Your Company Should Not Have a Newsletter

Many company’s have an e-newsletter and I believe the majority of those company’s should not or need to take a lesson from the masters.  Here’s why.

How many e-mail newsletters do you subscribe to?  Out of those, how many, when you see it hit your inbox are “drop everything you’re doing to read the newsletter”?  Very few I bet.  On the flip side, how many were you subscribed to that when you received it, there was nothing of value to you whatsoever?  Probably a lot more.

The best example of how to do an e-mail newsletter is from Chip and Dan Heath.  They do not have a schedule they publish on, they only send it when they have enough content that they are satisfied that the newsletter provides exceptional value to the reader.  It delivers value.

Granted, they are authors of two best selling books, and write a column in Fast Company magazine but they offer a lot of free content on their site and the newsletter is no different.  The best part about it is that you don’t feel like they are bragging about their work in the newsletter, nor are they trying to sell you something, they genuinely want to fill your appetite of useful knowledge.  Because I get this feeling from them I remain as a subscriber.

If you don’t have enough content that provides value the solution that I would recommend is quite simple; DON’T SEND THE NEWSLETTER!

Now it’s your turn, do you have an example of a great newsletter?  I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.