Many small businesses find it challenging to prepare content to fill a monthly (or weekly) newsletter, so adding a blog to their to do list makes them question the value of having both.

Although the value of each will vary with each business according to its client base and product/service range, the following points may help you decide whether a blog, a newsletter or both is the best solution for you.

Newsletter

• it reaches people’s inbox so they are reminded of you without any extra effort on their part
• most people know about email but a lot don’t know about or like blogs
• maintain consistency if you have had a newsletter for some time
• it can seem more personal and intimate as it is not generally available online; it is a one-to-one relationship between you and many people, especially if you personalise each newsletter with their name
• can be quite short and link to articles/products/news on your site or in your blog
• can attract advertising revenue – advertising on blogs is less common (although this is changing)
• can be passed onto to other people – they may well read a newsletter but may not get around to clicking on a link for a blog

Blog

• easy to include up-to-date information
• entries can be very short or as long as you like – variety in length is good but a variety in newsletter length may not be so positive
• if on your domain name, it can greatly impact on your site’s traffic and ranking
• people can access older posts easily
• people can comment and give you feedback; you can build a community
• individual posts can be linked to by other sites and other pages within your blog/site
• a younger demographic may relate well to a blog

If you decide to run your own blog and newsletter, you can save yourself some time by

• using information from one to fill the other – for example, your newsletter can refer to a blog post. However, don’t overdo the repetition as some people will read both
• using articles from Word Constructions or article directories such as Evan Carmichael (not all Australian)
• inviting guest bloggers to write for you
• write things in advance – fill newsletters or pre-date blog posts so that you aren’t faced with thinking of a topic and writing it the day it is due out