|
7 Top Tips for Successful Email Newsletters
By Stuart Ayling, Solutions Found
These tips have been created to get you focused on the most important
aspects of creating and managing your email newsletter to maximize
results.
1. Develop a Plan of
Attack - a Promotional Schedule
To be most effective you should be sending an email newsletter on a regular basis. In most cases once per month is a minimum. Any less frequently than that and you simply wont be remembered.
For some businesses it may be suitable to send a weekly email. This would suit a business that has new offers, seasonal lines, or something happening each week.
Importantly, as a franchisee or member of a corporate group, make sure your national (or pre-set) promotions are placed in your promotional schedule from the beginning. Maybe you can augment the national promotion by sending a communication to your local customers. Or it could be best to send your own email newsletter at another time.
The promotional schedule should include the major promotional opportunities for the industry you are in. Depending on your line of business offers may be such things as:
-
Long-weekend offers.
-
Spring savings.
-
Clearance items.
-
New winter fashions.
-
New stock just arrived.
-
New research released.
-
New financial year planning.
-
… or related to changes in the economy, weather, or sporting occasions.
2. Create
Original Information
Your customers want to hear from you. They don’t want to hear the same information they get from other sources. Take a little time to make your information unique. You can:
-
Add your own angle (or view) on the current situation.
-
Mention what you have found when using the products.
-
Sum up various points of view or information you have read from other sources.
-
Give your opinion on why something is good.
-
Suggest what customers should do.
-
Reveal a bit of information about your background, or your experience.
3. Include a
Relevant 'Call to Action'
The ‘call to action’ is where you tell your customer what you want them to do. After you have given them some information in your newsletter, what should they do next?
Don’t assume your customer will know what to do next. Give them clear instructions on what they should do, and when they should do it.
Click here for more information…
Important: There is no link in the previous sentence. You weren’t meant to go anywhere. It was an example of a simple call to action.
Others include:
Read our article on creating a strong call to action for more ideas.
(See, that was a call to action too!)
4. Write With Your
Own Individual Voice
In Tip #2 we suggested you should create original material. That means you write with your own voice. Don’t worry if you aren’t a professional journalist or publishing guru. Write your information using your own voice – maybe even using local ‘sayings’ or expressions that your customers will understand. These days the Internet thrives on a variety of communication styles. Customers will like that you have your own distinctive approach.
However, you do need to make sure that your own ‘voice’ is suitable and appealing for your customers.
If you know your customer segment well, you probably wont have any problems with this. If in doubt, as a trial, ask a sample of your customers and business colleagues what they think.
5. Delegate Responsibility for
Replying to Responses
You should expect people to reply to your email newsletters. They may write back directly, or respond to the offer you have presented (See Tip #3). Make sure you have a reliable system in place to respond to those replies.
It is best to have a clearly defined area of responsibility for the person who has the task of responding. The sort of things that should be defined include:
-
How quickly they should respond.
-
The style of language they should use.
-
What their authority level is to fix problems or make offers.
-
Within your company who do they report to, and how often they should be reporting.
6. Always
Ask Customers for an Email Address
This seems like an obvious point… but it gets overlooked so often. Make sure you ask for, collect, and enter into your database the email address for as many customers as possible.
In addition to the email address you may like to ask for a little extra information such as their geographic area (e.g. post code), their product preferences (e.g. your product categories), or other key lifestyle or business criteria that may have an impact on how you segment your database.
The idea is to try and target your information, so that your readers get relevant info and offers that they are more likely to act upon.
7. Write Once, Use
Over and Over to Attract More Customers
One of the great benefits of email newsletters is that much of the information can be used in a number of ways. This sort of information is often called ‘evergreen’ as it remains useful over a long period of time.
Your newsletter articles (or tips and advice) can be used over and over to keep attracting customers and generating sales. Ways you can use the newsletter information include:
-
Displaying the article on your website.
-
Creating a printed handout for use in-store.
-
Collating a number of previous articles into a ‘collection’.
-
Having the article printed in other publications (or local newsletters).
-
Re-using the article in a later edition of your newsletter.
= = =
Get more articles like this. Subscribe to Email
Insights.
|
|
