Newsletters are incredibly effective marketing tools and if constructed and implemented correctly, can yield great results for your business. They are also one of the most cost effective, relationship building and lead generating tactics around. Pretty nifty, right?
In comparison with traditional ads, newsletters have 4 times more readership (Source: Dartnell Co.). Not to mention that readers find newsletters more credible and believable than ads – providing an avenue to develop trust and credibility.
Email marketing offers all the benefits of personal communication with the convenience of digital distribution. Image Credit: Esparta Palma
Newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with your site visitors and existing customers, they can also be used to increase brand awareness as your content is more likely to be read by a multitude of people. Newsletters can assist with client retention and acquisition and also act as an effective way of launching new products and services.
One of the greatest strenghts of newsletters is that they allow you to give more in-depth information – this is an integral element when you’re trying to educate consumers about complex products or services. Once your customers fully understand the benefits outlined in your newsletter, they’ll be more likely to buy. Conversions – hell yeah!
While it's always important to focus on the hard business benefit - the relationship part of newsletters is what is so important. It's no surprise that more people read newsletters than adverts - especially when the newsletter is oferring real content of value and interest to its readers. When people sign up for your newsletter they are choosing to do so - giving you permission to send them information. That kind of attention can't be beaten.
Hopefully by now I’ve convinced you that an Email Marketing strategy is an important one. I have? Good. Now, I will reward you with some tips to help you craft a newsletter full of awesomeness and beneficial business potential.
- Link your newsletter to your company’s website or blog. This will give you widespread access to potential clients. In return, promote your newsletter on your company blog or website by including a sign-up form.
- Be consistent. Always publish it on the same day, whether it’s every 2 weeks, every 2 months or every Wednesday. The frequency of mailing builds familiarity, which in turn will inspire return visits. In fact, after a while, you’ll find that customers will look forward to newsletter day!
- Stick to a certain format. If you stick to the same format, readers will start feeling familiar with your newsletter – they will know where to find certain things, or even skip to the part they are most interested in.
- Feature your own content. If you feature your own content, instead of others – you will immediately stand out from the crowd and people will be more inclined to trust you.
- Make your newsletter worth reading. Don’t waste time on fluff – carefully choose your content. Focus on incorporating your company’s personality so that the reader gets to know your company’s ethos on a personal level.
- Have clear objectives, and meet them. If you aim to write a newsletter around a certain topic, stick to that topic and don’t deviate. A good idea is to have a theme, usually determined by your newsletter’s subject line.
- Encourage feedback from your readers. Given that your readers are the best source of feedback – they are the ones you want to please. Ask for their feedback by including a feedback form or providing an email address to get in touch with you. Apply what you learn to your newsletter and you can rest assured knowing that you are meeting your audience’s needs!
- Feature free, helpful tips relating to your company’s expertise. These tips should be useful to your readers (regardless of whether or not they do business with you). Providing tips is also a good way to assert your company as an industry expert, concerned with helping customers.
- Feature satisfied customer testimonials. Include genuine quotes whereby clients illustrate the ways in which your company has been helpful. You can get customer testimonials using your newsletter feedback form. Featuring stories of your satisfied customers can be extremely persuasive to other potential clients who may just need that last little nudge.
I hope that you embrace the power of Email Marketing and realise its potential to be an effective marketing tool that yields results. If you’d like to get tangible inspiration from a newsletter that seriously rocks, subscribe to the Quirk fortnightly newsletter today. To check out some of the newsletters we've sent out in the past, have a look at our archive.
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