Marketing Buzz 8/01
Visual newsletters and staying updated on customer orders
Get a Taste of This Idea
If it's true that the camera doesn't lie, then Vera
Stewart's newsletter, The Last Bite, could make you feel
like you've put on a few pounds. Bucking the current trend of
e-newsletters, which are inexpensive and text-based, the
48-year-old Augusta, Georgia, owner of Very Vera, a purveyor of
confections, instead prints and mails a full-color quarterly
newsletter packed with mouthwatering photos and recipes.
Showing is definitely better than telling when it comes to
attracting customers, says The Last Bite editor Susan Ely.
"We see a significant increase in sales of a particular
product when we feature it in the newsletter."
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Design maven Kim Brennan of Jackson, New Jersey-based Brennan
Graphics, explains why this approach works: "Reading pages of
text is more exhausting than looking at pages with graphics and
photographs-and it may sound clichéd, but a picture really is
worth a thousand words." In Stewart's case, it's worth
thousands of bucks, too. Ely says the 30,000-circulation newsletter
definitely returns on investment.
The litmus test, according to Brennan, is to evaluate the visual
impact of your product. After all, she asks, how well can you sell
a gorgeous diamond necklace-or, in this case, a homemade chocolate
layer cake-without a photo?
"If how your product looks is a determining factor in the
buying process, you want to show it to as many people as
possible," Brennan says. "A great-looking print piece can
help you do that."
Early Warning
With wireless sales systems from companies like MarketSoft and
Siebel, leads,
product updates, order status and the like can be sent to a sales
force through PDAs. Though setup costs are still prohibitive,
it's a trend to keep an eye on.
Gwen Moran is president of Moran Marketing Associates in
Ocean, New Jersey, and the founder of BoostYourBiz.com.
Contact Sources
- Brennan Graphics, (732) 370-5660
- Very Vera, (800)
500-VERA