BUT, WHAT IS NEWSLETTERS?

Newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with current customers. You can provide them with helpful information and tips and announce upcoming events and activities. A newsletter is a way to remind customers about you and your services or products, while providing useful information.

Email newsletters are not often considered one of the strongest marketing strategies for small business. However, recent industry research has suggested that email newsletters are not only tremendously effective in terms of building business, but are also cost-effective and provide a high return on investment. 

We all experience it – a constant, steady flow of emails flooding our inboxes daily from work-related emails, to bill payment reminders to sales and offers from our favorite retailers. It’s inescapable and something we’ve all just come to live with by deleting whatever we can and only opening what’s vital. So when it comes to sending out an email newsletter on behalf of your business, you might think to yourself that it’s a waste of time and resources or it won’t get the attention you’d like. But in fact, there are many benefits to sending out an email newsletter that can help your business grow!

Here are some of the best benefits of using email newsletters to build and grow your business.

Managing mailing lists

Whether you deliver your newsletter via email or regular mail, managing your mailing list is very important. There are several online companies that can help you manage email marketing. Writing a newsletter that is full of helpful, useful, free information and tips can be a useful marketing tool. Visitors to your website who are interested in the topics you write about or the products that you offer will sign up to receive your newsletter. Because you know that these people are your target audience, it is a great way to advertise new products or services by providing useful, informative articles. However, it is important to write articles that are more informative in tone than a blatant advertisement. Potential customers will appreciate the information, reviews, tips, and announcements, but not a newsletter that is only full of advertising. Give your customers or donors a good reason to pick up your newsletter and read it. With so much demanding the attention of everyone, make your newsletter stand out.Being the author of a newsletter can also help establish you as an authority on the topics on which you write. The more potential and current customers believe that you are knowledgeable about the products or services that you offer, the stronger the business relationship. If you are giving the information away for free, it also shows a willingness and desire to be helpful, and that you will provide excellent customer service.

This is an especially useful tool for niche markets, like agritourism or other tourism businesses.    Get the name and address or your customers and be sure to keep in touch throughout the year with a newsletter. Your newsletter will remind them of the fun they had, and will establish an even stronger personal relationship with them.Having a newsletter that visitors to your website can sign up for can help you gather the email addresses or mailing addresses of potential customers. Because they have signed up for your newsletter, you already know that they are interested in what you offer, so advertising to this audience is helpful when you have a targeted e-mail to send out.

Easy to Do & Inexpensive in Comparison to Direct Mail

In relation to other marketing tactics, email newsletters are easy to produce and send. Think about the time and resources it would take to plan an event, print a brochure or create an advertisement for your business. You could produce an email newsletter in less than a day with an email marketing platform, exciting content and some basic design. Not only are email newsletters on the easier side but they are also cheaper than direct mail. With an email marketing platform, it can cost cents per email to send out a newsletter versus what you might need to pay for a direct mail piece including postage costs, labels and design work.

Keep Your Database Healthy & Up to Date

A good email newsletter will allow its recipients to opt out of receiving your email communications. This might seem like a bad thing but it actually acts as a little bit of savings to you by not sending an email to someone who is not interested in receiving your content. The email might also give the recipient a chance to update their email address if it has changed. These methods keep your email database up to date and ensure your sending your newsletters to the right people.

Enhance Your Search Engine Presence & Drive Traffic to Your Website

Your email newsletter will most definitely include links back to your website whether it’s to a blog post, press release, upcoming event or informative page. Including these links helps drive recipients back to your website, which in turn helps improve your search engine presence. The idea is that your website and email newsletter can work together to complement and drive traffic to each other. Search engine optimization, or SEO, involves making your website visible on Google and the other search engines so that potential buyers can find you when they’re looking for a product or service you offer. When your search engine presence increases, so does the potential for new business.

An unavoidable aspect of doing business in today’s digital and interconnected world is the having a well-maintained, user-friendly and optimized website. After all, the vast majority of shopping decisions are made after first consulting information online, on a company’s specific website or on a third-party educational site. Additionally, many purchasing transactions are themselves completed online. Featuring your website prominently on an email newsletter is likely to drive traffic significantly, according to the news source.

The key is to give readers an added value that they can’t gain on the website. For instance, include exclusive information behind the history of a new product and talk about its unique features and appeal to customers. 

Control Your Brand & Showcase Your Business

One of the most vital aspects to your business is your Brand, which is what people say and think about your business. Sending an email newsletter allows you to have some control over this. It can act as gentle way of showing the good things your business is doing and what you can offer people. Whether your email newsletter is promoting a special sale or highlighting an important aspect of your business, it’s an easy way to put a spotlight on what your business can provide.

Keep in Touch & Maintain Important Relationships

With tremendously fierce competition in all industries today, it is essential to not lose customers to your competitors. In addition to your Brand, your relationships are another vital aspect to your business. Have you ever received an email from a business and thought, ‘it’s been awhile, I forgot about them’? Or an email that reminded you of something you needed to get done? An email newsletter is a quick way to keep your business on the minds of your various business relationships. Your email could remind an important prospect to follow up with you. A client could recommend your business by forwarding your email to a friend. An email newsletter increases your exposure and might just lead to that next big sale!

Oftentimes, a consumer might buy something from your company and then not visit your website or store again for months on end. The best relationships between customers and retailers are ones that are maintained over a sustained period of time, while featuring regular two-way engagement. Regular value-added email newsletters can help you stay on the customer’s radar for a prolonged period of time. However, be careful not to send email newsletters out too regularly to your customer base – nobody likes being spammed and if email newsletters arrive too often, most of them will likely end up in the trash folder.

Email newsletters contribute toward an exclusive community

Amid the increased competition among businesses, customers enjoy having their loyalty competed for. Many consumers choose to be loyal to companies and brands that treat them the best. Email newsletters can contribute significantly in this department. Use the email newsletters as a gateway to an exclusive community of the most valued subscribers. Make the readers feel like they’re staying well ahead of the curve or gaining some kind of competitive advantage over other consumers and companies.

The email newsletter should serve as the voice or spokesperson for your company. All exclusive information should be delivered through that medium, reinforced with notions of exclusivity. Additionally, don’t be afraid to share special offers with this specific group of customers. Let it be known to them that they, the readers of your email newsletters, are the only ones receiving these special deals or coupons. This will serve not only to increase readership of these newsletters, but also eventually the subscriber pool, once word of the exclusive offers gets out.

Do you need help sending out your email newsletters? Did you know Going Clear Interactive provides this service? Call me 08133211086