Does Emailing Product Newsletters Bring In Sales?

[olimits7]

Hi,

I'm debating if I should start emailing product newsletters to my customers.

So I'm wondering, for the people who send out product newsletters, do they really help with bringing in sales? Have you noticed that more customers buy when a newsletter is sent out?

Thank you,

olimits7

[limbo]

Placing a small image (not embedded - stored on your server) to track referrers is one technique, but there are probably better ways as this does not count users who do not click to display images...

[menton]

I didn't mean to offend anybody, so apologies to HugeNerd. I take your point, but I wanted to broaden the topic from just sending mass newsletters. I think this approach is suitable for some industries more than others.

I went to a conference recently where one of the speakers stood up and said he had done pretty well financially and has some money put away in the bank. He regularly receives letters from his bank offering him loans for less than the amount he already has in his bank account. He obviously has no need or want for this loan and all the bank is doing is saying, we don't really know what this customer wants from us. I think the same rule applies for newsletters. Obviously works better for some industries than others.

I've found that customising your emails for each recipient results in a HUGE increase in response rates.

[HugeNerd]

menton, no worries! I am not truly offended at all -- more of a devil's advocate stance. I can certainly benefit from more targeted emails; I think my time and energy would be better spent elsewhere, though...which is why I really like the idea of customer's self-targeting during the opt-in phase.

[steakaphagus]

I'm planning to get out newsletters in the future, probably once every month or two. I don't sell products at the mo, so idea is to remind people of my info site (by telling them about new topics on the site etc).
Thought about making a bit of cash on the side by including advertising on the newsletters - does anyone make decent revenue this way, or are the sums not worth it? (I thought about fixed £5 for a side banner for every 1000 newsletters was a good aim - too high? too low?)

[ispy]

It feels like nagging

Yep, if it looks like a duck, smells like a duck, and reeks like a duck, its got bones. Sometimes you can find them in those tiny steel containers at the store which have something in them which looks like ham.

[HugeNerd]

ispy, I hope I never receive a newsletter from you...