1. Don't expect more than five minutes from your customer. He's busy: running a business, surfing the Internet, changing diapers, checking out new ringtones. A newsletter of between 500 and 1000 words per issue is ideal for most, especially if you include click-throughs for your website, where they'll find more content.
2. Keep it simple and short. Subdivide that short newsletter into bite-sized bits, smaller articles of 200-500 words. Use short paragraphs and lots of bullets.
3. A picture really is worth a thousand words, but only if your customer accepts HTML. If your customers accept HTML in their inbox, you can include images of your products in your newsletter. You should always be ready with a text version, just in case they can't accept HTML.
4. Your newsletter should be supplementary to what's on your website. Your primary goal for your newsletter is to get your customer to your website, where they will buy products. Always keep that in mind when composing your newsletter.
5. To maintain a high level of presence in your customer's mind, you should send out a newsletter every four weeks. More frequently can get annoying, and less frequently may cause your sales to drop off. With a short newsletter, this can be very doable.
6. Content can be anything useful and entertaining. If you run an online bookstore and want to have short stories and book reviews for your content, that's fine; if you sell genetic engineering products and want the latest technology news, that's good too. The key is that it must captivate your customer and get them to your website.
7. Use email newsletters to communicate information about sales. Remember, this is a marketing tool. If you have a hot buy, write an article about it in the newsletter; for instance, if you're trying to get rid of H-scale train track, write an article about H-scale trains and advertise after the article that your track is on sale, with a click-through to the site.
8. Use email newsletters to reward your most loyal customers. With good email newsletter programs, you can subdivide your newsletter so that you can target your most loyal customers with coupons and discounts just for them. The corporate marketers do it; you can, too.
9. Use email newsletters to instigate that first sale from new customers. Have a special newsletter in reserve that introduces new customers to your site, and include a nice coupon in it to encourage the first sale. It's much easer to get the second and subsequent, once they're in the habit of buying from you online.
10. Keep good statistics on your email click-throughs. Again, with good email newsletter programs, your click-throughs – the times your customers click on links in the newsletter to go to your website – are recorded. If you know what customers click on and what they ignore, you can set up subsequent emails accordingly to maximize click-through.
11. If you can, find out more about your customers. The more you know about your customers, the better you can target your newsletter. Run surveys from your site, or simply ask for more, optional information when your customer signs up for your newsletter.
12. Use your newsletter to sell advertising to your vendors and affiliates. With a good customer base and proven sales from your newsletter, you can sell advertising space to related businesses, or even to your vendors when they want to push a product. Don't overlook the eventual money-making potential of your newsletter!
Should you send a text only newsletter or design it in HTML? Both options have benefits and issues.
I recommend that most small business use an HTML newsletter because it's much more effective to use graphics to extend your brand. Also graphics are more memorable and can help you to communicate your business's message in a way that's, well, worth the proverbial 1000 words.
Some of the ways to make this already-effective tool even more effective include:
- Use a customized design and not a template. One of the main jobs of a newsletter is to extend your business's brand. If you use a template the design will not be related to your company's brand definition or brand identity. This mismatch will make your business look inconsistent and less professional. Make sure that your customized design includes not only your logo but also elements of your Visual Vocabulary. This will further distinguish your newsletter from your competitions.
If you do have to use a template for a short time while you work the cost of a customized design into your budget, use the simplest template available on your service - even a blank page with your logo on it will work as a temporary measure!
- Use branding as bookends for your newsletter. Designing every square inch of your newsletter is overkill. You don't need to include graphics and illustration through the whole thing to get the benefit of using graphics. Designing each element of the newsletter will also make it more difficult to use your newsletter as a template. If you design in an article space that's a few paragraphs long and then write an article that's bigger than the allowed space you're going to have to spend time customizing your newsletter design to fit in the longer article. Or what if you decide to change the sections in your newsletter around. Or you decide to promote different things or include different types of information and your newsletter design has very specific structured areas. Instead, you can design a header and footer to "bookend" the content of your newsletter. You can then code the rest in plain HTML. This will create a branded newsletter that looks great and is flexible enough for you to use as needed each time you send it out.
- Don't make your newsletter code complicated. Most email programs can only read the simplest of HTML code. So design your newsletter with this in mind and code the newsletter using very basic HTML. This means you should use a table format, regular font tags, bold and italic tags, and image tags. CSS and more complicated kinds of code won't display properly for all of your readers. Use photos and promotional illustrations to add visual interest. An all-text newsletter can look very boring - even if you have a branded header and footer. But you can use image tags to insert images throughout your newsletter to spice things up. Use highlight boxes to call attention to offers and promotions. You can use a colored background on a text box to differentiate important copy from the rest of your text. This can make those calls to action and promotional boxes more noticeable. Once a reader notices them they're more likely to read them and react! Taking these tips into account will help you to create a HTML newsletter that represents your brand well. It will also look memorable and help you to stay in touch with your prospects and clients - and sell your products and services.
Both Tom Takihi & Erin Ferree are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Tom Takihi has sinced written about articles on various topics from Japan Car, Low Carb Diet and Soccer. Imand (Internet Marketing and Network Development) supplies content with its team of professional writers, who create fresh, unique and original content for websites all over the world. Passionate about their writing, each writer has his. Tom Takihi's top article generates over 165000 views. to your Favourites.
Erin Ferree has sinced written about articles on various topics from Online Marketing, About Branding and Search Engine Marketing. Erin Ferree is a brand identity designer who creates big visibility for small businesses. Her ebook, "All The News About Email Newsletters" will tell you everything you need to know about desiging, writing, and sending out an email newsletter to stay in t. Erin Ferree's top article generates over 49500 views. to your Favourites.