HOW TO CREATE A COMPELLING NEWSLETTER THAT PEOPLE WILL ACTUALLY READ.

April 14, 2021 | Fox Tales

For the last few weeks, we’ve been dishing out our two cents on all things social- social media strategies, advertising, social commerce…… the list goes on. This week, we decided to focus on a very crucial tool in the digital marketing toolbox- Email Marketing! A key component of any successful digital marketing strategy, email marketing has only grown in popularity over the years. More than 2.8 Billion people use email as a communication tool worldwide, and email newsletters (emails that inform your audience of the latest news, tips, or updates about your product or company ) are one of the highest ROI earning marketing tools for small to large businesses today.

Newsletters are an easy way to keep subscribers up to date with relevant brand information and they can significantly boost your brand recall. They allow you to increase customer retention (by helping you stay connected with your target audience), nurture sales leads, and spread awareness about your brand, and are therefore worth investing in.

So, how do you create a compelling newsletter, one that your subscribers will actually want to read?

1. Ace your Subject Line Game: Spend time coming up with a clear, concise, and relevant subject line. It is your big chance to make a good first impression.  Heard of the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? Yeah, that does not apply here. The subject line is the first (and many times the only) opportunity you will have to grab someone’s attention and to get them to click through to read more, so focus on the subject line and align it well with the content of the newsletter.

2. Remember, TRIPLE S! Make sure your newsletter is short, skimmable and scrollable. Simple, aesthetic design and clear copy are key to creating a great user experience for your subscribers. Overwhelming the reader with too many competing messages and extra-heavy design elements is a quick way to lose precious user attention.

3. What’s in It for Me? Believe me, your subscribers are constantly asking themselves that question! You’ve heard it before, but we’re going to say it again- Content is King! You must ensure that your content is captivating, relevant, and valuable to your subscribers. Enrich your newsletter with helpful blog posts, tips and tricks, how-to tutorials (videos are fantastic way to drive engagement), industry and company news, major updates and events about your products, webinars, and testimonials. These will enhance your credibility and help your audience see that you are serious about providing customer value.

4. Design Dilemma: Never underestimate the power of good design. Beautiful email design is a good way of breaking through the clutter and standing out. Ensure your branding materials (logo, brand colours, taglines) integrate seamlessly into, and align well  the design  of your newsletter. Also, make sure you optimize for all screens, so that your design is mobile friendly.

5. The Subtle Art of Sales: Seriously, lose the sales hype! Inform your readers about upcoming sales and offers, but don’t be overtly pushy. In-your-face sales and promotions are a big turn-off for readers, especially if that is the only content you send subscribers. More relevant, less promotional!

6. Clear Call to Action: The final (and arguably the most crucial) piece to the email conversion puzzle is to give your readers a compelling reason to click through. Call to action buttons are more than just hyperlinked bright buttons with catchy text. They are an invitation to your subscribers to do what you ask of them. Make sure your CTA text is clear, concise, and optimized, and that your CTA button is placed appropriately and organically within the newsletter.

7. Frequency Matters: Figuring out how to space your emails and calculating the right amount of time between each newsletter can be tricky. You don’t want to be too frequent and bore your readers into unsubscribing, but at the same time, you don’t want them to forget you exist either! Depending on your brand (and product/service) any amount of time between once a week and once a month can work to your advantage. Industry benchmarking, competitor analysis, and customer feedback can help you figure out the magic number- spend time analyzing this data to get right. As with most other things in life, consistency is key. So, once you figure out a timeline that works well, keep at it and be consistent.

Now that you know what to do, here are some free Email Marketing tools you can use to create compelling newsletters:

1. MailChimp (mailchimp.com): As official MailChimp partners, we may be a little biased, but we truly love MailChimp for its ease of use, smart recommendations feature, and aesthetic design options. Mailchimp also lets you automate your emails at crucial steps of the buyer journey, so you can easily send out welcome emails, order confirmations, abandoned cart reminders and more.

2. HubSpot (hubspot.com/products/marketing/email): HubSpot’s free email marketing tool can easily support small business’ email needs. It allows you to send kickback emails from lead offers, thank you emails after purchase, and promote current campaigns. It is easy to use, and when integrated with HubSpot’s CRM feature, is very efficient.

3. Sendinblue (sendinblue.com): Sendinblue has email marketing tools and additional functions such as CRM and landing page creation. Their design templates are great and easy to use, and they also allow A/B testing and segmented recipient lists.

4. Omnisend (omnisend.com): Omnisend’s free email marketing tool is great for small and medium businesses as it focuses heavily on audience insights and helps you schedule campaigns to enhance your reach. The design elements are intuitive and easy to use.

5. Sender (sender.net): One of the best free email marketing tools, Sender allows you to create, schedule and deploy beautiful email campaigns easily. Their analytics feature is comprehensive and helps you optimize your email strategy by creating accurate buyer profiles based on your subscriber actions.

There you have it! Now you have everything you need to create compelling newsletters that your audience will actually want to read. Speaking of which, have you signed up for Bombay Fox’s newsletter? We talk about what’s new in digital marketing and offer free access to some of our marketing resources- like monthly wallpapers and our downloadable “Best Business Tools for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners” PDF.

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