2009/02/10: eNewsletters

NetTuesday/Triangle 501 Tech Club

Location: Wake West Regional Library, 4000 Louis Stephens Drive, Cary, NC 27519.

Speaker: Rebecca Currie, a former marketing manager and copywriter who now works as an independent consultant designing Filemaker-based data management systems.

The promise and pitfalls of email marketing and newsletters: New ideas, like social networking, have captured the imagination of marketers, but email remains a proven approach for getting the word out about your organization and the work you do, and for connecting directly with constituents, donors, and potential donors. Creating and sending email newsletters can be simple and cost-effective or costly and time consuming. From creating content to tracking address changes, myriad issues will raise their ugly little heads, and a variety of options are available for managing the process. At February's meeting, we will discuss the promise and pitfalls of email marketing and newsletters.

Amnon Nissan, president of Delta Force Technologies, an Internet Service Provider, and host of the radio program Computers 2K9 will offer insight on technical issues of deliverability and best practices, including blacklisting, addressing, and message formats.

Rebecca Currie, a former marketing manager and copywriter who now works as an independent consultant designing Filemaker-based data management systems, will offer a roundup of options for executing email campaigns as well as general information on things to think about when developing your organization's approach to email marketing.

The meeting will be interactive, with attendees encouraged to share stories about which approaches have worked for them, which have not, and what they have learned.

Website: http://www.meetup.com/TriangleNetTuesday/calendar/9523065/

Notes and discussion:

• In your newsletter, you get to say what you want to say.
• Need to publish regularly.
• Long and too often are not good.
• Check your newsletter with lots of different browsers.
• MailChimp provides free service if you're just getting started and manage a small subscriber list.
• Online services are good for handling spam protection.
• Some newsletters have a double opt-in -- You ask to be placed on the email list, they send you and email message, and you confirm the request.
• Rebecca uses MaxBulk Mailer from MaxProg. It cost $60. The ScapExchange newsletter has just over 1,000 subscribers.
• The newsletter is sent from the email address news at scrapexchange dot org.
• Art gallery openings are the third Friday of the month, so the newsletter goes out the Tuesday or Wednesday before the third Friday.
• "It's all about the love."
• CAN-SPAM act. Must have a real address, must have an unsubscribe option.

  I found some references:

  • CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, Wikipedia
  • CAN-SPAM Act Could Affect Charities, NonProfit Navigator Newsletter April 2005:
    

    Although intended to fight unsolicited commercial email, the "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003" (the "CAN-SPAM Act") may catch nonprofits unaware, since their email messages may also be subject to the Act's requirements. Any organization that uses email to sell goods or services - including conferences, publications, and even certain large gifts in return for charitable contributions - will either want to be certain that the message is not subject to CAN-SPAM's provision, or comply with the Acts requirements for "commercial" email communications.

  • FTC - SPAM Rules and Acts Page

There were only about 5 people. The form was not distributed.