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The Do's and Don'ts of Sending a Newsletter

When I started my own newletter, Hard-Working Words, a year ago, I had about 115 people on my distribution list. Today that number has grown to about

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

700. Every time I send out HWW, I get a bunch of email responses (usually of the "good issue, keep 'em coming" ilk) and a few new projects to work on either from existing clients or from n

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

ew clients who an HWW reader referred to me.

So, Chris, why do you write a monthly newsletter?

I'm so glad you asked.

1. It's fun. I honestly enjoy the chance to sit down and

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

pour out my thoughts on marketing and copywriting once a month.

2. It's a great way to keep in touch with past clients and networking contacts without having to make 25 phone calls per day.

3

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

. Writing HWW gives me credibility and (hopefully) assures you that I know what I'm doing in the wide world of copywriting.

4. HWW gives me fresh content to post to [-LINK my website==http://www

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

haddadink.com LINK-] every month, reinforcing my position on search engines.

5. Plain and simple, writing HWW gets me work. It's one of the most effective marketing tools in my arsenal and cos

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

ts very little to do.

Ok, so what makes a good e-newsletter?

Content, content, content. A good newsletter is a gift from you to your readers. Personally, I try to make every

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

issue of HWW as full of valuable information as I can. The goal is to make sure you're sending out something people will want to read and--and I can't stress this one enough--not to treat your

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

newsletter as just another sales pipe.

But, Chris, you said that HWW is a great marketing tool for you.

Yes I did. But what I really should have said is it's a relationship

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

building tool. A newsletter isn't a monthly ad that will bring immediate sales and buckets of cash. It's a long term conversation between yourself and your readers. A way to build trust and r

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

pport so that when you subscribers have a honest-to-goodness need for your services you'll be the first person they call.

So, you're saying I can't sell anything in my newsletter at all

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

?

If you've got a great new product you're offering, a seminar you're heading up, or a convention you'll be attending and it's relevant to your subscribers feel free

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

to mention it. But downplay the hard sales. And make sure that the promotional chunk of your newsletter is clearly marked as such so that your readers can quickly jump past it if it's not thei

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

r thing.

Ok, but what about blogs? Should I have a blog? Should I do a blog instead of a newsletter? Should I do both?

While on the surface blogs and newsletters accomplish t

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

he same thing (building your relationship with customers, sharing expertise and giving you search engine attracting new content for your site), the way that they do it couldn't be much more d

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

fferent.

A newsletter is pushed out to a list of willing subscribers. After I finish this issue, I'll run it through my mailer program and it will appear in your inbox.

A b

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

log pulls readers from the internet. And the impetus is on the reader to check when the blog is updated and to go to the site to read it. RSS (check out the Wikipedia entry

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

on RSS if those three letters don't mean anything to you.) is changing that a little bit by allowing you to subscribe to your favorite blogs, but the fact remains, a newsletter is content you g

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

et, a blog is content you go to.

In my own opinion, blogs excel at a very different type of content than newsletters do. While a newsletter is perfect for longer articles on a regular schedul

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

e, blogs are great for shorter posts and off the cuff, more casual remarks. And if you turn comments on in your blog, it can easily become an honest-to-goodness conversation with your readers

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.diggit.org.ua/article/63417/diggit-Of-Blogs-and-Newsletters.html">Of Blogs and Newsletters</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.diggit.org.ua/article/63417/diggit-Of-Blogs-and-Newsletters.html]Of Blogs and Newsletters[/url]

Much has been heard about the driving force behind Six Sigma implementations – the Black Belts. But what about the Green Belts? This article introduces these talented professionals and how they make the project run behind the scenes.

For those business, non-profit and association managers committed to PR tactics like radio and newspaper plugs, it can come as a surprise to discover where public relations value REALLY lies. Trut...

Keep your interactions simple, direct, and regular (even when you don't want to); know your manager's agendas and vision and act accordingly

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