Newsletter – A Great Tool to Enhance Your Outreach and ROI

When you are ready with your email lists; the next thing probably on your mind would be to have a newsletter to be sent out to your customers.

We all know the purpose of a newsletter and how it feels to receive the ones that are the best ones and also the ones that are not so good or relevant and that’s because we almost have a history with them! Not to say the least, our inbox is usually flooded with a lot of newsletters that we subscribed for.

But honestly, how many of these e-mailers do we honestly want to open or read or even respond to?

Similarly, when you have an email list ready; you need to evaluate whether you really need to have a newsletter sent out?

So, let’s start with the scary part of not thinking that you need an e-mailer. Scary, because everyone you know is doing it and you are the only one who is thinking that you need to rethink about even having a newsletter in the first place.

Do you really need a Newsletter?

If you are a B2B sales and marketing agency you will almost always need a newsletter to be sent out to your prospects for lead nurturing purposes and also to build a long term relationship with the customers.

For other industries, it isn’t that unusual to not have a newsletter but it would be best if you arrived at a decision after taking a look at the following parameters:

Do your business goals define the need for increased leads, increased quality lead nurturing, better ROI, effective reach with the target audience? If the answer to most of these questions is a Yes, then probably you need a newsletter and if the answer is No, you probably don’t need newsletter.

It is not a mandate to have a newsletter as a part of your marketing strategy. But it is definitely important that you evaluate the very need of having a newsletter from time to time because markets aren’t the same all the time and your business goals may also change your need and decision to have a newsletter.

If you do need a newsletter:

But what if your marketing goals and objectives do line up with a newsletter requirement? Then the next obvious step is that you need to plan on having one in place! So now you need to know what goes into that newsletter! There is a lot to learn from some good newsletters that you already receive in your inbox; however; you still need to have an original one as yours.

Cluttered newsletters are annoying!

So now that you already know what to avoid; you can start thinking of what you do want. It’s just easier that way sometimes.

So make sure you don’t plan to include too much information; it’s best to write concise and relevant content.

Newsletters that are more topic-specific and are not trying to cover too many topics at a time are winners with the readers. It’s best to decide the niche and stick to it with one industry; or one market segment or one service instead of providing too much at once.

The sacred mantra to a successful newsletter- It’s more about the audience and less about you!

Go light on promotion:

So the objective of a newsletter is all about promoting right? Wrong! Research says that most of your readers do not want to hear about you and your services. They want unique content that they see as a valuable read!

Hence the ratio that you plan should be - 90% information and only10% promotion.

Do not create the newsletter with the intention of marketing your services; but rather as a good start to build a relationship with your readers and make your newsletter something that they look forward to and thus remember your brand through it.

Newsletters have a good brand recall value!

Create the right subject line:

A subject line can determine the opening rate of your newsletter. A strong subject line; one that resonates with the actual content of the newsletter and also creates curiosity, works wonderfully well to get good results!

If the subject line is talking about something that is not related to the actual content of the mail it can be annoying for the readers. The relevance of your subject line and the actual mail content in a way builds credibility for your brand.

Conclusion:

Other than the above the need to have the right CTAs can determine the success of your newsletter. CTAs are as important as the subject line because they can be the decision makers when it comes to customers opening the newsletter or downloading information or exchanging information with you.

Newsletter is a great way to enhance your reach and connect with your customers and prospects so make sure you create the right impression and impact with the newsletter!