Globalspec’s newsletter, Marketing Maven, posts a e-marketing 101 article titled What to Know About Sponsoring e-Newsletters that caught my attention. I don’t think the subject gets talked about very much. Ultimately, she is making a case for sponsoring Globalspec’s industry-specific newsletters.
“A compelling case exists for suppliers and manufacturers to add sponsorship of e-newsletters to their marketing mix. The benefits of the right sponsorship include:”
- Brand visibility
- Frequency
- Low barrier to entry
- Audience
- Ability to test”
Okay, the Maven is right on these (and she explains more for each bullet), but there are two other issues that come to my mind:
1. Cost. Of course.
Globalspec has always positioned itself as costing about as much for a one year listing as a single full page ad in a trade publication (around $15K). Their newsletter sponsorships (three different positions available) are about $2,500 per issue. This was true regardless of the audience size (30K or 70K), but is on par with pricing I’ve seen with trade publications.
This expense could be acceptable for an advertiser with a large budget trying to round out their exposure triangle. For a partial-page advertiser like myself, this is a big price to pay for a extremely fleeting exposure. But that leads to my second point.
2. Effectiveness
Just how fast do people scan e-newsletters? Fast. The quality of content and the format is going to effect how the user reads the newsletter, but the process is fast nonetheless. While there is a ‘low barrier to entry’ as the Maven says, and it sounds good to get your promotion in front of 70K folks at one shot, I don’t think that you can just throw money and a simple ad/listing and expect results. Particular care needs to be placed on what your ad says and looks like, and how it fits in the newsletter. Essentially, the same due-diligence should be applied as to a print ad in order to be effective.
So, in summary, I think e-newsletter sponsorship works when:
- It is a smaller part of an overall marketing program
- The newsletter format makes the sponsorship likely to be noticed
- The advertiser prepares content that gets noticed
- Sponsors should take advantage of the points the Maven calls out
Longtime readers may remember I once posted about a newsletter sponsor that got me to click, only to lead to a white paper as a Word file. Hopefully we’re all past that by now.
While this comment is not on e-newsletter sponsorships, it is on GlobalSpec in general. Check out this 8/24/06 article based on “A special report from the Search Engine Strategies conference, August 7-10, 2006, San Jose, CA.”http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3623250
While this comment is not on e-newsletter sponsorships, it is on GlobalSpec in general. Check out this 8/24/06 article based on “A special report from the Search Engine Strategies conference, August 7-10, 2006, San Jose, CA.”http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3623250
Thanks for the link! I’ll post it on Monday.
Thanks for the link! I’ll post it on Monday.
The GlobalSpec newsletters can be very effective for a company with a new product launch or a catalog release. One of the best benefits for an advertiser is the data collection on click throughs. Essentially each click will give you a virtual “electronic business card”. That information can be very useful for other sales and marketing initiatives and companies who have a focus on prospecting.
The GlobalSpec newsletters can be very effective for a company with a new product launch or a catalog release. One of the best benefits for an advertiser is the data collection on click throughs. Essentially each click will give you a virtual “electronic business card”. That information can be very useful for other sales and marketing initiatives and companies who have a focus on prospecting.