Why send a newsletter?

Newsletters are part of your email marketing strategy, but just randomly sending them out, isn’t good marketing.  They need to have purpose.

If you’ve read my previous blogs you’ll know that a newsletter that is simply keeping people up-to-date with your organisation’s progress, isn’t interesting or likely to keep them subscribed and reading.  A good newsletter is content-rich.

But we’re getting ahead of the game here - let’s look at your lists first.  Who is on them?  What steps did they take to get on your list in the first place?  They must have subscribed by a process - and, unless they already know you, the chances are they didn’t fill in a form on your website that invited them to sign up to your newsletter.  We all have far too much stuff in our inbox to ask for yet another newsletter. 

Most people sign up to a list in exchange for information of value to them - if that’s what got them on your list, most information around the same subject will be of interest. 

If people are on your list because they’ve bought from you before, that means they’ve already identified themselves as clients - that means they’ll be interested in other products or services in the same field.

I’m not suggesting that your newsletters should be sales pitches for something similar to what the people in that list have already signed up for - or, at least, not ONLY a pitch.  A newsletter is your chance to build rapport and develop the relationship your readers have with you.

That means a newsletter needs to be:

• Engaging - written in a conversational, rather than corporate style
• Educational - there needs to be content that will help people to understand or learn about something of value to them
• Entertaining - include stories (although you may call them case studies or customer feedback) - everyone loves a story!

In addition, you can sneak in your promotions - especially if they promise massive value to the reader as well.  If the lead article sets up how important a certain activity or tool is, then the promotion offers them access to exactly what they need - it enhances your sales potential.

These things don’t happen by accident!

My formula for a great newsletter:

• A headline that screams ‘open me’ - this needs to be something that they can’t resist finding out more about.
• A lead article that delivers fantastic value - or great entertainment.
• Your promotion
• Some more value. 

      You’ll find people actually look forward to getting your emails and it’s easier to convert them into clients.