A newsletter is a great way to increase engagement with your brand or business. Newsletters increase brand loyalty. They communicate valuable information about your products and services, industry changes, and anything relevant to your business and your customers.
Consider, for example, a zombie apocalypse preparation company. For a company like this, its customers need to know about new products that are being released along with new training and information about zombie apocalypses.
There are a variety of reasons a customer might sign up for your newsletter. It could be because of a previous purchase. Or because of a reward for signing up, like a discount code or a free ebook. Whatever their reason, once they have accepted your newsletter it is a golden opportunity to communicate with them about your brand.
Starting a newsletter is relatively easy, but that doesn’t mean you should just jump right in and start sending emails all higgledy-piggledy. You need a plan.
Like anything the first step to success is developing a strategy. While all email newsletters have the same main goal, increasing customer-brand interaction, they all go about it in different ways. You need to make sure that you have a strategy that matches your brand. For example, our zombie apocalypse prep website doesn’t want emails that are warm and fuzzy.
Every strategy is different, but the following items are essential inclusions for any email newsletter strategy:
Goals
What do you want your newsletter to accomplish? Information, company updates, sales. You need to know why you have a newsletter and what you want your customers to do with it.
Timing: This will go hand in hand with your goals. Look at what you’re trying to accomplish and see how the timing of your emails can make this happen. For example, our zombie site may want to send an email every time they have a sale or a promotion, and then bi-weekly emails with instructional content.
Audience: You should have different segments for different parts of your audience. You might want different emails to go to your customers who have made a recent purchase than those that haven’t.
Branding: Your email newsletter should match your brand. The logo, colors, and style should all match. The same for your tone. It should all work together.
This isn’t an all-inclusive list, but it should give you a good foundation for building the strategy for your email newsletter.
Once your email newsletter is up and running you need to track its performance. Metrics like open rate and click-through rate can help you see if your strategy is working and if you need to make changes going forward.
There are a lot of options for newsletter email software. Make sure you do your research on multiple platforms and make sure you choose one that works with your goals and the type of website you are promoting.
When researching your email newsletter software, some factors that you should consider are:
You should also look into some key features such as:
Check back for our Best Newsletter Software post - coming soon
Your newsletter should have a look and feel that matches your brand. Look at your design assets, both print and digital, your style guide, and your website. Your newsletter should follow the same constraints as your other assets. It should match and not look out of place.
Most email newsletter software has built-in templates that you can edit or a drag-and-drop editor to build your newsletter. If you need a more customized design you can work with a professional designer.
This is obviously more than a one-time thing. You should be sending out newsletters regularly, and as mentioned above you should have different content for different audience segments.
For each email newsletter that you send out there are a few items that you should always include.
Subject line
Craft a punchy subject line that makes your customer want to open your email.
Body
This is the meat and potatoes of your newsletter. Good copywriting is essential here. It needs to be informative and straight to the point.
One of the best things you can do with the content is be unique. Inboxes are swamped with emails. You need to make sure that your content stands out. Look to develop a unique voice that stands out from the crowd and matches your brand.
Graphics
Make sure your graphics are unique and stand out. You also want to make sure that they are optimized for size and will deliver to all email clients.
CTA
A good CTA is essential. If your newsletter isn’t calling for its readers to do something, then it is failing. For e-commerce sites, this is usually a link to buy a new product or a promotional item. For other websites, this may be more difficult, but it's important.
Footer
The footer should have some branding elements and links to unsubscribe. Most email newsletter software apps have a template that includes all the info that needs to be in the footer.
You have to have the permission of a subscriber to send them an email newsletter. One of the easiest ways to do this is by using a subscription form on your website.
Most email newsletter platforms have instructions on how to set this up so that it is easy to install on your website, and is linked to their software.
This subscription form is important, so you want it to be easy to use and to stand out.
Make sure that it is designed to stand out from the rest of the page. This can be achieved by using a contrasting color for the button, or by placing it in a call-out section that is different than the rest of the page. It can also be added to a pop-up that will appear over the page.
You also want to make sure that it is dead simple to use. Ask for the minimum of information you need. Usually, this can just be a first name and an email address. The more info you ask for, the less likely users are to fill it out.
You also want to send up a good confirmation message and email. Don’t just use the generic built-in options, instead use these messages as another opportunity to share about your brand.
You should go above and beyond the subscription form on your website.
If someone makes a purchase invite them to sign up for your newsletter to learn about future deals and promotions. Invite people to subscribe via social channels. Add a link to sign up for the newsletter in your email signature. You can even build a newsletter landing page and use paid advertising to drive people to that page.
This is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to setting up, running, and maintaining an email newsletter. You should be constantly looking for ways to improve your newsletter and make it more useful for your audience. Subscribe to lots of different email newsletters, both within your niche and from other businesses outside your segment. See what they’re doing and try to adapt to your own brand and products.
