Basics Of the Email Newsletter

For internet businesses, the email newsletter is one of the best ways to establish, cultivate and maintain a close relationship with customers. The newsletter is an important communication channel for alerting customers of new products or services on offer. That said, the successful email newsletter is one that goes beyond simply marketing a product. People are more inclined to read and respond to newsletters that regularly contain a broad range of information from useful tips to the latest news. This is just one of the things your newsletter must adhere to if it is to have a positive impact on your business’ bottom line.

Set up opt in subscription for your email newsletter. This is important as it reduces the likelihood of your emails being flagged as spam and thus not reaching their recipients. You can include a form on your website where visitors may put their email address and confirm that they do not mind receiving communication from you from time to time. In some jurisdictions such as the US, an unsubscribe link is mandatory on such emails such that recipients are free to exit your mailing list any time they choose to.

When you get down to drafting your email newsletter, pay special attention to both length and content. Go for a short, high impact approach. Your email could be just one of many others that the person receives. You only have a short time to communicate and make a positive impression. Choose your words carefully and only cover what is important. One approach you could take is a headline or summary approach where you only mention and briefly describe the topics you want to cover then provide links to your website for further information on each topic.

You can either have the email newsletter written in house or you could outsource the writing to a third party. Having the newsletter done in house will save you on cost but will take time that would otherwise have been expended on more critical aspects of the business. While engaging a third party to develop your newsletter will cost you, it will remove the headache from you of having to think through and develop a newsletter each week (or as frequently as you need to send one out). If you opt for a third party, you must do a proper brief so they can understand your objectives and capture your business voice.

Email newsletters are all about value add. Your goal must be to leave recipients not only keen to buy your product but also well informed of the goings on in the industry and how that impacts them. Your newsletter should end with a standard footnote that contains your contact details that should preferably include the physical address of your business. Even for an online business, a physical address gives you greater credibility and persuades your audience that you have nothing to hide.

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