Newsletters are one of the most important pieces of email marketing. Not only do they provide ample space for advertising, but they also help nurture the relationship between your audience and your company.
At first glance, creating a newsletter may seem like one of the easiest elements of marketing: you choose a design, write the text, select your contact list and send.
But it's not that easy, unfortunately (or fortunately, because it can challenge your creativity). At least not if you want it to succeed.
In this article, we present the basic concepts that you should keep in mind when creating and sending newsletters.
Benefits of newsletters
Having a newsletter provides a number of advantages, from generating traffic to a site and its integration with other platforms, to cost savings.
Some of these advantages are:
- Constant source of traffic: One of the main reasons to create a newsletter is that it generates regular traffic to the website. Informative newsletters, well designed and with relevant content, will increase the chances that the reader will click on the calls to action for more information.
- Considerable savings: Another aspect that you should not underestimate is the amount of money saved compared to other marketing tools.
- Simple performance measurement: The success of a marketing tool is estimated according to whether or not it achieves the required relevance. To find out, its performance must be measurable, and this measurement, in the case of a newsletter, is simple. The statistics section of MasterBase® provides you with all the information regarding open, click and unsubscribe rates, as well as bounce rates, devices used to open the newsletter and when, links clicked, etc. These KPIs will help you to accurately calculate your return on investment (ROI) and produce relevant content for your target audience.
- Easily linked to other online marketing channels: Newsletters and other marketing tools, such as social media, can be combined very well and complement each other.Last but not least, newsletters can reach recipients anywhere, whether they are in the office, on a tablet or on their mobile.
What makes a successful newsletter strategy?
Planning is key to the success of any campaign and should not be overlooked under any circumstances. Take the time to define your strategy. When planning a newsletter, it is important to be systematic and go through different stages. This can be a challenge, but a newsletter strategy is worth it, and doing so will pay off in the long run.
Step 1. Set your goals
The first step should always be to define what you expect. Reviewing your business objectives, visions and corporate values before doing so will give you a good overview of your company and its main goals. Your newsletter should also be working towards them.
To identify the objectives of your newsletter strategy, you should consider why you want to create the campaign. The clearer you are about the reasons behind it, the more successful you will be. Ask yourself the following questions:
What do you want to achieve? Do you want current and potential customers to be aware of new blog posts, special events or products? Or is it more about gaining new customers and strengthening ties with existing ones?
The goals you should focus on will depend on your company, as objectives can vary greatly between different industries and organizations.
Step 2. Develop your KPIs
Defining specific KPIs is very important when planning your newsletter. KPIs are key figures that help you measure the success of your email marketing campaign and, in turn, of your overall strategy. They are a reflection of how well both are performing.
Some of the key metrics include: Open rates, clicks, deliverability, registration, click through ratings, bounce rate, spam rates, conversion, new subscriptions, etc.
Keep in mind that the KPIs will depend on the objectives you have previously set. You must identify and evaluate the KPIs that are crucial to achieving those defined objectives. This allows you to analyze and evaluate your campaigns and objectively determine their success or failure, so that you can adapt your strategy at any time.
Step 3. Find the most suitable time for the shipment
When planning, you should consider the best time to send your newsletter. This is critical to your success. It is vital that you communicate with your recipients when they are most likely to be in front of their computer or have their phone or tablet in their hands. But how do you know what that ideal time is?
Test, test, test. Send it on different days of the week and at different times, and depending on when your open rates are at their highest, you can determine when most recipients read it.
Step 4. Develop content guidelines
The content of your newsletter is fundamental to achieve your objectives. You must develop content guidelines in line with those specific objectives. Therefore, what you include in your newsletter must be oriented to them and must also motivate your target group to perform certain activities.
Consider what type of content is most appropriate for your strategy and audience. If you're struggling to find the right topics to develop, we recommend taking a look at the most successful newsletters from other brands and companies. Observing market behavior is a good opportunity to find inspiration for new content areas, products and events, and even to get a step or two ahead of the curve.
Another method that can work well is a preliminary survey. Ask your target audience directly what content they would like to find in your newsletter.
Step 5. Create a contact list
Naturally, your newsletter needs recipients. Building a high-quality contact list is often a challenge, but with a couple of key factors in mind, it's not that difficult.
First, stay away from purchased lists. The damage is too significant, as your deliverability and reputation will suffer.
Gain subscribers with a responsive signup widget. Incorporate the registration widget throughout your website, your homepage, blog, resource pages, etc. And be sure to ask for as little information as possible when users sign up, as having to hand over too much data can turn them away.
Pay attention to these 3 components: design, content and legal information.
- Newsletter design, the first impact
The first step to create is to set up the corresponding template. You can use one of the templates provided by MasterBase® and modify it as you prefer. Another option is to upload a template created by you or a third party. In this case, make sure that the selected layout is recursive, so that your campaigns will display perfectly on all end devices.
Follow design best practices, a clear structure ensures that subscribers grasp the content and core message immediately.
Add images to attract readers' attention, followed by a short text and a clear call to action (CTA).
- Content creation
It is the heart of the newsletter and may include:
Promotion of the latest blog articles, new giveaways such as guides, white papers, studies, etc.; invitations to seminars, webinars and other events; special marketing campaigns, such as Advent calendars, annual calendars, etc.
In email marketing, this rule is followed: have a key message. The newsletter is one of the few exceptions. You can draw attention to multiple content here, but make sure you don't saturate it with too much simultaneous content.
Place the most important information at the top or near the top. The more subscribers have to scroll down, the more likely it is that the content at the bottom will not receive attention.
- Legal Notices
You must comply with certain legal guidelines. The newsletter must contain terms and conditions and an unsubscribe link.
It is also a legal requirement that the recipient has given consent to receive the newsletter. Therefore, avoid sending unsolicited email messages, as they are legally considered advertising.
Step 8. Shipping: now things get interesting
First, use the preview to check how the newsletter is displayed on different devices. If everything is OK, send it or schedule it for later...
Step 9. Analyze and optimize
It is not enough to create and send a newsletter. To be successful in the long term, you must thoroughly analyze its performance. This helps you identify your strengths and possible weaknesses and optimize future mailings.
Track the metrics described above, such as open and click-through rates, in addition to conversions and/or revenue per click.
