Nuts & Bolts of Email Newsletters

Newsletters are a great tool for keeping your audience informed, while continuing to build brand awareness and customer relationships. Free templates and immediate electronic delivery make this marketing effort an inexpensive and efficient way to communicate. In this article you'll learn some of the fundamental steps for developing a successful e-newsletter!

• Purpose ~

  Prior to the printing and circulation of newspapers, information was shared to the public through newsletters. Today’s e-newsletters provide awareness of products and services, industry trends, special events, promotional offers, and more. What is the goal of your letter? Maybe you want to: 

  • introduce your staff and provide updates on your products or services

  • share testimonials, reviews and blog posts

  • publicize your non-profit fundraising events and ask for volunteers

  Whatever the intention, be sure that it's clear to your audience and that it's worth their time.

• Readers ~

  Speaking of audience, who do you want to receive and read your emails? Before launching your newsletter, you'll want to compile a subscriber list--a list of email addresses for your target group (those people who are interested in your business!). You can build this list several ways:

  • Include opt-in forms across your website. Make it as easy as possible for someone to spot these forms.

  • Use your social media sites to invite people to "sign-up." For example, you can simply add a link to your website on your Facebook page.

  • Encourage readers to forward your emails; this will give your business or organization additional exposure and help expand your subscriber list.

  These are examples of a call-to-action. CTAs guide readers to take a desired action and, in this case, can result in a list of desired subscribers.

• Format ~

  Ensure that the “look” of your e-newsletter aligns with your other marketing pieces. Incorporating your logo, as well as fonts and colors similar to your website or blog, will help with brand recognition. The format should be easy to read and navigate on all devices. Stacking your articles vertically will help your newsletter to be mobile-friendly. 

  Don’t forget to include a footer with your contact information (basically an electronic business card), and a link that allows the customer to click through to your website. Once you have created a template, you won’t have to reinvent the wheel for every issue – simply update your text and tweak the colors or graphics to keep it fresh! Sites such as canva.com offer free email newsletter templates.

  Design is important--but so is content. Think more about value and education, and less about advertising and sales. Make it useful. Make it interesting.

• Frequency ~

  Once a week, biweekly, monthly? It depends on how much new information you have to share with your audience. You don't want to flood your subscribers with meaningless content just to say you have a "weekly" newsletter. However, it's important that you stay top of mind with your audience, and therefore recommended to send a newsletter at least once a month.

  No matter which frequency you choose, you should adhere to that schedule. Customers will likely start to expect your regular newsletter, and – if it’s written and designed effectively – look forward to it! Don’t forget to include an option to unsubscribe; this will help avoid a spam email complaint.

Producing and delivering regular email newsletters demonstrates a commitment to your business or cause, and to your readers. Adding this communication piece to your overall marketing strategy will likely promote audience engagement and increased customer loyalty... you just have to get started! 

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In the beginning…

newsletters provided a medium for political and business news.

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