A newsletter is a great way to reach out to your customers and it can be a very valuable part of your digital marketing. The trick is to keep the content relevant to the reader and to have clear goals for each newsletter. But what exactly is best practice?
Provide value for the customer
Building your email list is an art in itself. The key is to make it as easy as possible for your customer to find the sign-up button, so make sure it's easily accessible on your website. Unfortunately, in some industries, that's not enough. You need to give your customer a good reason to sign up, a value. Ask yourself: why should they bother to receive and read newsletters from your company? In other words, it's important to have a good pay-off to lure the customer in. Shopping cart discounts, exclusive access, offers or guides (etc.) are all examples of effective tools.
Set a specific goal for each newsletter
Before you start writing, you should have a clear goal for your newsletter. Do you want to increase sales in your online store, visits to your website or maybe you want your customers to download a whitepaper? Make sure this is clearly stated in your newsletter and keep the message simple. It's easy to fall into the trap of mentioning all the great things your company has done recently, but remember that a lot of different messages can end up confusing the customer instead.
What is good content in a newsletter?
Say what you need to say and skip the rest! That's putting it bluntly, but still not too far from the truth. When writing a newsletter, the trick is to make it relevant to the reader while keeping their attention. In other words, avoid writing long dissertations with no purpose or meaning. Keep it relevant!
We recommend A/B testing your newsletters. Whether it's timing, layout, headlines or theme. You'll quickly notice what resonates best with your target audience and what's worth working on further. Visual effects are always positive and also make the content easier for your customer to read.
Finally, it's important that you have a strong call-to-action with clear instructions for what actions you want the customer to take next.
Plan for mailing
As with all digital marketing, it's important to have a consistent presence, but everything in moderation! Make sure you have something relevant to say when you first send out a newsletter. "Empty" content will only punish itself and end up with a bunch of unsubscribes.
Find out how many newsletters it's relevant for your company to send during a given period of time and - not least - stick to a quantity that's achievable for you.
The newsletter can also be used as part of automated email sequences. Read more about it here.
Make it easy to unsubscribe
Not the most fun part to talk about, but in today's digital world, unsubscribing is an important part of your email marketing. If it's hard to find the unsubscribe button, you run the risk of annoyed customers who will review your business accordingly.