Your address book has quite a few contacts, and you know that staying in touch with them is essential. So you’re ready to start thinking aboutsending out a newsletter.
Of course, this is a long-term process. Sending occasional letters is generally not recommended, as you may not achieve your goals. You therefore risk wasting time and money.
To help you with this process, we've compiled a list of ten points to keep in mind.
1. A Well-Thought-Out Newsletter
Writing a newsletter is a great opportunity to build a connection with your contacts, stay top of mind, give them the chance to tell their friends and family about you, and turn them into customers.
Refine your newsletter and ask yourself what your main goal is for it. This is the best way to increase engagement and drive action.
2. Determine how often to send it
Starting a newsletter campaign means sharing relevant content with your contacts. Therefore, how often you send newsletters will depend on the content you have to share. You can schedule them once a month or once a quarter if you don’t have much material to share.
It's not so much the quantity that matters as the quality of what you offer. So be sure to update your editorial calendar with the dates you'll be sending out your newsletters.
3. Work on your database
You may have invested in a CRM tool or be working with an Excel file, it doesn’t matter. What’s essential is knowing who you’re addressing. Before sending out your first newsletters, clean up your database.
Make sure you have your contacts’ first and last names, as well as a valid work email address. Also, be sure to distinguish between your customers and prospects and your competitors. Your competitors do not need to be informed of your news.
4. Put your correspondent at the heart of the message
When you choose to engage with your contacts, make it a habit to ask yourself how you can capture their interest, how you can provide them with value, and how you can make them feel special. That’s what it’s all about: creating relevant content that interests your followers. You’ll therefore tend to address them directly using “you” rather than “we.”
5. Create a good title and a good hook
Once the newsletter arrives in your recipient’s inbox, the first thing they’ll see is the subject line and the hook you’ve written. It’s therefore very important that these be compelling and encourage the recipient to open the email. Consider highlighting a key statistic or a solution to your buyer persona’s need.
6. Add links and call-to-action buttons to your website
Creating a newsletter will also help you drive more traffic to your website by including links or calls to action that lead to it preferably above the fold. The benefit of this increased traffic is that it boosts your website’s visibility.
7. Concise and effective content
There is no ideal length for a newsletter. What matters most is the quality of its content. That said, a newsletter that's too long risks being ineffective, simply because the recipient will only spend a limited amount of time on it. Furthermore, it will repeat information that’s already available elsewhere, such as on your website or blog. So choose your newsletter content wisely and make sureto place the key message of your newsletter at the top of the page. This will increase the chances that it will be read.
8. A polished design that reflects your brand
Your newsletter reflects your brand and your identity. It must align with your brand guidelines , so your subscribers can recognize at a glance who is reaching out to them.
Also, try to make your newsletter enjoyable to read. The more appealing the design, the more likely your readers will be to read it all the way through.
9. Pay attention to spelling
Spelling is an important social indicator. In the professional world, it’s generally frowned upon to send emails with spelling mistakes because it reflects on your credibility. So be sure to pay close attention to this aspect of your newsletter. Take the time to proofread your work and have someone else proofread it as well.
10. Customize the newsletter
If you have the necessary information, be sure to personalize your message,preferably by using the recipient’s first name. This is a best practice for increasing your conversion rate, as it creates a sense of intimacy by immediately capturing the recipient’s attention.
As you can see, putting together a newsletter takes preparation. It requires good cross-team communication internally. So make sure your team has the time to devote to this communication tool so that it can become a key driver of your growth.