May 1, 2006

[This is the third in a series on the topic of newsletters for artists. They are excerpted from my e-book, "Cultivating Collectors."]

Last week, I talked about content for your newsletter. The week before, I encouraged you to start a newsletter. Now . . . let's look at how you are going to send it. Will you send it snail mail or email?

The advantages of an electronic newsletter are:

►It can be sent more frequently because it is often less expensive to produce and distribute.

►It is fast and convenient for most people.

► When you include links, they can be followed immediately. Chances are much better someone will click through from an e-newsletter than to carry a print newsletter to the computer and type in a URL. By the way, if you want to make your links hot ("clickable") for everyone, be sure to add the http:// in front of each one. Get in the habit of doing this. Check your signature block right now and add the http:// in front of your Web site address if it's not already there.

►The recipient can easily forward it, making the potential distribution reach far beyond your own mailing list.

►It can be posted on your Web site. This might increase your subscription rate if you have a great newsletter since people like to know what they're going to get before they sign up for something. Of course, you can also post an e-copy of a printed newsletter. Either way, newsletters on your Web site are a great idea.

The disadvantages of an e-newsletter are:

►It might get lost in or deleted from the overflowing inboxes of busy people.

►The recipients may not be "big" email users. In other words, would your collectors prefer reading about you on a computer screen or would they rather hold something in their hands?

►It has a shorter shelf life, which just means it's easy to delete and forget about.

►Spam filters make it difficult for some emails to get through. Each week, anywhere between two and fifteen percent of ArtBizCoach.com newsletters are undeliverable. I have discovered that most of the time people don't even know they have a spam filter on.

►Limited flexibility with your ISP. You want to email to as many people as possible in order to build your mailing list well beyond what you can currently imagine. However, your Internet service provider (ISP) undoubtedly limits the number of emails you can send at once in order to ensure their customers aren't sending spam. This means you need to break up a large mailing list into smaller portions or use a separate mail program. I've heard positive feedback from people who use Constant Contact, http://www.constantcontact.com ; Topica, http://www.topica.com ; and Vertical Response, http://www.verticalresponse.com.

►There's just something about getting a real piece of mail these days! Not only that, but a good newsletter might be kept and even posted so that it's read more than once.

Would you like to get more people to sign up for your newsletter? Visit the Art Biz Blog for a quick lesson.

[Coming up: Where to distribute your print newsletter.]