Most professionals I talk with consider print newsletters and email newsletters (aka ezines) to be essentially the same thing delivered in different ways.

While both do accomplish the general functions of a newsletter — they position you as an expert, reinforce your credibility, keep you top-of-mind with your community, allow people to get to know and trust you over time, distinguish you from others in your field, add value, etc. — the two formats are actually USED quite differently.

Here are some guidelines that will help you decide which is best for YOU, based on your goals for your newsletter.

Use a print newsletter if these apply:

You speak and/or give public presentations, large or small. A newsletter is a powerful leave-behind that is WAY more impressive than a business card or flyer or traditional brochure.

You give workshops or conduct groups. (Same thing applies as above.)

You do in-person networking events. If you MUST use a business card, simply staple it to your newsletter. Offering a newsletter triples the impact of your face-to-face meeting!

You have an office in which you see clients. This is especially true if you have a waiting room in common with other practitioners.

You have relationships with other professionals in your town. When you place stacks of your newsletter in their offices, your exposure grows.

You have a booth at events. A print newsletter is an essential table-top takeaway. Providing several issues of your newsletter shows depth, stability and credibility.

You want to grow your local business. Hands down, a print newsletter is one of the best ways to generate a local clientele. One of our clients, using nothing but the print newsletter we provide her, filled a new practice in a completely new city within nine months.

You can see that part of the beauty of a print newsletter is its tangible, portable nature that ADDS significantly to people’s first impression of you.

Use an ezine if these apply:

You have a website and want to drive your readers to it immediately. Readers of a print newsletter have to do a little more work to get to a website; readers on an ezine just click and, presto, they’re there!

You want to a powerful statement of professionality. When your ezine design coordinates handsomely with your website (as opposed to using a template from your email service provider) you reinforce your online branding and look oh-so on top of it, which enhances your credibility.

You have an email contact list you want to nurture. If you do nothing but send email promotions to your list, they will quickly tire of you. Or, conversely, if you have an email list but rarely send anything to them, they will forget you. A regularly sent ezine is the best way to build a positive, lasting, fruitful relationship with your list.

You’re prepared, technologically. You either 1) know your way around the technology to create and send ezines or can easily pick it up, 2) have an assistant who can help you do this, or 3) have a newsletter service provider like us to do it all for you. Also, your website should have a newsletter sign-up box on it (hopefully with a valuable free offer to entice visitors to sign up for your ezine).

You want a more cost-effective way to send your newsletters. Do the math. When you have hundreds or thousands of people on your list, it can be less costly to send an ezine.

You have, or want to build, a non-local clientele. If you can work with your clients over the phone or Internet, the world is your oyster! And an ezine is your best way to keep in touch with clients and prospective clients throughout the world.

The bottom line of either newsletter format is this: Send a newsletter. It is hands-down the tool with the most marketing bang for your buck.