• by daniel.c , Melinda Krueger , April 4, 2006

For Cox Radio Miami, 97.3 "The Coast," I created a Movie Club exclusive newsletter. The highest click-through rate we received was 86 percent (average about 65 percent) over this year, so I know this is a successful standard. But I kept the focus and the target of the newsletter for our station listeners relevant to what they wanted, and continued to feed them exclusives they couldn't find anywhere else. Would you please take a look at this and let me know what you think as the E-mail Diva?

Thanks.

Jamie Gant

Dear Jamie,

They say you can't argue with success, but that's never stopped me.

You are doing a lot of things right with this newsletter. It is concise, consumer-benefit-oriented, nicely designed, scan-able, and presents a variety of links to appeal to a range of interests. If your only objective is to sell DVDs, I'd say your work is done.

But I imagine that you would also like readers to listen to your radio station and go to your site, and those objectives are not part of this e-mail program. That's not to say that the station doesn't get some halo effect from the movie club. Enthusiastic members must have warm, fuzzy feelings about 97.3, the station that brings them exclusive movie offers each month. You are getting a positive brand impact with every e-mail.

But--there's always a "but," isn't there?--is it enough? It reminds me of people who talk about a TV ad at length but can't remember the advertiser. "Did you see that commercial, the one with the dancing elephant?" "Yeah, too funny." "What was it for?" "I don't know--some car company?"

Great effort, good consumer reaction, no close.

You want people to get to the site, whether or not they want to buy a CD, and listen to the station, right?

Your site is content-rich and chock full 'o consumer benefits: contests, events, interaction, inside stories, etc. Why not remind movie club readers of all that you have to offer? Even a row of navigation buttons at the bottom will do the job, just like those on the Web version of your e-mail. Get listeners to the station with show-oriented features, e.g., "Tomorrow on 'Those Two Girls in the Morning.'" Your tagline, "South Florida's Concert and Community Fun Site" is notably absent from your e-mail, as well.

The biggest challenge the E-mail Diva faces is typically getting advertisers to see they should not try to "get lucky on the first date." You are getting kissed on every date, but may never get past the front door. Just a little finesse on an already-great program will get you there.