Newsletter Marketing in India - a brand building perspective

According to ClickZ Marketing, lame newsletters do not build your brand. Of the 50 top Fortune companies, 29 offer newsletters. Most of those newsletters look the same. And in about four months, their original, enticing quality fades. Yet they keep going and going and going -- like a Duracell battery.
Forget about committing to a weekly, biweekly, or monthly schedule.
They also advise to send news when you have it. Don't invent news just to have something to say. Unless you really have something important to say, something unique, something you know your customers really would love to hear more about, forget all about sending a newsletter.

If, despite all this, you do decide to publish a newsletter, here's how to do it right. First, send a sample newsletter to 10 customers you really know well. Ask for their opinions. You might think this is a lot of work. It is. I'd rather achieve quality content that interests my customers than waste the time of 5,000 of my best clients with junk. If you keep sending material your customers never read, eventually they won't notice when interesting news arrives. Remember the fable? Cry wolf too often and people become deaf to your voice.
Remove all the links in your newsletter. One or two good links are fine.
Notify your customers when there's interesting, relevant, mind-blowing news. But wasting their time, continually, is counter to the reason you decided to publish a newsletter in the first place. Branding is about making your product relevant for your customers, ensuring they can't live without it. A relentless newsletter that inexorably repeats itself, issue after issue, is one of the best ways to disconnect your customer from your brand.

Sample Databases with Madras Markets:

• Nasscom Based IT Companies
• NRI Database (Qty 20,000)
• Database of 20,000+ NRIs. The database contains details of Indians from all over the world and includes the following details of each person. a) Name, b) Address, c) some phone no, and e) email ID.
• Mumbai Corporate Database (Qty 20,000)
  Database of all 20,000 companies in Mumbai Contains: Company Name, phone, and email.
• Mumbai Internet Users Database (Quantity 75,000)
• Database of 75,000 email-ids of Individuals, Companies, Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Students, Professionals etc in Mumbai. This database is available in text files
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• General ALL-INDIA Mailing List (Quantity 10 Lac)
• Database of 10,00,000 email-ids of Individuals, Companies, Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Students, Professionals etc from all over India. This database is available in text files
• Number of UNIQUE ID’s: 25,00,000
• This list is organized according to ISP’s & Cities. Every list is split in 20,000 ID’s per list.
• Chennai & South India database – 5000 email ids of IT companies, HR, marketing and finance people.
• Comprehensive Directory of over 2500+ suppliers from Korea with their Email addresses and URL
  Extensive electronic tool for sourcing from Korea.
  2500+ suppliers from Korea.
  Images and Product specifications for each company.
  Contact person with Email address and Home Page of each company included
• Categories include:
  Automotive & Accessories, Bags & Footwear, Chemical & Plastics, Computer & Telecommunications, Electrical & Electronics, Environment, Fashion, Jewelry & Household, Food & Beverages, Gifts & Premium, Glass & Optical, Machinery & Equipment, Mineral, Stationery & Office Products, Sportswear & Goods, Textiles & Leather, Toys & Games, Watches & Clocks, and Wood & Furniture.
  This list contains 2 Lakh Indian companies data. Complete database of all Major Chamber of Commerce in India, other business promotion organization. The data is available in Access format / txt format, and category wise listing. Each Record has - CompanyName, Profile, Address, City, Country, Postal Code.
• Reach hundreds and thousands of tourists, travels Hotels and Restaurants all over India with Indian Hotels Directory :
  Iincrease your business by supplying your products/ services to these thousands of Hotels and Restaurants all over India. Full Contact Details like Name of Hotel/Restaurant, Full Postal Address, Phone & Fax Nos., Email Address, Website Address, Contact person Name and Designation, Category, No. Of Rooms, Cuisine served etc. are included, so that you can target your marketing campaign accordingly.
  You can contact these Hotels/ Restaurants directly either by sending your sales letter/ brochure by mail/ courier or you can also contact them by email.
  As a traveler, this directory can be helpful for locating / booking hotels.
  Covers all small as well as star category hotels including five star hotels with full contact details.
  Covers all types of Restaurants with full contact details.
• Other products:
  NRI's Database
  Chemical/Pharmaceutical Mfg.,
  Exporters,
  Dealers Database,
  China/ Korea/ Taiwan suppliers Directory
• Comprehensive Directory of over 2500 suppliers from Taiwan with their Email addresses and URL :
  Automotive and Accessories, Bags and Footwear, Building material & Sanitary Equipment, Chemical & Plastic, Computer Hardware/Software & Peripherals, Electrical & Electronics, Fashion, Jewelry and Accessories, Food, Furniture & Furnishing, Gifts & Premium, Hospital & Medical, Houseware & Kitchenware, Machinery, Pharmaceutical & Herbal products, Sporting Goods, Stationery & Office Equipments, Toys and Games, Watches and Clocks, Textiles & Leather.
• ISP's: ETH.net, Hotmail.com, Indiatimes.com, Indya.com, Mantraonline.com, Rediffmail.com, Satyamonline.com, Sify.com, Vsnl.com, vsnl.net
  Cities:Ahmedabad, Banglore, Chennai, Delhi, Gauhati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jallandhar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai & Pune.
  Courtesy : CickZMarketing