Last updated on
April 6, 2023
Getting the attention of your audience is getting harder and harder by the day. Marketers are coming up with new strategies daily, guaranteeing success with each of them. However, one approach that might work for one person may not work for the other. In fact, a strategy that worked for a person a little while ago may not work for him today. Marketing trends change with many factors, and many things come together to make a strategy successful. One of the most impactful strategies taking the marketing world by storm is Newsletter marketing. Traditional print media and digital media obsess over it as it is doing wonders for many businesses in different forms. Email newsletters have become an essential part of marketing strategies by many fast-growing businesses all around the globe. Large enterprises, SMEs, online businesses, everyone is taking advantage of this brilliant technique. Why shouldn’t you? If you’re looking to deliver results from your email marketing strategy for small businesses and are not well aware of newsletter email marketing techniques, read on to find out everything you need to know about this and how you can use it.
Newsletters are made to educate your audience with certain aspects of your business using different forms of content. It contains useful information about your industry and your product. Instead of spamming your subscriber with multiple emails to make him understand your services or product, a single newsletter will do the deed for you. The whole point of email newsletters is to provide valuable content without pushing too hard.
An essential part of email newsletters is permission. You have to respect the choice of opting out by a prospect whenever he wants. This will be beneficial for you, too, as it reduces the chances of hurting your sender’s reputation. You have to build a foundation of trust with your audience, and filling up their inbox with something they didn’t ask for will do exactly the opposite of it.
You must be wondering why you need email newsletters when you already have other email marketing strategies in place. I have all the reasons that can convince you to employ this marketing strategy. Here they are:
Source: Atlanta Small Business Network
One of the most compelling advantages that you’ll get out of email newsletters is getting more subscribers. If you’re giving out valuable information to your audience that’s worth their time, they’ll definitely love to hear more of what you have to say. More subscribers only sound like a successful email marketing strategy to me.
Your business newsletter will create an impression of your brand that will stick in your audience’s mind (good content here is the key). Whatever you send out with that newsletter will be the defining factor for your brand. Quality email newsletters can build a positive image of your business, which can be beneficial in the short term and the long term. With email newsletters delivered in regular intervals, your audience will start associating your brand with the products or services that you provide.
With the newsletters you send to your subscribers' list, you’re building a chain of educated audience. Your email newsletters will keep your subscribers informed of any updates and a lot more about your business. Instead of answering individual questions by your prospects, you’re putting everything in one newsletter, which will automatically clear any queries. This way, when your leads are sales-ready, they will already be familiar with your product.
Having a knowledgeable audience isn’t enough for your brand. If you want to generate more profits, leads should turn into sales. Newsletters will give you the opportunity of generating high-quality leads. Sending email newsletters is a great way to do that as from the very start, you’re sending out emails to the audience who wants to receive it, and the longer they stick with you, the more interested they become. You can quickly cash in this interest at any point.
As you start distributing quality content and build a more educated audience, your emails' open rate will automatically increase. The better open rate will rank you among reputable senders and will build credibility. This will also increase the click-through rate meaning more people will fulfill the desired action. This will put the customer on that point of journey where he’s ready to make a purchase adding to the attributed revenue.
If you think building a newsletter marketing strategy takes a lot of effort, you have come to the right place. I will guide you through the process that will help you run a smooth campaign and boost your sales.
The first step of creating a meaningful email newsletters campaign is setting a goal. Mostly the end goal is increasing sales, but you have to be more specific here. Your end goal can be creating leads, increasing open rate, or building an educated audience, all serving to the one goal-generating profit. With the goal in mind, you can make better content for your newsletter.
When you have set a goal, the next thing you need is an audience that will like to hear what you have to say. This can be done using many email marketing tools that help you reach the audience you’re interested in and collect their data for you. But before that, you’ll have to build a lead magnet, which could be anything like a significant update, solving your audience's issue, or asking them directly for their information. The lead magnet does not have to be extravagant, only compelling to convince the audience to ask for more.
Once you have set up an audience and have a list of interested people, you can now set up a campaign. A drip campaign is always handy as this requires you to produce evergreen content. You’ll have a flow of customers till the end of time since your content will be nurturing prospects through the marketing funnel. You can lead your audience to the journey that you have built for them.
The drip campaign you started will be sending out evergreen content, but you have to be more creative here. Tailor your content according to your audience and your plans. If you plan to send more email newsletters in, say, three weeks, make sure you create content according to this plan. You always have to plan, keeping future events, holidays, and other circumstances under consideration.
You have done great work and have built a successful campaign with all the meaningful content you need to attract an audience. It does not hurt to give yourself a little pat on the back. You can use the newsletter to make a direct sales pitch. You can also slip in some promotional newsletters or some promotional content in a newsletter. There’s a general rule that says provide two or three educational emails before sending out the “salesy” one.
You have read till now, which means you are one step closer to mastering the art of sending out email newsletters. I have another treat for you too. There are some tricks that you should always have up your sleeve before you send out these newsletters. Taking care of the detail will give you a competitive edge, and your audience will be more affected by your campaigns. Here are a few of those:
Your newsletter is going to get opened by many people across different platforms. It should be designed and sent out to serve the purpose. Sometimes a non-adaptive newsletter can ruin your hard work as the content does not reach the audience the way you wanted. It’s better that you adopt a “mobile-first” strategy for your email newsletters. This way, you are building content for both mobile and web users. Moving forward, segment your list as well. You have to adapt to each segment. You can not approach a realtor and a surgeon in the same way. The more information you have, the easier it becomes to segment the list.
I can't ask anything more from you than to obsess over subject lines. They are the most important factor that will judge if your audience is going to open that email or not. If you’re not grabbing their attention with the subject line, you have lost the chance of getting them invested in your service or product. I suggest you write an eyecatching subject line that makes your user wonder what’s in the email.
There has been a debate going on whether or not a “from” line of an email makes a difference, but I don’t want you taking any chances. In case you’re wondering what the “from” line of an email is, it is the sender’s name by which you’re sending out the newsletter. The “from” line is completely dependent upon your business type, which is the deciding factor if you should go with a more personal approach or a corporate one. Sometimes both of the techniques work. It all depends upon the type of audience you’re sending it to. Keep testing different versions to see which one works for you.
You can not just send your newsletter emails and wait for the recipients to write back. You have to give them something to do; after all, it’s a two-way street. You don’t want to feel like you’re just sending out emails in the void. Ask your audience for feedback, comment, or questions if they have any. You can also add links to your website, enticing your subscribers to learn more about you. Prompt them to take action by using call-to-action buttons. You can also monitor CTA button click-through rates to gauge your newsletter strategy is working or not.
Newsletter marketing can be intimidating, but if done correctly, you can benefit a lot from it. It can help you reach your audience on a more personal and detailed level. This is not really possible with other marketing strategies. The most important thing you should keep in your mind is that your audience invited you to their inbox and allowed you to say what you want to say. Treat this opportunity as a privilege and do not waste it by sending out unrelatable content. You can build a long-term relationship with your audience if you handle this opportunity well.
Eman-e-Zahra is an IT graduate and has helped many businesses especially software development companies with their content marketing. Eman has managed to achieve a global clientele with her work by lending them a hand in the marketing strategy department.
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