Newsletters..to be or not to be?

[leiler]

right...so we have a weekly newsletter that goes out to our affiliates that promote our top selling, exclusive and new campaigns. we dont really seem to get much of a reaction out of our affilites unless we phone them though.

my question is...do newsletters really help? and how about the frequency? is once a week enough..we dont want to annoy our affiliates by sending them an email 3 times a week..but at the same time..we want to be a bit more in their face so they take notice of our offers.

it also makes me wonder..why do people sign up as an affliate if theydont intend to promote anything? doesnt really seem logical to me. but thats just me.

back to the matter at hand. i would love some input on the newsletter issue. im not going to stop sending it out either way..but maybe you guys could give me some tips..perhaps putting out a monthly newsletter featuring an article i have written would help too??

comments are most welcome!!!

[Gorgias]

I was once in a similar situation - but publishing on a monthly schedule. I was not getting very good response so I split up the newsletter into a monthly overview and then several shorter "offer-based" messages (to keep affiliate mindshare, if you will). You might want to try the same sort of thing. The newsletter is great (featured content even better) but just let the offers speak for themselves. Some form of customization per affiliate may work to increase response rates too. Good Luck

[Linda Buquet]

I read a survey recently about this and from what I remember most affiliates did not want newsletters more than once a month. They get so much mail that many don't even read it. If you have lots of coupons and time sensitive offers, maybe 2 times a month.

Also due to spam filters much of your info is not going to get through - especially if it has "offers & deals" type sales-speak in it.

Have you considered doing an RSS offers feed to keep affiliate up to date?

[Aldo]

Newsletters are vital when it comes to keeping your affiliate sales force up to speed with a merchants latest offers or informing them of new sections of a site they wish to deep link to.

Only send them when you have something to say.

[Steven1976a]

I love getting my newsletters from webproworld regular. I guess it depends upon your product and if it is a newsletter or a promotion as someone mentioned.
If it is a newsletter offering very good information about your company/products and is always fresh then I would be interested in receiving it regular such as webproworlds newsletter. If it is just advertising new products I would probably get sick of seeing them in my inbox everyday and know what to expect and therefore delete it. Possibly this would be good enough once every 6 weeks just to keep your company name fresh in the minds.
steve

[NvestWeb]

Strategic: Informative Monthly Newsletter
Tactical: Frequent special offers or events

Strategic: Once a month
Tactical: Point them to a special area on the Web site that calls attention to more frequent, or special events

We see the role of a Newsletter to be informative vs. self-promoting of a product or service. The newsletter provides a means to help people run their business better and in turn features ways your products or services help them accomplish those goals. Offer affiliates ideas on how to sell your items better and to grow their business. Add links in the newsletter to resources outside your firm.

We produce a monthly newsletter on better sales and marketing techniques. It's laced with bonus content available on the Web. We find the time of day, and day of week can be important. We time it for 11a-2p on a Tuesday (at or near the 15th of the month). If you have not enabled some form of tracking (stats), it's a good way to understand your readers. Conduct a poll of your subscribers, too.

P.