subject: Producing Winning Email Newsletters [print this page] Producing a newsletter used to be a hard, complex and costly project, not only in writing the material, but also in producing the newsletter and getting it out to contacts. Thankfully that era is now changing, with the Internet and email making it so much easier, faster and more economical to send out newsletters.
As a business, what do you really get from producing a newsletter? There are a lot of great business benefits from email newsletters, including:
Build relationships (with current and past clients, prospects, alliances, suppliers etc) to increase sales
Position your business as a valuable resource and as an expert in the field
Obtain and retain the mindshare of your customers
Build your creditability
Illustrate the advantages of your services and products
Educate and inform your readers
Widen your audience
And what does that all really mean for your business?
It increases the length of time your clients stay with you
It increases the money they spend
It increases number of people they refer onto you
It can consistently attract new clients to your business
And now, thanks to the Internet, newsletters are very cost-effective, environmentally friendly and simple marketing tool for any business to use.
The content of your newsletter is vitally important if your stories arent relevant or interesting, you wont get many readers and you will be wasting time and money. Here are some potential sources of content for your newsletter:
Relevant articles written by you, your staff or by a freelance writer
Articles from your association or industry
Articles written by your business alliances
Relevant industry news and trends
Case studies, testimonials and examples
'How to' articles
Material from clients and readers
Questions and answers from readers
A readers poll
Here are some handy tips to make your newsletters professional and effective:
Schedule the frequency of your newsletter and stick to your deadlines - this is important for your audience and will ensure your business gets the full value from producing them
Know your audience and obtain regular feedback (get copies of your competition e-newsletters so you can be better, carry out surveys regularly, ask your contacts what they want to read)
Plan your content - keep it unique and pertinent to your existing and prospective clients
Use a newsletter template - consistency is important
Remember it is a newsletter, not an advertisement - the rule of thumb is that newsletters should be 80% for the reader and 20% about your business (otherwise they won't read it next time)
Its all in the headline - make sure your headlines are going to grab your audience and entice them to read more.
You are there to 'express' not to 'impress' - keep your language simple with little or no jargon
Proofread, proofread, proofread - get someone to proof read your newsletter because nothing looks more unprofessional than spelling and grammar mistakes.
Keep your stories short - people don't have the luxury of unlimited time, so if you have a lot of additional detail that you want to add, give people the option to read more on your website
Keep the number of stories to a minimum aim for 3 to 5 stories
Do not display everyone's email address if you send using your own email program - use the Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) function
Always include:
oA newsletter signup field that automatically updates your database
oA 'forward to a friend' function to facilitate the referral process
oA table of contents to entice the recipient to want to read on
oA privacy statement
oAn unsubscribe function so you meet the SPAM laws
oA text/html option for future emails
These are the basics of newsletter writing. You can find a complete guide to writing and sending newsletters here. Learn more here about our database marketing system that makes newsletters fast and simple.
