Email isn’t dead. Newsletters aren’t dead. They’re both thriving. Why not integrate the two?
According to research conducted by the Radicati Group, the number of email accounts worldwide is estimated to increase to over 4.3 billion accounts by the end of 2016. Email continues to be one of the primary modes of communication with nearly 191.4 billion emails sent and received each day in 2014. Out of this, approximately 108 billion were within the business sector.
Despite claims that with the easy access of instant messaging tools and social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, the use of email will decline, statistics from Pew Research reveal that 92 percent of online adults still use email and 61 percent use it on a daily basis.
These statistics clearly show that email is not going anywhere and will continue to be used for both personal and business use in the years to come. That is why businesses continue to use emails as part of their marketing strategy.
McKinsey & Company data indicate that email is 40 times more successful at acquiring new clients as compared to Facebook and Twitter. Tech experts also says that you are six times more likely to get a click-through from an email campaign as compared to a tweet.
Since companies send over 10,000 emails a month, it makes sense that using newsletters and harnessing them within your email campaign makes sense. Newsletters are still one of the most effective ways to grow and maintain long-term relationships with your target customers.
There is no denying the power of tweets, Likes and status updates, but it is also not very smart to underestimate the effectiveness of email. Newsletters are a great tool to market your products and services. With that being said, the primary trick is to do it right.
Here are five ways on how you can harness newsletters with your email marketing campaign:
- Gain Permission from Your Target Audience
- Customize the Content According to the User
- Think of the Newsletter as a Newspaper
- Make your Newsletters Interactive & Responsive
- Always Get Feedback
Gain Permission from Your Target Audience
Most users hesitate before signing up for newsletter and email subscription offers from businesses. That is because they do not want to be inundated with promotional offers and discounts. However, if you provide them with relevant and interesting information, you will see that your newsletter subscribers will continue to increase.
An effective way of convincing customers to subscribe is to create a compelling newsletter template to suit your audience. This can be done through an array of free stuff and valuable content, including:
- Informative articles
- Vibrant templates
- Free downloads
- Free eBooks
- New updates
Often specifying how often they will be receiving the newsletter is also a great way of getting them on board and continued subscribers to your emails.
Customize the Content According to the User
One effective way of using newsletters is to customize them according to the customer’s expectations and interests.
For example, Amazon sends book recommendations to their customers based on that customer’s buying history and reading habits. Similarly, several healthcare publications send weekly newsletters to their audience based on their area of specialty. Some of them consist of cardiology news to cardiologists, imaging news to radiologists and so on.
The method is to ensure that you give the customer:
- Something of value, whether it is in the form of latest updates on smartphones or the housing market.
- Something new that they have yet to see, hear or learn.
- Something that meets their needs.
Whatever you send them has to mean something to them otherwise your subscription rates might dwindle fast.
Think of the Newsletter as a Newspaper
What do you look at as soon as you pick up a newspaper? In most cases, it is the headlines.
This means that you must follow the same strategy with your newsletter. Always ensure that the subject line of your email grabs your reader’s attention. Your goal is to make it interesting and catchy enough for them to open the email. It should be effective enough to:
- Arouse their curiosity.
- Target their interest.
- Meet their expectations.
You can have the greatest content in your newsletters, but if your headline doesn’t spark any interest, it is highly unlikely your content will be read. We all have short attention spans these so you have to make up for this and adapt to this latest trend.
Make your Newsletters Interactive & Responsive
Whenever you use email marketing, in any form, it is important to not talk at your reader but talk to them. Don’t just drone on and on about how great you are, what tremendous services you offer, how you are the best in the market and other pompous and conceited comments.
You can balance it out by including some form of opportunity for your customers to interact and engage with you. This could be either in the form of clickable links, such as Learn More and Call Now. You can also utilize more important and immediate call to action statements, like Book Now, Buy Now and others.
The point is that you must include a call-to-action (CTA). Otherwise there is no point of the campaign anyway. But whatever you do, pick only one primary CTA. You should avoid overdoing it because you might just lose that subscriber.
Always Get Feedback
If you want to improve your newsletters, your products and your overall brand, the best way to do so is by getting feedback from your audience. You should attempt to enable your readers to provide you with:
- Suggestions
- Ask questions
- Express concerns
- Praise your work
In order to continue to provide your audience the content they need, this feedback can be critical for your newsletter’s success. Therefore, ensure you include a comment box, a reply option or any other feedback tool which will enable your reader to tell you what they think of your effort.
Plus, customers and subscribers will feel valued because their opinion is being heard.
Final Thoughts
Overall, it is important for you to remember that email is still a very powerful communication tool, even in today’s multi-faceted, hyper-connected world.
At the same time, it is grossly underused as evident from statistics that show companies spending around $64 billion on television advertisements and $34 billion on print ad, but only around $1.5 billion on email.
The biggest advantage with email marketing is that you know within a short span of time whether your email was delivered, whether your message was opened, and whether your links were clicked.
What more would you want from such a simple and affordable form of marketing?
