During the first and third weeks of November, Xcert sent more than 10,000 copies of the premiere issue of Xcert Press to medium- and large-sized brick-and-mortar companies as well as to dot-coms. The firms were compiled from visitors to the company's Web site as well as from people who contacted Xcert at trade shows. Xcert has experienced an 8 percent response rate representing people who want to subscribe.

According to Deanna Anderson, director of corporate marketing at Xcert, the idea is not to use the e-newsletter to make a hard pitch for its software suite called Sentry or its services, but to let case studies do the selling.

"I believe that letting our clients talk about the success they've had using our product does just as good a job of selling our product as a straight-out offer would do," she said. "It's a subtle pitch, but it's an effective way of doing it. Not only does the newsletter provide information on us and our services, but there are also a number of general-interest articles included."

"With our product, we have a long sales cycle and we need to be in front of our clients on a frequent basis," Anderson said. "And most of our competitors are large corporations, and by having a newsletter it helps us appear as a large, established and credible company within the marketplace."

Howard Sewell, president of Connect Direct, Redwood City, CA, the direct marketing agency that created the e-newsletter, said Xcert has not decided whether the newsletter will be monthly or bimonthly.