For some businesses, email marketing is one of the core components of their marketing mix. Many marketers use newsletters to showcase their company’s latest products but fail to consider a newsletter as a marketing opportunity. Here are some tips you can make your email newsletters a double-edged sword.
An email newsletter is a brief document you send to your email subscribers (who are most probably your existing customers) to tell them the latest updates about your business. Maybe you launched a new refund policy or have a limited-time sale coming up next week.
A newsletter keeps your customers up to date with your company. However, that’s not all it can do — most marketers don’t make the most out of newsletters. A newsletter can be a great method of advertising your brand and products. Here’s how.
Create a compelling newsletter
The first step is to create a newsletter. To do this, you have to decide what information you want to convey to your customers. There’s plenty of stuff you can choose from — from announcing upcoming sales or discounts to informing customers about any new policies relevant to their purchases.
You could also announce new product features or even share some valuable blog articles with your audience. But make sure the content is highly relevant to your audience. And for that, you might have to segment your audience before you begin your email marketing campaign. If this is the first time you’re running an email campaign, you can use newsletter email templates on platforms like PosterMyWall, which does all the hard work for you.
Market segmentation is key
No business has one set group of the target audience. Instead, they have multiple shades of audiences. For instance, a luxury apparel retail store would have a product line popular with Gen-Z users and another product line popular with older adults. Therefore, sending the same newsletter to both target audience sub-groups would be a mistake.
The trick is to segment your target audience and send newsletters that are relevant to them. This would ensure maximum traction and interest. And the worst part is that if you keep sending irrelevant newsletters to your target audience, you’ll end up getting blocked and all your emails will land in the trash folder.
Be careful about your design
Design and aesthetics are everything when it comes to newsletters. Your newsletter should stand out at first glance and hook the reader’s attention. Therefore, you must design it in a certain way. The first thing to consider is using visuals and images. Humans are visual creatures and would rather look at a poster with an image than read a block of text.
But beyond visuals, your overall design should be consistent and must reflect your company’s brand identity. Use colors that go with your company name and logo and choose a design that fits your products. For instance, a luxury apparel brand would use a minimalist design with elegant fonts. You needn’t create a newsletter template from scratch — just choose from one of these customizable email templates and you’ll be done in a few clicks.
Follow the 80-20 rule
Many marketers don’t know about the 80-20 rule, which is crucial especially if you’re going down the email marketing route. That’s because email marketers only have one shot to impress and convince the reader to open their emails — the odds are stacked against them. Although a good subject line and visuals help in retaining the customer’s attention, it’s still not enough.
If you flood your newsletter or email with sales messages, you’re sure to be blocked forever. The main focus of a newsletter should not be to promote your products but to understand the customer’s pain points and make them feel you’re on their side. For instance, as a plumbing service provider, you can redirect a customer to your blog post about how to repair a minor kitchen sink. A potential customer would appreciate that instead of you asking them to call you.
Do some A/B testing
A marketing strategy that can’t be measured and tracked is doomed to fail. Therefore, tracking if your newsletter is getting traction and producing the results you expect is ever-so-important. A/B testing is a good method of trying which one of your newsletter variations has produced better results.
Testing your strategy also helps you identify ways you can improve your newsletter. Maybe you could gain more traction by changing the day of the week you send out the newsletter. Or, a different template works better in gaining the audience’s attention. You can gain several insights by continuously testing your newsletter.
Some final thoughts
Remember, sending the perfect newsletter can’t be a one-size-fits-all solution. Every business has a unique target audience and brand identity. Therefore, it’s necessary that you experiment with various techniques described above, test them continuously, and then finally arrive at something that works best for you.
