Marketers know that email is one of the online communication channels worth exploring and that generates substantial results for businesses, as long as you master a solid knowledge and know how to use this tool intelligently.

82% of marketers choose to include email marketing in their strategies, and many of them say they would give up on Social Media rather than email, according to a Statista report.

In this context, it is 100% a good idea for any business to benefit from a newsletter.

No matter how widely used Social Media platforms are, email is the app that no one misses. Today, an email address is absolutely necessary, and checking your “mailbox” online is a routine activity for everyone. Potential customers (or those that a business has already acquired and want to keep them close) are an email away.

What allows us to make the most of this communication channel is, however, only an implementation based on a complex strategy from several points of view: setting objectives, selecting the audience, creating relevant content, an attractive design and knowing other details related to the platform used, sending and optimizing emails.

In this material, we will briefly analyze everything you need to know before approaching the newsletter technique.

Below we have gathered useful information, segmented into 6 essential parts of implementing a newsletter, so that you are good to go when it comes to newsletters, whether you are a curious entrepreneur or a marketer looking for guidance.

1. Setting the objectives and the “battle plan”

First of all, it is important to establish a “battle plan” related to the purpose of the emails that will be sent.

The implementation must be relevant to the general marketing objectives of the business: do you want to convey relevant information about your business and field or do you plan to generate direct sales through these emails? This distinction is important because it helps us to establish the typology of the material we send: either a newsletter or a commercial email.

The newsletter is a type of text frequently sent to the contact base. It contains relevant information about a field or business, such as news, news, and anything that might interest the recipient of that email.

Unlike the newsletter, which works by creating constant communication, even in the long term, there are commercial emails that aim to generate direct leads. They are, for example, messages through which we offer discounts, inform about promotions and those that, in general, have a call to action to the site where the reader is encouraged to take an action.

In principle, both use the same communication channel, so the implementation tips are similar.

2. Audience Building and Segmentation

Before sending emails, it’s important to think about who we want them to reach for. People (potentially) interested in your business should have the opportunity to subscribe to the newsletter, and over time, a list of email addresses (a voluntarily built audience, basically) will be your ace up your sleeve.

You can rely on them that they already have an interest in the field in which you offer solutions. This is where the complex implementation begins, in which you either cultivate this interest and increase it over time, so that people will inevitably turn to you, or you approach direct strategies, in which you go to the audience with messages that spark immediate action – leads.

Moreover, once you have a consistent contact base, it must be segmented so that the emails reach only the people they are really targeted. For example, you can divide your customers into B2C or B2B segments, in which case you need to create texts with a specific tone. Likewise, maybe your email targets the audience that has already used your service/products, and through it you want to reward their loyalty. You’ll only send this email to the segment that’s in this situation.

3. Subject line and preview text

A person’s decision to open an email is made based on the title they see either directly in their inbox or in the notification. Basically, as a marketer, you have about 6 – 10 words to make the reader click on your message and find out what you want to convey through it.

The average open rate of an email is considered to be around 17%. If you want to position yourself around it or overcome it, you need to master the strategies of creating a strong subject line and a complementary and relevant text preview .

A few things to consider:

• The subject line and preview text must be consistent with the email message
• It does not include spam-triggering words. There are some elements that can cause the email to end up in spam, such as: “win”, “profit”, “click here”, multiple punctuation marks or the capitalization of words. Give them up.
• There is the possibility of customizing the message with the first name of the recipient of the message. In a world of standardized messaging, this helps him make the decision to click on the message, being a more personal and directly addressed tone.
• Use the art of copywriting to create curiosity and interest. For example, the AIDA technique is very useful, you can learn more about it here.
• You can use power words, such as: “available”, “new”, “upgrade”, “today”, “solution”, “tips” and others.

4. Creating relevant and engaging content

Once the objective has been decided and the audience we are addressing is ready, we will determine what we will convey.

A newsletter always contains relevant information for subscribers. As long as there is a message we want to convey, for example an update related to a service or product, a share of a new article on the blog, news about changes within the business and others, it is worth sharing.

In short, the content should include: a form of greeting, a clear introduction, the body of the text (the information itself), a call-to-action, and a closing formula.

The text of a newsletter should be as short as possible, without excluding the essence of the message. Statista shows us here that the average time spent reading an email from a brand is about 10 seconds. The goal of a newsletter creator is to get the reader to do the proposed action, and this short attention span is the biggest challenge. Two aspects can lead to success: the information must be relevant in itself, and the text must be constructed in such a way as to win over the reader.

As for the proposed action, or the call-to-action to include in the message, it is ideal that it is unique within an email and easy to approach. Action buttons are an important part of the message. The CTA must be written on them and they are the (ideal) purpose of the email: if the person clicks on the button, it means that the newsletter worked.

However, there are successful newsletters that do not necessarily aim to take the reader to another platform (website, blog, Social Media pages), but they rely on the idea that it is enough for the reader to have read the text and to have been informed by simply reading the message.

5. Design and platform used

There are many useful and easy-to-find platforms through which creating an email is very affordable. Builders are specifically designed to easily add text, images or videos, buttons for CTAs, and more.

Design is a fundamental part of this marketing technique. The visual output, i.e. what will be displayed on the reader’s screen, should encourage them to read. If the formatting is careless, the text is cluttered and there is not even an image in the body of the message, it is very likely that subscribers will not have the necessary interest to consider the message.

The important thing is to make sure that the email will look flawless on desktop and especially on mobile. Also, the font should be selected so that it is easy to read, both in size and layout.

6. Submission and report

The communication messages we write are meant to reach the attention of our audience at the perfect time. For this, there are studies and indications on the days or times when it is recommended to publish or send an e-mail.

In the case of the newsletter, the objective of the message or the field of interest in which the message falls also matters a lot. Therefore, an individual research must be carried out depending on the business from which we are addressing. Some messages will have the maximum effect if they are sent in the morning on weekdays, others can be accessed rather in the afternoon or evening.

The challenge lies precisely in finding that perfect moment when the type of subscribers we are thinking of is at the maximum degree of availability to open (and read) the newsletter sent.

A useful tip is to check the reports generated after sending newsletters. The work platform provides access to all the details of receiving the message (from the opening time, to the number of openings, to the clicks made and much more). After a while, subscriber behavior becomes predictable. This is the perfect tool that can guide us in sending messages as intelligently as possible.

We hope this short guide was helpful in understanding the basics of the newsletter technique. At Klain, email marketing services are an important part of our business. Here you can learn more about how we apply our expertise, generating the results desired by the client.