Why Newsletters are Essential to Your Marketing Strategy
Marketer David Newman once said: "Email has an ability many channels don't: creating valuable, personal touches — at scale." Keep reading to discover why your business needs a marketing newsletter to build customer relationships.
Each email is a chance to experiment with a unique benefit or approach in marketing. It's hardly a coincidence that 4 out of 5 marketers stated they would rather give up social media than email marketing.
Furthermore, 99% of people worldwide use email daily. What's even more impressive is over half (58%) of these people are consumers who start their day by checking their email.
But what makes email marketing and newsletters, particularly, such a valuable part of a business's strategy? This article will show you how to make a newsletter that will undoubtedly improve your business.
Looking to jumpstart your own email marketing newsletter? Check out our directory of top digital marketing and email marketing firms.
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What Is a Newsletter in Email Marketing?
You’ve probably seen a newsletter in one form or another. Maybe as a pop-up window asking for your email address when you enter a website. Or perhaps you’ve seen emails from different brands informing you of new products or upcoming events. These are called newsletters.
Newsletters promote products and services through email. They range from one-off promotional emails to even big-scale advertising campaigns.
They are so popular among brands because of how versatile they are. With newsletters, you can announce new products and specials to keep your buyers engaged.
With email automation, you can also "ignite" customer relationships, provide purchase and shipment updates, and tailor your messages in the blink of an eye.
Additional reading, ‘Email Acquisition & How to Convert Leads.’
How Does a Marketing Newsletter Work?
To a large extent, the purpose of your newsletter will be determined by your objectives. Even if you don’t know how to make a newsletter, the first step in planning your strategy is to identify the goals you want to achieve.
Usually, a newsletter's primary goal is to advertise a particular product or service while also establishing a personal connection with the people who subscribe to it.
However, you may also want to increase your open rate or gain new subscribers. Regardless of what the goal is, make sure it's clear.
With all this in mind, you could assert that newsletters serve as a supplement to building your overall digital marketing strategy.
As a quick summary, the purpose of a newsletter is to:
- Improve your click-through rate
- Increase visits and gain new subscribers
- Attract traffic
- Engage customers
- Build stronger customer relationships
- Promote new brands, products, services, campaigns, or website content
How to Create a Newsletter: Email Basics
You probably know what Gmail is. You’ve either used it at some point in your internet experience or still use it for personal communication.
But suppose you want to run a successful email marketing business. In that case, it's best to take advantage of a dedicated email service provider (ESP) to personalize, customize content, and keep track of subscribers.
Maybe you wonder how that works and what are the benefits? Let's take a closer look at why you should use a professional ESP:
- You can send large-scale email campaigns
- You can create professional-looking newsletter templates
- You can manage essential factors, such as contacts, click-through rates and the number of unsubscribes
- You can create catchy and visionary CTA buttons and subject lines
How Is a Newsletter Supposed to Look?
There isn't a specific design or a strict concept that you should follow when learning how to make a newsletter. It all depends on the idea, the purpose, and the content you are implementing.
You can create a template and send a newsletter updating your consumers about new products, campaigns, or website content. Or you can put the sales factor aside and simply let your subscribers know you value them by greeting them for a specific holiday, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Easter, etc.
There are a few aspects of a newsletter that you can incorporate to catch the attention of your subscribers and engage with them, leading to improved customer relationships, better open rates, and customer satisfaction. It’s the design, the content, and the value you provide.
How to Design a Newsletter
Think of it as a leaflet or a magazine. You must like it when the pages are glossy, attention-grabbing, and qualitative. That is what people want to see, and your subscribers are no exception.
Your newsletter should be eye-catching and intriguing to boost your audience's interest and motivate them to keep reading. It should be consistent with your brand's identity, and your logo should serve as the inspiration for the overall design and color palette.
Make sure the headers, logo, text, and images are vibrant and illustrative. In other words, make your subscriber's inbox unique.
Newsletter Content
What is a newsletter without text? Not only is it an essential part of it, but it is undoubtedly the most important one. Yes, you can pull off the perfect design and visuals. But without CTA’s and informative content to provoke and excite your audience, you will only have an image to keep their attention for a few minutes. And that will surely deliver no message.
A newsletter without valuable content is like a car without wheels - you have it, but it won't get you anywhere.
Value
Suppose you have the perfect design and interesting content to keep the person on the page for a while. But what value do you bring them, and how do you engage with them?
It's easy to add a personal element. Think about addressing the newsletter to the subscriber by name. You can also come up with a special offer or a discount code just for them.
That way, you will increase your engagement rates and make every subscriber feel special, which itself will lead to bigger revenue and satisfied customers.
Why Is a Newsletter Important for Your Marketing Strategy?
Now let's get to the heart of the matter — why is a newsletter such an essential part of every marketing strategy. Here are 4 ways a marketing newsletter will help your business grow:
- It helps increase sales
- It improves customer relationships and builds brand loyalty
- It increases social media engagement and brings traffic to your website
- It boosts brand awareness
It helps increase sales
“Never forget social media is for reach but email is for revenue.”
– Bryan Eisenberg
A newsletter is a marvelous way to update your subscribers about new products. After all, they didn't sign up for an inbox; they signed up for your brand.
What better way to portray that they are important to you? Show them what new things you have to offer, and send them a reminder (an email newsletter) about the valuable things you hold in your arsenal.
This way, you increase the chance of capturing their attention and, better yet - make them try out your new product or service.
It improves customer relationships and builds brand loyalty
“Email has an ability many channels don't: creating valuable, personal touches— at scale.”
– David Newman
A newsletter is a digital 1:1 meeting with your consumers. It's personal and intimate, and professional and effective at the same time.
According to a Mailjet survey, 60% of email marketers say personalization is the key to increased engagement and customer loyalty. And this is no surprise.
Who wouldn't want to see that their favorite brand addresses them by name, knows their birthday, or has a special offer just for them?
It increases social media engagement and brings traffic to your website
“Signing up is a powerful signal of intent to buy. Send them an email until they do.”
– Jordie van Rijn
A newsletter is certainly a powerful tool to increase your social media engagement. Just link your Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, or any other media you wish, to the email you send and watch your followers grow.
Of course, it's not enough to just include a share button. Make sure the email content you provide has some value to the reader so that it will make him want to learn more about what you have to offer. Then, he might gladly follow you on any social media as a way to keep up with more great content from you.
Better yet, you can add a button that leads to your website, especially if you are promoting new products or pieces of content. Yes, the consumer might not be interested in buying that particular item or service.
Still, if you do grab their attention, maybe they’ll enter your website for more information or simply check out other products. This will lead to increased web traffic, and who knows - maybe a future purchase.
It boosts brand awareness
“Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.”
– Walter Landor
Brand awareness means your consumers are familiar with your brand's qualities, capabilities, image, logo, goods, and services. It means they know who you are, what you offer, and even your style of writing and brand colors.
A great newsletter can do all of this for you - it can help you keep in touch with your consumers and learn more about their needs. As it's a great way to let them get to know you better and build trust in you, all of this resulting in increased brand awareness.
It's essential to be consistent and unique in your approach. Inform subscribers regularly about upcoming events, discounts, new website content, and products in a way that is distinctive and adopted only by you.
Are You Ready to Discover the Power of Newsletter Marketing?
I hope this article has helped you better understand how to make a newsletter as well as how valuable they are for every marketing strategy. Newsletters are versatile, engaging, and highly effective when implemented properly.
If you ever doubted using a newsletter, try implementing one to increase your revenue and improve your customer relationships.
Looking to jumpstart your own email marketing newsletter? Check out our directory of top digital marketing firms.
Additional Reading
Need help selecting a company?
Based on your budget, timeline, and specifications we can help you build a shortlist of companies that perfectly matches your project needs. Get started by submitting your project details.