Do you utilize email newsletters for your company and wonder exactly how effective they actually are, and how many of your customers will actually read them? While newsletters are a great way to reach your current customers as well as to draw in new potential ones, receiving the email and reading the email are two very different things.
It’s great to have an email list with 50,000 customers, but if you only have a 5% open rate (2,500), your chances of converting 10 or 20% of your email list to make a sale are impossible. Successful newsletters have usable content that encourages your customers to click through to your website.
Whether they are clicking to continue reading about a proven technique or for a promo code to use on their next order, providing a desire for more is key. Utilizing newsletter software is a great first step, but providing stellar content is also critical. Here are some tips on how to create a newsletter your customers will actually read.
A newsletter needs to be more than a sales flyer or a list with links for more information. While these items are important to have in your newsletter, it is only a small piece of the perfect formula for creating clickable content.
If a customer does not find value in the emails you send out, they will either click delete or unsubscribe to your email service altogether. Those hard-earned subscribers you once bragged about getting, just waved goodbye.
Successful newsletters provide subscribers with:
In the age of technology, many people read their emails on their mobile devices. With more than 40% of emails read on mobile devices, your message needs to be direct and concise. Avoid the urge to put large graphics in your newsletter. They essentially clutter. Instead, keep your message simple, yet intriguing enough that the reader wants more information.
Other things to avoid are:
A successful newsletter will have a simple design that is consistent with the business’s brand. It will also be optimized for mobile devices and have enough information to be enticing, yet not overwhelming.
What is the newsletter about? If you don’t know, then how will your customers know? Determining a focus for your newsletter is the first step to creating great content, and this should be summarized in your subject line.
Subject lines need to have a balance of the ability to capture your customer’s attention as well as be relevant to their wants and needs. If you are unable to get their attention or let them know that they need to read your email, they will keep on scrolling.
Using words like “free” and the reader’s name can increase the likelihood of the newsletter being read by nearly a third, compared to newsletters that don’t include either or just have one of the two words in the subject line.
There’s a fine line between emailing your prospective customers too much or too little. Too few emails and your customers might forget about your business when they need to purchase something you typically carry. On the flip side, if they get too many emails, they may stop reading your newsletters altogether.
Sending a newsletter approximately once a week is ideal unless you have some breaking news that must be shared immediately. Just be sure that if you don’t have something worthwhile to send that you aren’t sending emails weekly just to say you did; that will be counterproductive and could hurt more than it can help.
If you have a lot going on, are constantly offering new products, or have daily news updates, sending messages more often is fine. Again, just be sure that you are putting click-worthy content in your newsletters. Just because you think something is newsworthy does not mean everyone does. Knowing your clients and their desires are just as important as having their contact information.
If your clients know that they will find free downloads, discount codes, or special offers in your newsletters, they will be more likely to open them. As we mentioned above, using the word “free” in your subject lines increases the open rates of newsletters.
If a prospective client knows that you include links to free products, whether it’s an e-book, podcast, free-with-purchase offer, or the like, your customers will want to see what they can get for free every time an email from you hits their inbox.
However, make sure that the free item or link gives your customers something they will want. If they don’t find value in your offer, they will stop opening your newsletters. The reason for your newsletters is to keep in touch with your customers and encourage them to make a purchase.
If they are always getting freebies from you, they won’t necessarily feel the urge to make a purchase. One successful way to find the balance is to offer a free item with purchase. This way, the customer feels like they are getting free items, and you are making a sale. This is a win-win outcome.
If you have a wide range of products, you may want to send out different newsletters to different segments of the population. This technique requires understanding who your customers are and what their specific needs may be.
If you have the capabilities of screening new customers unobtrusively and then grouping them by demographics, you can customize your newsletters for each group of people.
Just be sure that all newsletters lead to a call to action. Encouraging each pool of people to click or share a link, make a purchase, or sign up for additional newsletters is a surefire way to keep these people as customers.
The best recruiting and promotion you can get is when your customers do it for you. Your customers have a pool of friends that your product or service may be perfect for. However, if they never learn about you, then they will never be a customer themselves. If you can get your customers to share your newsletter, they are essentially doing the marketing for you. It’s the best investment you could make!
So how can you make this happen? You can use referral codes for discounts, use newsletter software that tracks shares and send your customers a special thank you for referring a friend, or ask your customers to share what they are reading to their social media audience.
Email marketing can be a fantastic way to boost your sales and the marketing efforts of your company. However, if you are not offering some reason for your customers to open your newsletter, you are wasting your time and energy. Be sure to maximize your ROI by including something that is of value in each newsletter, whether that’s a free shipping code or a free gift with purchase.
If you are interested in even more technology-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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