Email newsletters, e-Newsletters, or enewsletters - whichever
term you prefer - are a great way to build a brand, stay in touch
with your client base and generally promote your business in a
dynamic and engaging way.
That all sounds great and it applies to many kinds of
businesses: retail, manufacturing, motor trade, pretty much any
enterprise you can think of can gain from communicating with its
customer base effectively.
But before any business rushes off to produce an e-newsletter,
there are some key points to consider. Not doing so means your
business could waste valuable time and resources producing a
newsletter that achieves little.
The central point is the most commonly forgotten - or perhaps
simply ignored because it's the most challenging.
It isn't producing a newsletter that achieves all these
nice things for your business - it's producing a good
newsletter. And producing a good newsletter isn't easy.
There are many, many reasons why your newsletter might not be
read, or worse, might be actively annoying; but they really all
come down to one reason - you're failing to engage with
readers.
Here's a checklist of seven questions you must ask if you're
going to produce a newsletter that succeeds. The answers will
quite possibly be unique to your business, and, in many cases, they
will not be obvious; but failing to try and answer them will mean
your newsletter is almost certain to fail.
1. Ask the 'So
What' question.
Ask yourself what service your newsletter is going to provide to
your readers. If you apply this to everything you produce,
you won't go far wrong. So many businesses look on the function of
a newsletter as a way to promote their business. Wrong!
A newsletter needs to be designed to provide something useful to
readers. Promoting your businesses will be a highly valuable spin
off; but, if you start with promotion in mind, you will almost
certainly end up with a bland, self-congratulatory product that
will leave your readers cold.
Your newsletter needs to be helpful, it should tell your readers
something they can use. This is the 'So What' question. After
every piece of content, see if you can answer 'So What?'
All this is hard, much harder, than it sounds. Steering
away from self-promotion is tough; it's much easier to simply bang
on about how great your business is. Realise then that
producing a good newsletter that readers will look forward to
receiving is going to be hard work.
2. Are you
exciting?
Never be dull. No matter what you have to say, however
useful it may genuinely be, if you tell it in business speak, or
corporate clichés, no one will see how terrific your content
is.
Think especially about your subject lines. Do they really make
someone want to open the newsletter? And bear in mind that
you will be competing against others for your readers' time
here.
Generally speaking, whatever your business sells, your audience
will be most excited if they can relate what you're saying to their
own lives - how to save them money, how to help make them more
money, how to help them avoid a disaster or being ripped
off.
Remember, however loyal you believe your customer is, their
primary area of interest are things that affect them directly, so
make sure you present items strongly and with this in
mind..
3. Are you sure you
know what YOU want?
Brand building and engagement are all very well, but a good
newsletter can do these and something more measurable: it
can convert. While no newsletter should be packed with bland
self-promotion, there should be a strong call to action at some
point - when it is valid.
This means you should always have something powerful to say
about your business, or one of your products - explain why it's
great, why it's a bargain, why it's unique and explain why your
customer should act. Make that call to action clear. Tell people to
get a quote now, call or email for more info, or just click to buy
now.
4. Are you on
time?
Make sure your newsletter appears regularly - at least one a
month - and make sure it appears at the same time, every time
and tell your readers when that time will be. Create a deadline and
stick to it. News media call them 'dead' lines for a reason: they
know that appearing to a pattern matters. Over time your readers
will know your newsletter is arriving and learn to expect it. This
way they're much more likely to engage with it.
5. Are you
growing?
If you're going to spend money and effort producing a good,
engaging newsletter, then take every opportunity to recruit
readers. The more readers you have, the more dialogue and
interaction, the more exciting and engaging your newsletter will
be. It will also be more effective as a marketing tool. Make
signing up to your newsletter prominent on your site. Build your
newsletter base at every opportunity. Don't be half-hearted about
this - bring it to the fore of your marketing efforts. Obviously,
quality leads are what any business really wants, but, then again,
generally, the more email addresses you have signed up to your
newsletter, the better it will achieve its task. And one aspect of
brand building is, after all, a way of creating quality leads.
6. Do you let
people talk back?
And, once you have them signed up, find out all you can about
your readers. Give them every opportunity to interact. Don't accept
only positive feedback - be courageous enough to take any criticism
and act on it. This will build a stronger brand and help you make
real improvements to products, services and, even, perhaps, the
newsletter itself.
7. Can your
business respond?
Do your staff know what is in your business's newsletter? Are
they ready to respond when they are phoned or emailed inquiries
about its contents? If not, all your newsletter efforts may
turn out to have been wasted.
