What Content Should an Email Newsletter Contain?

Once you decide to establish an email newsletter, you want to make sure that it is appealing and easy to understand. Research shows that subscribers rarely read all the way through email newsletters; they simple scan them looking for items of interest. For this reason, you should strive to keep your content short and sweet, get right to the point and avoid lengthy text.

The first thing you will want to do is make it tempting for potential customers to sign up to your newsletter in the first place. One way to do this is by offering them some sort of bonus for subscribing. You will want to make clear the benefits of joining your newsletter in as few words as possible, while also providing some exclusive offer simply for signing up. Make sure this offer is relevant to your business – you do not want to offer something the people may not want! If you sell automotive parts, offering ovenware is not likely to appeal to the majority of your customer base.

Once you have your newsletter up and running and are gaining subscribers, you will want to make sure that your newsletter contains any updates to your company such branches opening in new locations, changes in your pricing, your products, anything that you would want the public to know about. While this can also be covered on your blog, the newsletter is a way to get across the main bullet points without going into greater detail. For that, subscribers can always go to your blog or website. If you are introducing a new product or service, make sure your subscribers hear about it first. If you can make any special offers, make sure your subscribers are the first to get in on them. In addition continue to offer discounts or other bonuses to your subscribers on a regular basis. This will encourage them to keep doing business with you and will also inspire them to recommend you to their friends, bringing you even more business. You want to keep your subscribers informed so that they feel included, so that they understand you are interested in them.

By tailoring your newsletter to specific regions or demographics, you can tweak your content to better reflect your target audience. If you are sending the email newsletter to customers who live near your business, you may want to offer special deals that they can walk in and use. If you are involved with events in their area, make sure you let them know. If you sell a wide variety of different goods and services, by havng your customers state their preferences, either while subscribing, in feedback or by studying the links they click on, you can offer people the kinds of things they actually want. The world is no longer one broad market; rather, it is comprised of a lot of specialty and niche markets within the wider customer pool. By targeting these niche customers, you can generate business and increase your profits as well as your word of mouth.

You can also make offers or advertise contests that are exclusive to specific sites. For example, you might have a contest on your Facebook page or a special offer for Twitter followers. By announcing this in your email newsletter, you can motivate subscribers to add you on Facebook or Twitter if they have not already done so. You can cross-promote your website, blog, social networking pages and email newsletter so that you bring together clientele from all of these various corners of the web, generating interest in each one through the others.

In terms of specific content, you will want updates on your latest deals and links to specific goods and services. If you have a special offer on a product, don’t just say so – have the link right there so that if someone is interested, they can act immediately. The easier you make it for people, the more likely they are to shop. You will want to focus more on graphics than text, although you should certainly use text when necessary. However, you will want to keep it simple and to the point. Do not clutter up your newsletter with too many distractions, such as ads or other content you can already have on your site or blog. You are trying to communicate and promote yourself, not anyone else. So keep the format and layout simple, easy to peruse, eye-catching and easy to use.

So through the use of freebies, exclusive content, customer targeting, cross-promotion and a user-friendly layout, you can have an email newsletter that your subscribers will want to see, that will make them feel good about your business and that can better position your company in the marketplace.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *