LocalShell.com is a Shell Oil Products web site for consumers and provides information on how to find the closest Shell location and other topics of interest such as Shell’s re-branding efforts of 8,000 – 10,000 Texaco units.   Their companion newsletter, LocalShell.com News, is next up for a critique by our IMN Team of Experts. 

LocalShell.com News was first published in the spring of 2002 with a few thousand subscribers who responded to a gas card promotion.   Now, with over 15,000 subscribers, the newsletter’s publisher Carl Burcham, Manager of e-Business for Shell Oil Products, is experiencing open rates of 50-60%.  These high open rates may be attributed to the fact that Carl is an avid user of IMN’s analytical reports so he is able to provide readers with stories in which they have historically shown great interest.   But Carl is not ready to stop there – he is looking to build on the momentum he has gathered and came to us asking for a critique and advice on three aspects of his newsletter program: 

1. Look and Feel.  Carl’s first question was about the design of his newsletter.  Our initial reaction was “don’t touch a thing – it looks great!” but after we reviewed a few issues, we discovered a few minor tips that might help navigation and readability.  Our first suggestion is to make the headlines in the main body of the newsletter “active” links to the full body of the articles.  Readers are becoming accustomed to using headline links as a navigation tool and this will help people get to the stories that interest them much quicker.   The other suggestion, which we pass onto many publishers, is to try to tighten up headlines wherever possible.  Readers tend to skim headlines and tight, crisp ones tend to draw people into an article of interest faster. 

2. Build web site traffic.  Carl was also interested in using his newsletter to drive more readers to Shell’s websites, including Shell.com, ShellUS.com, and LocalShell.com.  The newsletter already does a great job with this, as there is a succinct, yet highly visible, section in the left-hand column that has links to each of the sites.  Another way to drive traffic to those sites would be to include links within the text of related newsletter stories.  As people read a story that has captured their attention, they will be able to get even more information through a simple click to a web site.  For instance, in the Summer 2004 newsletter story “Shell Responds to the Needs of Americans” which describes the Texaco conversions, Carl could add a line at the bottom of the article that says “For more information on these conversions, visit LocalShell.com” with a link to a more detailed story on this initiative.  

3. Drive more actions.  The final request of Carl’s revolves around the fact that ultimately, he is interested in getting more consumers into the local Shell stations to buy gas and other products.   Carl has yet to do any list segmentation, but during our conversation with him, and later in a chat with our IMN Team of Experts, we came up with a few possibilities that he can test in the future.
   • Regionalized segmentation seems like a natural starting point for LocalShell.com News.  By using IMN’s Dynamic Content tool, Carl would have the opportunity to use weather and/or seaonally related stories for the appropriate readers.  For instance, there could be stories on the importance snow tires in winter for subscribers in the North or when to start using a coolant in hot weather for subscribers in warmer climate zones.  This can be expanded to include local features within a geographic region with content such as profiles of the owners or teams that manage a station.  Newsletter readers would then begin to know who is behind the Shell logo in their neighborhood and overall loyalty – both at the newsletter level and at the local level – would undoubtedly increase.  If Shell isn’t capturing any regionalization data now, they can do so by simply adding a question or two to the subscriber sign-up.

   • Surveys and polls are tools that also provide the opportunity to build a database of different behaviors and demographics that in turn can be used to drive traffic into local stations.  Information on topics such as what the most popular products that consumers buy when visiting a Shell station can be used to tailor content, similar to the regionalized content we discussed above, or it could provide data that can be used for special offers, which we’ll discuss next.  

   • Special offers, either within the newsletter or as a supplement to it, are a great way for Carl to capitalize on the high readership that the newsletter is experiencing.  He is currently publishing quarterly, but he could easily supplement this with a unique template that focuses on an offer that is specific to driving people into their local station.  An offer may be based on the behaviorial patterns he discovers through surveys and polls we mentioned above, or they could be simple product promotions that offer discounted gas or even a free cup of coffee.

Carl is doing a great job with his newsletter and by incorporating a few of these tactics, we believe that he will experience an increase in traffic, not only at all of the Shell web sites, but also at the local stations as well. 

Interested in having your newsletter reviewed in a future issue?  Tell us about it below and if your story can help educate other readers, we’ll contact you for more details.  Please provide us with your name, phone number, what kind of advice you’re looking for, and a link to your newsletter.