Marketers know that email is one of the online communication channels worth exploring and one that generates substantial results for businesses, as long as you have solid knowledge and know how to use this tool intelligently.
82% of marketing specialists choose to include email marketing in their strategies, and many of them say they would rather give up social media 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 an application that no one does without. Today, an email address is absolutely necessary, and checking the online “mailbox” is a routine activity for everyone. Potential clients (or those a business has already acquired and wants to keep close) are just 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 you are good to go regarding newsletters, whether you are a curious entrepreneur or a marketer seeking guidance.
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Setting objectives and a “Battle Plan”
First and foremost, it is important to set a “battle plan” regarding the purpose of the emails to be sent.
The implementation must be relevant to the overall 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 as it helps us determine the type of material we send either a newsletter or a commercial email.
A newsletter is a type of text sent frequently to the contact base. It contains relevant information about a field or a business, such as news, updates, and anything that might interest the recipient.
Unlike newsletters, which function by creating constant, even long-term communication, there are commercial emails aimed at directly generating leads. They are, for example, messages offering discounts, informing about promotions, and generally having a call to action directing the reader to a site where they are encouraged to take action.
In principle, both use the same communication channel, so the implementation advice is similar.
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Building and segmenting the audience
Before sending emails, it’s important to think about who we want to reach. People (potentially) interested in your business should have the opportunity to subscribe to the newsletter, and over time, an email address list (a voluntarily built audience, practically) will be your ace in the hole.
You can rely on these individuals already having an interest in the field where you offer solutions. This is where the complex implementation begins, where you either cultivate this interest and grow it over time, so people will undoubtedly turn to you, or you approach direct strategies, where you go towards the audience with messages that spark immediate action – leads.
Moreover, once you have a substantial contact base, it should be segmented so that emails reach only those genuinely targeted by them. For example, you can split your clients into B2C or B2B segments, requiring the creation of texts with a specific tone. Similarly, if your email targets the audience that has already used your services/products, and you want to reward their loyalty, you will send this email only to the segment in this situation.
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Subject line and preview text
A person’s decision to open an email is based on the title they see either directly in the inbox or in the notification. As a marketer, you have about 6 – 10 words to make the reader click on your message and find out more about what you want to convey.
The average open rate for an email is around 17%. If you want to be around or exceed it, you need to master strategies for creating a strong subject line and a complementary and relevant preview text.
A few things to consider:
- The subject line and preview text must align with the email’s message.
- Avoid spam-triggering words. Some elements can cause the email to land in spam, such as “win,” “profit,” “click here,” multiple punctuation marks, or capitalized words. Avoid these.
- Personalizing the message with the recipient’s first name is possible. In a world of standardized messages, this helps the decision to click on the message, being a more personal and direct 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.
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Creating relevant and attractive content
Once the objective is decided and the audience is prepared, the next step is to determine what to convey.
A newsletter always contains relevant information for subscribers. If there is a message we want to convey, such as an update on a service or product, a share of a new blog article, news about business changes, 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 actual information), a call to action, and a closing formula.
A newsletter text should be as short as possible without excluding the essence of the message. Statista shows 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 take the proposed action, and this very short attention span is the biggest challenge. Two aspects can lead to success: the information should be relevant, and the text should be constructed to win over the reader.
As for the proposed action or the call to action to include in the message, it is ideal to be unique within an email and easy to approach. Action buttons are an important part of the message. The CTA should be written on them, and they are the (ideal) endpoint of the email: if the person clicks the button, it means the newsletter worked.
However, there are successful newsletters that do not necessarily aim to direct the reader to another platform (website, blog, social media pages), but rather rely on the idea that it is enough for the reader to have read the text and informed themselves by simply reading the message.
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Design and platform used
Many useful and easy-to-find platforms make creating an email very accessible. Builders are specially designed to easily add text, images, or videos, CTA buttons, and more.
Design is a fundamental part of this marketing technique. The visual result, meaning 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 at least one image in the body of the message, it is very likely that subscribers will not be interested in considering the message.
It’s important to ensure the email looks impeccable on both desktop and especially mobile. Additionally, the font should be selected to be easy to read, both in size and appearance.
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Sending and reporting
The communication messages we write are meant to reach our audience’s attention at the perfect time. For this, there are studies and guidelines regarding the days or hours recommended for publishing or sending an email.
In a newsletter’s case, the message’s objective or the field of interest in which it falls matters a lot. Therefore, individual research must be done based on the business perspective from which we address. Some messages will have the maximum effect if sent in the morning on weekdays, others may be accessed more in the afternoon or evening.
The challenge lies precisely in finding this perfect moment when the type of subscribers we consider are in the maximum availability to open (and read) the sent newsletter.
A useful tip is to check the reports generated after sending newsletters. The working platform provides access to all the details of message reception (from the opening time, the number of openings, clicks made, and many others). After a while, subscribers’ behavior becomes predictable. This is the perfect tool to guide us in sending messages as intelligently as possible.
We hope this brief guide has been useful in understanding the basic elements of the newsletter technique. At Klain, email marketing services are an important part of our activity.