What is an Online Newsletter? Definition, Purpose & Tips
In today’s hyper-competitive world, the key to success often lies in standing out from the crowd. Even though there are countless possible routes businesses and entrepreneurs can take to achieve this goal, this is oftentimes easier said than done. One of the tried-and-true methods is the regular use of online newsletters. Let’s examine this marketing tool, what it’s meant to accomplish, and how you can make it work for you.
What is an Online Newsletter?
In simple terms, online newsletters are a type of email communication that organizations use to market their goods and services to prospective and ongoing clients. Effectively deployed, they can increase the value you bring to your audience by providing helpful tips, guidance, support, and industry news to make their experience with your brand more rewarding, thus enhancing their loyalty to you.
Why Do You Need Newsletters?
Newsletters are highly versatile tools that can be wielded in various ways. These include:
Driving Growth: The biggest and most IMPACTful benefit newsletters offer is their ability to grow your enterprise by driving new traffic towards you and encouraging existing clients to stick with you. In today’s business climate, standing still is equivalent to shrinking, and newsletters are a great way to help ensure you’re growing.
Boosting Brand Awareness: Your clients need to know who you are if you wish them to develop loyalty toward your brand. Newsletters provide a platform for using good storytelling, attractive images, and other creative techniques to draw and capture attention to your message and its benefits.
Boosting Website Traffic: With every email you send, you have the opportunity to drive clicks towards your website by including a call-to-action that motivates and encourages your readers to engage with you, ultimately building your operation.
How to Create Effective Newsletters
Not all newsletters are created equal. A key aspect of successful newsletter campaigns is starting with a solid strategy. Here are a few tips on how you can make your newsletters garner the best results for your brand:
Set Clear Targets
What do you hope to achieve with your newsletters? While driving growth and engagement are worthy goals, they are somewhat vague. You need to be more specific to measure your progress down the road.
Are you looking for new clients? Do you hope to re-entice old customers? Or maybe you want to increase your brand awareness? By answering these questions beforehand, you can assess the effectiveness of your campaign and know what to repeat and what to avoid for the best results in the future.
Select the Most Effective Platform
There are a plethora of newsletter platforms out there for you to choose from as you formulate your campaign. Still, there are certain essential features you should look for before making your final choice, including a drag-and-drop editor, integration options, sign-up forms, reporting capabilities, landing pages, marketing automation, and newsletter templates. All these can make your job more efficient and effective without needing web design or HTML skills.
Draw New Subscribers In
Once you have the basic logistics set up, your first step is to find a way to build up your subscription base. Do this by creating inviting copy that entices visitors to your website to sign up for your newsletter. Use discounts, free content, and other promotional tools for onboarding.
Segment Your Subscribers
The goal is always to reap the greatest rewards from your newsletter campaign. In such a case, your best bet is to segment your subscribers so that people with similar interests and tendencies receive different emails tailored to their likes and needs.
You experiment with segmentation based on demographics (location, gender, age, economic status, etc.), their behavior (top purchases, engagement, platform activity, etc.), and so on.
Conclusion
Putting in the time and effort to formulate, create, and execute your newsletter campaign isn’t the sum of it, it’s also important to be sure to note and measure key metrics that will let you know whether or not, and to what capacity, it is or isn’t working. These include delivery rates, click-through rates, open rates, bounce rates, and more.
If you’re ready to get started on your weekly, monthly, or quarterly online newsletter, or just want to learn more, you can find a reliable partner in Impact Digital Marketing. Get in touch with a marketing team you can trust . You’ll be glad that you did.
