Breakthrough campaign proves readers will flock to online investment newsletters

The Marketing Challenge:

Investment newsletters are a long-standing staple for investors looking for guidance. But online-only newsletters haven’t fared as well. TheStreet.com wanted to change this, using their popular investment website as a launch pad for four different email newsletters.

The Creative Solution:

TheStreet.com turned to Craig Huey, realizing that their best chance to reverse the profitless trend of online newsletters would be to rely on the resource that knew most about marketing newsletters. Craig confirmed for TheStreet.com that a creative description of content benefits, a brilliant offer, and powerful direct response copy would generate its own success, despite the medium.

Craig recommended launching the newsletters based on TheStreet.com’s most popular columnists in a long-format “letter” to the site’s own free-content readers. The promotions would launch one-by-one, giving each new newsletter time to attract subscribers free from distraction by other offerings.

The creative strategy was to focus above all on the brilliance of the individual newsletter writer/expert and that expert’s analyzing and stock picking technique. Comparisons were drawn both with free-content websites, and with the necessarily less-timely print newsletters.

Success stories were highlighted early and often, and the reader was given a sense that they would be led almost by the hand through the investment strategy each week or even each day.

A dramatic difference from the overwhelming number of other web promotions was that these promotions were traditional direct response format. That means long copy, testimonials, examples and case histories, lots of benefits, and the aforementioned strong offer.

The offer was for a free trial, ranging from one week to one month for each of the individual newsletters. The cost of the newsletters was as large as $99 a month.

The Results:

The results “blew away” the client’s expectations, with the first newsletter alone exceeding projections by over 350%. Each subsequent newsletter launch also exceeded or met expectations, and each has been a success for the TheStreet.com. Note: to view these news-letters online go to TheStreet.com and look for “featured products.”