Epubs, derived from their offline counterparts, can extend the PR function of a traditional newsletter, magazine or flier by giving the target audience even more targeted and timely information. While, a newsletter can help update your investors, your employees or your media contacts, in many cases an epub can do it better. If, for example, your company's bi-monthly investor newsletter comes out right before a plunge in the stock market, you've missed the boat. But an electronic newsletter can be modified to communicate how the dip affects the company - and you don't have to wait for the next print run to get your message out.
The digital tack is also inexpensive compared to the expense paper, printing and postage can run with an offline venture. ITT Industries, for an internal promotion, printed 105,000 brochures titled "In Our Hands" at a cost of $300,000, according to publications management (PM), a newsletter covering the custom publishing industry. Basic math tells us the individual cost of each piece was just over $2.85. If the same promotion had been done electronically, the expense could have been as little as five cents per message.
"You don't have to pay a designer or a printer," says Lisa Skriloff, president of Multicultural Resources, Inc., a PR firm which offers minority research information to interested parties. Skriloff also points out that distribution expenses are relatively nonexistent, mainly due to postage being a non-issue in the electronic world
Words, Not Pictures
Epubs are mostly text, which stifles the ability to engage readers visually. Eye- pleasing graphics or funky page designs usually are omitted from the process because their download time is too long. This is the tactic's biggest disadvantage. On the flip side, the only cost associated with ezines is the writer. Attachments are ill-advised for fear of viruses.
Hey Man, That Ain't My Job
The biggest chunk of ramping up an epub is getting your subscriber lists in order. You can avoid headaches by outsourcing this function. But lethargy shouldn't be the key motivator, list maintenance should be.
"[A vendor] will make sure that you are not sending [the epub] to a false address and they will update those that wish to unsubscribe," says Benjamin Isaacson, VP of strategic development for the Association for Interactive Media.
To send a monthly epub to 10,000 users, the cost of outsourcing falls between $500 and $1,000 per month, says Isaacson. David Townsend, CEO and president of Innovyx, a global customer communications company, told PM the cost hovers around ten cents a message.
The advantage of working with list managers is they provide more than basic maintenance. They also:
- Can clone lists or create subsets for personalized messaging (see PRN Jan 17.)
- Interface with your Web site, giving you updated subscription numbers and reader feedback.
"A list manager can do lots of things that you couldn't do by sending the list out yourself," says Isaacson. But, if you're a go-getter and want to do the whole thing in-house, barnyard cost estimations for the year run the gamut from $1,000 to $250,000, says Townsend.
Tuning In, Not Turning Off
Any epub worth its salt will complement your company's offline efforts and the Web page you host. It should draw users in to the other communications your PR department presents by offering good nuggets of information. Succeeding in this arena requires knowing the ground rules.
Rule 1: Epubs are short in length. The whole document should be between three and five pages. Articles within them should be news- driven, not feature-y, and should only run a few paragraphs. Think bullet points that can link to a more in- depth article on your Web site.
Rule 2: Articles within an epub should be complete. Do not tease readers with a catchy headline or a few quick lines of text and expect them to link to the rest of the story. "If a newsletter is more than two pages long, I will print it out and read it while going home," says Skriloff. "If [the epub] is full of links and has no real information, it's a waste of my time."
Consider This...
Despite epubs' financially burdenless demeanor, there are some hidden costs to consider.
- Broadening bandwidth to facilitate the traffic epubs create with the increased communications.
- Outsourcing or hiring more writers to meet the greater demand for their skills.
(Benjamin Isaacson, [email protected], 202/408-0008; Debra Murphey, 301/392-3643, [email protected]; Lisa Skriloff, 212/242-3351, [email protected]; Victoria Sutherland, 231/933-3699, [email protected].)
If Only...
publications management surveyed 206 Fortune 500 companies to determine the types of publications they were printing. Although it wasn't presented as an option, 6% of companies with annual revenues between $500 million and $1 billion reported publishing epubs.
When to Print
Not every publication should be delivered electronically. Avoid using an epub when:
- Graphics or pictures tell the story better (e.g., an annual report.)
- If the article is feature- oriented.
Money
Obviously, epubs create more space for advertising, but the content itself can also generate revenue (and extra exposure) if you license it to interested parties.