If you were to ask digital marketers about their most significant assets, many would place a newsletter at the top of their list. But what is a newsletter, and how can it help maximize a company’s revenue? We’ve created the following guide that will discuss everything you need to know about using newsletters to improve email marketing and drive growth.
What is a Newsletter?
Simply put, an email newsletter is a form of communication used for marketing purposes. It’s a versatile tool that can act as a stand-alone promotional email or as part of a large-scale marketing campaign.
Newsletters do it all – and this is what businesses love about them!
Companies use newsletters for many reasons, from promoting new products and announcing sales to keeping clients up-to-date with their company. Moreover, email automation helps send shipping/purchase updates, improve customer relations, and personalize communications without putting forth any effort.
Though email newsletters are an irreplaceable part of your digital marketing strategy, some of you may be thinking that email marketing is a thing of the past. And while it is true that social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook are essential tools for digital marketing – email is also here to stay.
What’s the Purpose of a Newsletter?
Generally, most newsletters are used to promote products or services and create personalized communication with your email subscribers. That said, the primary purpose of your newsletter will greatly depend on your goals. In fact, the best place to start when creating a newsletter is outlining specific objectives for the campaign.
Objectives can vary but include things like improving your click-through or open rate, increasing conversions, and even gaining new subscribers. Regardless of your aim, just be sure that it’s measurable and specific.
With this, you could say that the main purpose of email newsletters is to support your overall digital marketing strategy. Hence, your objectives for each newsletter should align with the rest of your marketing plan.
How Does a Newsletter Work?
Creating newsletters is not difficult, but there are some things you should know. The most important thing to remember is that you will not be able to send mass emails from your Outlook or Gmail accounts. Such platforms are for personal use. Thus, they lack the personalization features, authentication standards, and subscriber list capabilities required to create an effective email marketing campaign. For this reason, businesses partner with an email service provider (ESP). Using one of these providers will allow you to:
- Send mass emails with reliable delivery
- Provide you templates to create professional newsletters
- Track vital metrics such as click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, and open rate
- Fine-tune your strategy using features like subject line, CTA buttons, and A/B testing for content
- Manage email lists and contacts in compliance with GDPR
Email service providers offer many other benefits, but these are just some to give you an idea.
How are Newsletters Beneficial?
There are many benefits of creating newsletters for your business. For example, they are affordable, customizable, and accessible. Yet, what really sets newsletters apart from other media forms is that they provide you direct access to your target audience’s inbox.
The truth is that sending newsletters allows you to take your content marketing strategy to new levels thanks to segmentation features and advanced automation. If you already contact your subscribers regularly, why not personalize the communication and offer valuable content?
The email segmentation features are helpful for connecting with your contacts in a more personal way. You can send reminders, personalize discounts, track their order history, and so much more. The best part is that social media cannot do this for you!
And think about this – if social media platforms disappeared tomorrow, you would lose your followers. However, your email list is yours to keep. So, much like a website, newsletters are a crucial part of your company’s owned media.
Who Should Use Newsletters?
One of the biggest draws to newsletters is that they can be used by nearly every industry and business.
E-commerce companies find email automation useful for communicating shipping information, order updates, and website tracking to help nail down purchases. Brick-and-mortar shops rely on newsletters as a way to grow their presence in the local community.
Content creators and bloggers use newsletters to keep their audience updated on the latest releases. And SaaS companies use them to deliver valuable content to potential and existing customers. Essentially, an email newsletter is a useful marketing strategy for nearly every business.
The Three Pillars of Creating Effective Newsletters
Every effective newsletter begins with a great design. If your newsletter doesn’t feature a responsive, sleek design, it won’t matter how valuable or compelling your content is. Therefore, your newsletter should have clear calls to action, be easy to navigate, and encourage engagement from your clients.
Here are the key elements to creating an eye-catching email newsletter:
- Company Logo: Your branding should set the tone for the color scheme to remind your readers who sent the valuable content.
- Headers: Like the gorgeous pages of a magazine, your newsletter needs to feature headers that encourage readers to take action and reflect your branding.
- Content Layout: Using headings and subheadings ensures that your newsletter is easy to navigate, with clients understanding the content with just a glance.
- Imagery: Depending on your branding, every newsletter should contain vivid illustrations, vibrant photos, or a combination of both.
- Personalized Content: If possible, include personalization, such as addressing the subscriber by name. Generally, this requires you to connect your CRM (customer relationship management) data to make this happen.
Moreover, the content in your newsletter should be highly relevant to your subscribers to provide instant value. This means your content should help readers in some way, whether by updating them on recent changes or explaining the latest industry trends.
Closing Thoughts
The bottom line is that nearly every business can benefit from sending newsletters to email subscribers. Contact our professionals today if you have any questions or want to kick off an email marketing campaign.
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