April 20, 2010
E-newsletters: Build or Buy?
In a meeting the other day, we heard a question we hadn’t heard in a while: Is it better to publish an e-newsletter using a subscription service like Constant Contact – or create a customized version?
Our answer: Go custom.
Sure, e-news publishing has come a long way. Creating and sending an attractive e-newsletter, using one of many templates provided online, is easy and fairly affordable. Example: It costs just $50 a month to reach 5,000 recipients using one of the Constant Contact templates (but we don’t recommend the “jungle” theme).
However.
Third-party templates can be a little tricky for less-experienced publishers to set up and master.
And the templates are what they are. You’re limited in how much you can finesse them to fit the type of content you want to send out.
And the archived versions don’t live within the design framework of your Web site. They live at a third-party site, where they were born. Ditto the subscriber’s info.
And you may have to take extra steps to manage your recipient list – which lives with you (maybe an address book or Microsoft Excel file) as well as over at the third party, from where your e-news is sent.
And those repeated monthly costs add up – especially as the publishing frequency and list size increase.
The custom option trumps the third party option. We’ve created easy-to-use, e-newsletter applications for a one-time fee of $2,000 or less – and that includes the nifty feature of having to manage just one mailing list (yours). So you don’t have to update two lists that live in different places.
Also, the final product we create looks like your brand.
It accommodates content that’s unique to your organization and audience. It’s automatically archived on your Web site.
Best of all, you never have to write a check after your initial investment (no recurring cost).
What could be easier than that?