If you’re reading this, you’ve probably been thinking about adding a newsletter into your marketing mix, but maybe you’re unsure if it’s worth the extra time and effort? Does anyone actually read them?!
Well, the results you’ll get from your newsletter really depend on a few things…
Your audience
The great thing about newsletters is you can only send them to people who have subscribed, opted-in to receive marketing, or have in some other way given you permission to propel yourself into their inbox.
And that means you’re speaking to people who have already shown you that they want to hear what you’ve got to say. Hurdle one – over.
Now, what you need to do is deliver what they’re hoping for. Give lots of thought to who your audience actually is. What are they most interested in reading about? How can you give them something of value?
If you collect useful data when you’re growing your subscriber list (and you should) then you can segment your audience and send really targeted messages that will resonate with that particular group of customers.
For example, a housebuilder client of mine knows which people on its database have a house to sell, and which don’t. It would be pointless sending a newsletter about part-exchange to those without a house to sell, so I don’t!
How can you identify your different types of customers? What questions can you ask on your sign-up form that will helpfully categorise your audience?
Your goals
Are you clear on what you want to achieve from your newsletter?
It might simply be to nurture your relationship with your audience by being helpful (eg giving them tips or relevant news) or it may have a revenue-linked goal to get sales or leads for a new product or service.
Understand from the start what you want it to achieve, make sure your content and calls-to-action are aligned with the goal, and then measure the results to see how successful it was in achieving it.
Things that are useful to measure are the open rates, the click-through rates, and the number of people that may unsubscribe after receiving it. Learn from this.
Sometimes getting unsubscribes is not the punch in the gut that it feels like! If you’re confident your message was valuable and relevant, it can help if people who no longer fit your ideal customer remove themselves, as it leaves you with a stronger and cleaner contacts list.
Your content
The content of your newsletter should match your audience’s interests and your business goals. Brainstorm what newsletter topics would be well received by each segment (or all of them) and what result you want from each message.
The most important element of any newsletter is its subject line – that one thing is often what determines if someone opens it or deletes it. Make it short and snappy, and give people a reason to want to know more. Don’t click-bait them – the content of your newsletter needs to be relevant to your headline – but let them know how they’ll benefit from opening it.
When it comes to the body of your newsletter, don’t turn it into an advert!
Obviously, if your goal is to get click-through sales, you need to make that as easy as possible for the reader – add colourful button links for people to click and direct them with the button text - but make sure there is something else of interest to read before you go for the jugular!
Make it visual. Not only are great images very powerful, they also help to break up and segment text so it’s not too overwhelming to read in one go.
Which leads onto the next important point - don’t make your newsletter too long. Be mindful of your reader’s time and give them an easy-to-digest taste of something great – you can always feed them with more information in your next newsletter.
If you’re not sure which platform to use to create your newsletter, Mailchimp is a popular choice with lots of templates to help you get started. If you’re really looking to invest, Hubspot is a fantastic tool for managing your contact lists and sending on-brand newsletters and has great analytics tools too.
Sending good quality newsletters is a great way to show more of your business and a well-timed one is often the reminder or prompt that your customer needs to take the next step with you.
If it sounds daunting, get in touch for some support – either with creating the newsletters for you, or setting up some branded templates to guide you through creating your own.
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