FREE WHITE PAPER | BENEFITS | SERVICES | CLIENTS | ABOUT US | LIBRARY | CONTACTS | HOME

Putting the Right Team Together
An Interview with InternetVIZ Founding Partner Hank Stroll

Q: Who should be involved in a newsletter team?

An Internet newsletter can be useful for so many parts of a company that management should make a real effort to make the team as broad as possible.  At the very least, members of the marketing department, sales division, product development and a C-level executive should be part of the decision making team.

Q: Can you explain those different roles?

Sure.  To begin, we have to remember that a newsletter is a powerful tool for finding, acquiring and retaining customers.  The marketing department is a natural for a newsletter team because of their role in finding customers.  Marketing - being responsible for outreach programs, branding, pr campaigns, and the like - can bring this vision to the newsletter team to make sure the message is consistent.  Also, because newsletters are sent repeatedly over time, the marketing department can use them experiment with lots of new initiatives.

Sales needs to be an integral part of the newsletter process.  I want to really emphasize this because it is a part of newsletter marketing that most people have ignored.  Newsletters, when done properly and when the proper time is spent monitoring reading patterns, provide valuable insights for the sales team.  My company, InternetVIZ, gets virtually 100% of its' leads through our newsletter.  Companies can find out if people are interested in certain issues and, most importantly, can discover who these people actually are.  I believe the smartest companies, and the ones that will see the greatest monetary reward, are those that make the sales division the leaders of the newsletter team.

Product development can bring a lot to the table.  Just like with sales, product development people can learn who is interested in what and can use this information to develop new initiatives.  In this way, the newsletter can provide the company with a constant stream of information that can be used to push the company into the future.

A C-level executive is necessary to demonstrate the seriousness of the initiative.  If someone at this level isn't involved throughout, the program probably will not take off.  Newsletters are a lot of work, and require a real commitment.  If an executive can't commit to being responsible for it, I doubt very much that it will take off.

Q: When these team members get together for the first time, what should be the focus of the discussion?  

The very first thing they should discuss is their commitment to the project.  How much does the company really believe in the power of newsletter marketing?  Is the company willing to align members from the above departments with the newsletter initiative?  

Once a commitment level is reached, the discussion needs to turn to developing the newsletter.  At InternetVIZ, our philosophy is that newsletters should mirror the look and feel of company websites.  We believe this consistency helps with branding and provides prospects and customers with a higher comfort level when it is time to make a purchasing decision.

Another key decision is the content of the newsletter.  Too many companies, in my opinion, make the mistake of filling their newsletters with vanity statement about how great their company is; their latest press releases; or announcements about new strategic partnerships.  The truth is, nobody outside the company really cares about these things.  Customers want information that is going to add value to their lives.  Companies that are serious about newsletter marketing will recognize this and will give serious consideration to how their content will be relevant, practical and informative for their readers.

Look, the simple fact is that people have three things in mind when they open their email and are faced with an average of 50 new emails everyday - which ones do I open, which ones do I save and open later and which ones do I delete without opening.  Companies that fill their newsletters with vanity content guarantee that their newsletters will be deleted without being opened.  They might as well save the time and energy and not even engage in newsletter marketing.  

Hank Stroll is responsible for developing relationships with new strategic partners, managing alliances with existing strategic partners, and helping to develop the overall strategy of the business. Stroll brings more than 25 years of business experience in sales, marketing, technology, operations, channel development, and customer service to the InternetVIZ leadership team. Prior to starting InternetVIZ, he served as the Director of Strategic Planning for Agiliti, Inc, a national xSP firm.