Whether you’re an established business or just starting out, e-newsletters are one of the hardest working tools in your marketing toolkit
Marketing can be a huge time sap for businesses doing it all, juggling all the balls and wearing all the hats! And there’s so many things to consider, right?
If you’re looking at your resources and wondering where to spend your time and budget for the best returns, e-newsletters should be high on your list.
Because clinching the sale is more about relationship building than simply throwing out an offer and hoping for bites, it’s never been more important to stay in touch and nurture your audiences.
E-newsletters are a low cost and highly effective way of doing this.
Grow your email list
One of the most important goals of e-newsletters is to grow your list of subscribers. Why? Because gaining new subscribers tells you that what you’re promoting, your audience wants to read more about.
When your audience signs up for your content, they have given you permission to receive your updates, and you have control over what and how often you push your content out to them.
This is far more valuable than solely funneling money into Facebook Ads or print media that half the time your audience doesn’t ever see!
Your newsletter serves as the touchpoint with your subscribers and by including an opt-in sign up on your website you can attract wider audiences – customers you haven’t even made yet!
Gain market insights
With e-newsletters, you have a direct line to a ‘warm’ audience and you can take the time to find out more about them, and tell them more about you.
Speak directly to them, ask them questions, create short surveys or polls, and ask them for reviews and feedback. Take note of the language they use, so you can incorporate this into your marketing messaging.
Finding out what makes them tick, why they’re interested in your product or service, and what their needs and frustrations are gives you more insights so you can tailor your promotions to meet their needs.
Later down the line you can segment your audience so that you can be specific about what content you put out to who, depending on how they’ve interacted with your content so far.
31% of B2B marketers say that sending email newsletters is the best way to nurture leads
Content Marketing Institute
Build brand loyalty
E-newsletters and email marketing are hugely effective in communicating your brand personality, ethos and values. Through your tone of voice and choice of phrase, you are building a picture of who you are and the type of business that people want to spend their hard earned cash with.
As people shop around and do their market research before settling on a purchase, communicating with them up straight is an opportunity to show your real value.
When people connect with a voice behind a logo they are more likely to purchase from you and if you continue to deliver on expectations they are very likely to stick with you.
49% of consumers are happy to receive promotional emails from the brands they love on a weekly basis.
Statistica
Turn subscribers into customers
Once your subscribers are signed up to receive your news and updates you want to be sure to feed them a good balance of information. First and foremost, you need to provide genuine value.
The 80 / 20 rule says that 80% of your content should be informative, while only 20% should be promotional.
The more helpful and insightful your content, the more your audience trusts and warms to you. Providing value for free shows that not only do you know your stuff, but gives insight into your level of service. Often this is what converts them into clients / customers.
Low risk – high reward
Regardless of what stage your business is at or how healthy (or non-existent) your marketing budget is, you can register for free on a number of email marketing platforms to get started with your e-newsletters.
Companies such as ConvertKit, MailerLite and Mailchimp all run free subscriptions and make it very easy for the non-techy to set-up and launch.
This means it’s only a time investment if you’re going to give it a go yourself. If you’re ideas rich but time poor, you can always outsource to a copywriter who can tailor content in your tone of voice and hit the mark when it comes to messaging.
That’s why e-newsletters should be at the top of your list if you’re looking to promote your brand and grow your business.
For every dollar you spend on email marketing, you’ll get a $36 return on average – more than any other channel (Litmus).
Key takeaways
- Grow your email list for control over what and how often you push your content out to your audience
- Gain marketing insights, track purchases and tailor your promotions to your audience’s needs
- Build your brand value with personalised communications to make your audience feel connected
- Stick to the 80 / 20 rule of informative / promotional content
- Add e-newsletters to your marketing matrix for low cost/low risk high value rewards
Get in touch
If you need some inspiration for content ideas or need help with writing your newsletter, send me an email, I’d love to hear from you.