If you’re looking to put more thought into your business’s marketing activities, email marketing is a great place to start. Email Newsletters have a much higher engagement rate than other types of online marketing it can be 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than using Facebook.
Newsletters allow you to generate new customers and connect with existing ones regularly. You can use them to share the latest news about your company as well as deliver useful information and discussions that add value directly to their inbox.
So you’ve decided you want to begin sending out a regular newsletter. What’s next?
1. Establish your goals.
The next thing you need to think about is why you want to start sending out a newsletter. This is important because your newsletter will take a slightly different shape based on what you want to achieve. For example, you could create an exclusive customers-only newsletter that shares insider news about your industry and exclusive content that might not be publicly available on your website. In doing so, you can build a sense of community amongst your customers and makes sure they’re getting the most out of what your business offers. The fact that it’s only available to your customers entices them to subscribe because they want to feel special.
If you wanted to attract more customers, you could tailor your newsletter to share all the great things your organisation has to offer, with plenty of links to the conversion page on your website so that readers know exactly where to go to make a purchase. The goal here would be to drive web traffic and in turn new customers.
2. Plan your layout.
When we think of email, we think of traditionally bland, plain text communications that contain lines upon lines of text. An email newsletter aims to deliver updates to your readers in a format that’s pleasing to look at, so designing a suitable layout is crucial.
So what’s considered a suitable layout? It depends.
If you want your newsletters to be lengthy educational pieces, a longer layout with larger blocks of text broken up by images would be best. However, if your newsletter is purely to share news updates, bullet point the key bits of information that you want your reader to pay attention to in a short introduction at the beginning of the email. You can then expand on those bullet points in their blocks further down.
81% of people prefer to open emails on their smartphone, so don’t be tempted to overload the newsletter. The more content you include, the longer your email will become, which becomes even longer when viewed on a smartphone.
When organising your content, use blocks to your advantage. Blocks are essentially boxes used to group text with images and are most often used to separate different topics. They help divide the email into chunks and break up the text so it’s more digestible.
3. Grab your reader with a good subject line.
If a recipient doesn’t open the newsletter straight away, it’s unlikely they’ll come back to it later. That means your biggest opportunity to grab their attention is with the subject line, which they will see when the email lands in their inbox.
The subject line is the single line of text recipients will see when they receive your email. Since most people prefer to view emails on their smartphone, you’ll only have a few words to inform your reader what this month’s newsletter is about and why they should open it.
To write a good subject line, keep it short, to the point and tell the reader what’s in it for them. Consider using emojis if your audience responds well to them, but don’t depend on them to get the message across. Avoid over-using emojis too - less is more.
4. Include content worth sharing.
If it feels like there isn’t much going on at your business at the moment, that’s okay! Think about showcasing other types of content. Consider promoting a new partnership or special offer that your customers can take advantage of - just try not to make it entirely sales-focused. You want to focus on adding value to your readers. That way, they’ll be more open to hearing how you can solve their problems in the future.
Share case studies of your loyal customers and how your solution made their lives easier. You can even write top ten lists or recommendations for other tools (besides what you offer) that will help on the day-to-day.
More content ideas could include:
Industry statistics and insights
Reviews and customer experiences
Frequently asked questions
Information on upcoming events you might be holding (i.e. webinars, limited-time offers etc.)
If you don’t feel like committing to creating a newsletter every month, try creating a bi-monthly newsletter to begin with. You can always send them more frequently if your recipients respond well.
5. Speak in your audience’s language.
This goes for any content you create, but your tone of voice and word choice is important here.
Avoid using jargon that your readers might be unfamiliar with. Use second-person language (words such as you, your and yours) to pull your reader into the newsletter and speak directly to them. Using this type of writing makes it easier to come across as friendly and informative, which makes it easier to read.
Remember that the goal of a newsletter is to engage the reader in some way - whether that’s helping them learn something new or getting them to click through to your website. Writing in a warm, welcoming tone of voice will help you achieve exactly that.
Start engaging your customers with email newsletters.
Email newsletters are a fantastic way to regularly check in with your customers and make sure they’re always aware of what’s going on at your business.
Keep it simple initially, then pay attention to which content your readers respond best to. Remember, the average email open rate is between 15-20% so don’t be disheartened if you have some people on your mailing list that don’t open your newsletters.
Creating a monthly newsletter can seem a little daunting at first, but hopefully, this post gave you a strong place to start!
