put out?' It could be product updates or product information. For others, it might be interesting articles on whatever field they might be in. I think people should make them short -- 500 words or less. Then I think you need to set up a frequency. I think once a month is the outside limit, because you need to be sending often enough for them to remember you. If they don't remember you, you will get deleted."
