You are shopping online and a screen pops up with ‘Sign up for the newsletter and receive a 10% discount on your order.’ A lot of us do that, because of discounts! But for that one-time discount, you are now stuck with several of those websites.
Newsletters: your mailbox is full of them, but do you actually read them? Not all of them. Yet you often find useful information there – if you read one anyway. It’s the place to be the first to find more discounts or exclusive deals from your favorite online store or to get sneak peeks of the latest movies hitting theaters soon. A newsletter is therefore useful for the consumer and for the marketer if it is read. So how do you take care of that?
There are several elements that make a good newsletter and help yours stand out in a crowded mailbox. Curious? Use these 10 Newsletter tips!
1. Ask Yourself If You Really Need A Newsletter
You don’t just write a newsletter, start with a goal! For example, do you want;
- more leads;
- more turnover;
- launch a new product;
- share knowledge;
- or do you have a completely different goal?
Research within your organization whether distributing a newsletter contributes to the objectives. For example, the effectiveness of a newsletter depends on the type of company, the industry in which you operate and the period of the year. List the different marketing strategies and determine which one suits your company best at that time. Periodically developing a newsletter takes a lot of time and energy. It would therefore be a shame if it turns out afterwards that a different marketing strategy would work better. Clear definition of goals also helps in determining the content of the newsletter later on. Also consider whether your target audience will use email and if this is the channel they want to hear from your company. Newsletters and other email marketing efforts work especially well for online stores and B2B companies, but not for telling teenagers, for example, not to start smoking later.
2. Seduce The Reader
Your business objectives are important, but the reader of the newsletter is central. If the reader does not find your message important or interesting enough, he will not listen to it. Entice the reader to read your message by immediately starting the email with an interesting piece of news or an attractive offer. Make the reader curious about the content of the email by including a short teaser or question in the title line. Find out which subject line works best with an A/B test.
3. Share Relevant Content
First of all, do you have any sign ups about your newsletter? Use this to segment the target audience! Based on, for example, age, location or profession, you can adjust the content of your newsletter and make it as relevant as possible for each group.
Second, when someone signs up for a newsletter , they get the choice to click on different interests. With this information about the area of interest we can make our newsletters more relevant for our target group. You can choose from:
- Spotlight – a monthly update with blogs, Cooler Client videos and news from our studio;
- AnyStories – creative free work that we create to make the world a bit more understandable;
- Video Strategy – tips, tricks & tutorials to help you get the best results from video;
- Marketing & Products – updates on new products and possible discounts.
Finally, you can use information about it to make the newsletter more relevant. For example, is the registered person already a customer, for how long and when did they last make a purchase? Especially in E-commerce, this information is optimally used to convince (potential) customers to make a purchase.
4. Provide A Good And Attractive Layout
Incorporate house style elements into the layout of the newsletter for a recognizable appearance. By paying attention to designing a unique design, you create an exclusive newsletter. Alternate text with images and videos. Pay attention to the file size of the visual content; large files result in poorer loading time. Once you have developed a style for the newsletter, you can reuse it in subsequent newsletters so that brand recognition is stimulated with every mail.
5. Choose A Clearly Visible Unsubscribe Link
Although you would prefer to keep as many subscriptions to your newsletter as possible, it is important to also give people the opportunity to unsubscribe. Adding a visible unsubscribe link is mandatory for every commercial email under the GDPR . In addition, it is also nice for recipients that they can easily unsubscribe when a newsletter is no longer relevant to them. Unsubscribing is of course never fun, but you can make it a bit more fun with text. In addition, providing personal email preferences can prevent a complete unsubscribe.
6. Personalize For A Better Customer Experience
Nothing is more annoying than an impersonal or even incorrect salutation. So make your newsletter personal! These types of emails stand out more in the inbox and are therefore opened more often than impersonal emails. In addition, recipients also find a personal newsletter better than if you keep it general. Personalization can be done in several ways:
- Use the recipient ‘s first and/or last name in the salutation;
- Share personalized offers based on customer interests and purchasing behaviour;
- Connect your content to current events and holidays ;
- Send your customers a congratulatory email on their birthday or when X number of years have been a customer.
Note that personal does not necessarily mean friendly or emotional, personal elements can also be added to a business email. Depending on the style of your company and the relationship to the e-mail readers, choose the right tone of voice.
7. Maintain A Low Bounce Rate
The bounce ratio says something about the number of emails received compared to the number of emails sent. There is a ‘bounce’ if the email has not arrived in the recipient’s inbox. When this is due to a temporary error, it is called a soft bounce and the email may arrive later. If the email does not arrive definitively, for example due to an incorrect or blocked email address, it is called a hard bounce .
Earlier we shared tips to write perfect article for blog , now we share 3 more for a good newsletter:
- Check your email lists regularly and remove erroneous or blocked email addresses;
- Do not use purchased lists. This is in violation of privacy legislation and therefore illegal. Choose quality over quantity. This is many times more effective for email marketing;
- Make sure your newsletter is not detected as spam. Avoid overly commercial texts such as ‘buy now!’ and ‘action’ in the title.
8. Think About Mobile Users
More than two thirds of all emails are opened on a smartphone or tablet. It is therefore important to also optimize your newsletter for mobile users. Make sure that all text is readable, visual content is loaded and no parts are missing.
9. Add Video Content
Video makes me curious! Adding a video to your newsletter increases the chance that recipients will open your mail. In addition, it ensures that people stay longer in the mail. A study found that reading time increased by 44% when the email campaign contained a video. Finally, video can increase the click conversion of an email. In a study, video thumbnails in their emails resulted in 14-42 % more interaction than images. convinced?
10. Dare To Experiment
Last but not least: experiment and optimize! Do not give up if your newsletter is not successful the first time. For each newsletter, send out a test newsletter to, for example, colleagues or a small group of subscribers. This way, the last mistakes can be removed and you can optimize your newsletter for the ‘real’ launch.
Bring It All Together
Email newsletters are one of the best marketing tactics brands use to capture user’s attention. Newsletters work, but they need to be crafted well. In order to bring positive results, brands need to understand their audience first. If you follow the above tips, you will create an appealing newsletter that ensures you higher conversions.
