Newsletter

Subscribe to our free SEO Newsletter, an easy way to stay informed of the latest search engine marketing and optimization news. Simply enter your email address for monthly delivery to your inbox. Today’s customers don’t want to feel overwhelmed by advertising. According to a poll conducted by Upstream, 66% of adults believe they are exposed to too many advertisements. This daily brand bombardment means less consumers are retaining information or paying attention to the noise surrounding them.

Newsletter marketing involves sending out informational newsletters to interested parties. Some companies send newsletters through the mail, but the vast majority of companies today connect with customers over email. Email is cheaper and faster and produces data that can be more easily studied to create more relevant newsletters.

Newsletters contain a range of content that is not exclusively related to shopping. Companies might include everything from industry news, to interesting statistics, and “how to” articles in a given issue of a newsletter. Because consumers already indicated their interest in receiving the newsletter, companies can create more interesting content they know will engage their base.

Information about multiple products, sales, or company initiatives can be contained in a single email newsletter. This information is often more detailed than what could be included in a print or radio ad, because there is no limit on the length of an email. The multimedia aspect of emails also allows business to include links that allow customers to buy products immediately. They present convenient sales channels that lead customers directly to a company’s official site.

The low cost and relative ease of creating an email newsletter means that most businesses can maintain this ongoing marketing strategy. For some small businesses with modest marketing budgets, newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with customers without buying expensive radio or television ads.

Typically though, larger businesses, and particularly retailers, use newsletters most frequently. With larger product lines, multiple sales and deals, and special offers, these companies usually have more information to relay to customers at any given time. Also, larger companies have more expansive marketing departments featuring copywriters and designers, who are specially trained to create stunning looking email newsletters.

• Develop Reserve Content – Write a few articles that can be published at any time for the months when there is not enough content to fill the newsletter.
• Read Competitors Newsletters – Read the newsletters of competitors to see what kinds of articles and deals are being offered.
• Research The Readers – Examine the other sites and communities that subscribers frequent. This can suggest topics for future articles and offers.
• Partner – Develop relationships with other companies or causes that readers will be interested in.
• Recycle – Use content from sources like blogs and company publications in the newsletter.
• Reduce Length and Frequency – Readers don’t want to be bogged down with endlessly long newsletters. Doing less can make a bigger impact.
• Encourage Feedback – Allow readers to comment on newsletters and suggest topics for future issues

Newsletter marketing relies on providing a high quality, interesting newsletter on a consistent basis. Creating an engaging newsletter requires businesses to create an fluid plan that takes into account deadlines, content, and the target demographic.

The first step of any plan will be to define the readers that the newsletter is targeting. Are they other businesses or customers? Do they want to receive special deals or are they more interested in product and company information? Knowing who the target audience is sets the tone for the entire campaign.

Next, it will be necessary to define the purpose of the newsletter. Most newsletters are designed to increase sales, but others focus on spreading industry news, developing an identity for a brand, or starting a conversation around a product or issue. Newsletters with a sales focus must include special deals and easy links to purchasing pages. Informative newsletters will need to contain new information that is genuinely relevant and interesting to readers.

Knowing the purpose of the newsletter helps the company set goals for the campaign. These goals might include increasing sales by 20%, or increasing newsletter subscriptions by 30%.

The last step is to design content and distribute the finished product. Using all of the information gathered in previous steps of the plan, copywriters are able to create content relevant to newsletter readers. The success or failure of any newsletter marketing campaign depends ultimately on whether people want to read those newsletters.