Email Newsletters - Email Marketing

Is this a position you have ever found yourself in? You've launched a new product or service, made sure it's on your website and featured on you're home page but your frustrated because you don't know how to get it out to the general masses. I was inspired to write this months article when a client only last week asked me for advice on how they could promote their new products in the run up to Christmas as they'd left it a bit late and thought a newsletter campaign would be a good solution (yes, I know you probably weren't expecting to hear that word this month...). It's great that they were thinking of using email marketing but like many others it surprises me that sometimes we worry too much about attracting the customers we don't have rather than making the most of the ones we already do. At the best of times few of us can afford to employ a PR company to get the word out about our new products or services, in the current climate we're all looking for ways to best connect to people as cost effectively as possible. If you’re lucky you may be able to ask a friend to help you out but most of us don't have that luxury and the job of marketing comes down to you. It can be a daunting task and once you’ve told your family, friends and business associates, you may be running out of ideas to get yourself noticed. But there is another way to get noticed by your existing clients and cost effectively – using e-mail marketing. If people have bought products or services from you before they must like what you do and therefore it makes sense to make them your first port of call when you have something new to offer.

What's e-mail marketing then?

In a nutshell e-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or personal messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing.

However, the term is usually used to refer to: sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business, sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately.

How do I go about getting started?

However you choose to do get started, the more background information you can formulate the more you can both understand the principles of creating effective newsletters and what your client base want to know, not what you think they want to know.

Research Do some research. Subscribe to as many relevant e-mail newsletters as you can. Learn from what other people are doing, and decide upon what you want to achieve: Observe which newsletters change month on month and which don’t.

Make a note of what the main selling trigger is and which words or themes are repeated. Anything that is repeated time and time again within a newsletter means it’s a core topic for that business.

See how they use images effectively; do they enhance the newsletter and make the product or service more desirable?

Look at the length of the content featured in the newsletter. Often you will find less is more: you should use the newsletter as a teaser to get your customers to visit your site not bog them down with over elaborate copy.

The Newsletter If you're not sure how you want your newsletter to be laid out then take a look at the newsletters you've subscribed to and pick out the ones you found the easiest to read and engage with. Choose one layout and stick with it unless you have something specifically seasonal in mind or have a quick announcement to make. These are the do's and don'ts to consider: Do: Check it for spelling and grammar mistakes Use a meaningful subject that explains the message of the newsletter Ask friends and colleagues to read it through Put your businesses contact details are at the bottom of the newsletter Put links within the newsletter so that your readers can get to the product or service you're trying to sell.

Use crisp and clean photographs / imagery that help to visually sell the product or service you're taking about.

Have an unsubscribe link: this is a must!

Have a recommend to a friend link: the more people you can get to subscribe in this method the less you have to spend to get them to the site.

Don't: Use words such as 'FREE' or CAPITALISE words in the subject line; a sure fired way to make sure your e-mail ends up in your users junk folder. Keep it short and sweet.

Cc: your e-mail to your users, make sure you use an appropriate online service to send out your newsletters.

Use Outlook to send email newsletters: this has no way of measuring the successful delivery of your newsletter.

Use large images: this will make the email slow to download and frustrate your readers.

Use over elaborate content, the newsletter should be and short and sweet and encourage people to visit your site.

Resend the newsletter to make sure everyone got it. That will just annoy people!

You might be thinking, 'it seems like a lot of work to engage with my existing client base'. And you'd be right if that’s all it was. However, it is worth the effort. If one person forwards the newsletter on to a friend or colleague then that's one potential new customer and it didn't cost you anything. If what you are promoting is worthwhile it will encourage others to do the same. You never know who will be reading that newsletter - a potential customer yes, but also an advertiser or a journalist who may love what you do and give you more free promotion.