In an occasional series on best-practice in e-mail newsletters I offer this advice. If you are going to communicate with your target audience via e-mail, then do not just send them links within the e-mail to content that requires payment.
There is a rant coming…
I welcome newsletter from PR firms, experts and related suppliers. Many have interesting stories and links and I believe they are a very effective form of marketing. Indeed I regularly highlight newsletters here, which I’m sure doesn’t hurt their Google rankings.
However, when I get a newsletter – that is well designed and has interesting topics – delivered into my Inbox, I expect to be able to read those same interesting topics. If you are selling content, the content in the newsletter should whet the appetite of the reader, wow them with your expertise, while still marketing your services.
If all the respondent actually gets is a web page looking for money, then you have provided no value whatsoever and in fact you have wasted their time.
That is not good communication practice in my opinion, humble or otherwise.
Of course to add insult to injury when I unsubscribed from their “newsletter” they kept on sending it. That’s spam. I am going to protect the innocent here by not naming the firm in question, don’t worry it’s not a PR firm, it’s a PR-related services firm.
I hope they can “measure” my response.
Murphy's Law 