Why have a newsletter in the first place? Email marketing is a powerful way to connect to people and increase sales. Having a newsletter lets you directly convey messages to your consumers by sending an email.
Every business should have a newsletter as a channel to exchange information to their consumers. In this post, I will be providing 10 easy steps to writing a dazzling newsletter.
Benefits of Having A Newsletter:
- Build Brand Awareness
- Increase Sales
- Lead Generation
- Strengthen Customer Relationships
- Remind Us Who You Are
- Promote New Products And Services
- Special Announcements
- Increase Customer Loyalty
- Encourage Traffic To Your Website Or Services
Key Elements Needed To Write A Successful Newsletter
1. Identify Your Audience
Before you even begin the process of writing your newsletters, take some time to identify your audience. Understanding your targeted audience is critical to be able to write an effective newsletter and to be able to keep your subscribers.
Find Your Targeted Audience By:
- Find Out The Geographic Of Your Audience
- Begin Researching
- Develop A Customer Profile
- Monitor And Evolve
- Create A Business Plan
- Test, Test, Test
2. Which Newsletter Format Should I Use?
There are three newsletter format you can consider using html, text, or pdf. I particularly chose a layout and format that is simple to use and able to embedded in my blog. I highly recommend html since it gives you the advantages of using different colors, images, different fonts, sounds effects frames, titles, and much more.
The plain text is my least favor since your not able to attached images. The pdf is great but for a newsletter it does not work out the best since its an attachment your subscriber will need to download.
3. What Style Should You Pick?
The newsletter style is solely based on your business. You have to think about what type of business your trying to project? Is your business an e-commerce site, membership site, or informational site?
Take Into Consideration The Following:
- Who Is Your Audience
- What Niche Is Your Business In?
- Do You Want Your Newsletter To Be Formal?
- Incorporate Your Brands Identity?
4. What Should You Include In Your Newsletter?
A quality newsletter needs a bit more than content. The newsletter should include material that is not provided in your site.
Here is my personal list of things to include:
- How To Tutorials
- Product Reviews
- Free Resources
- Tips or Advice
- Upcoming Events
- List Post
- Interviews
- Personal Profile
- Blog Recap
- A Survey Invitation
- Letter of The Founder
- Case Studies
- Success Stories
- FAQ
- Include An Industry Expert
- Predictions
5. Branding Your Newsletter
Make sure to include your brand into your newsletter. Branding your newsletter helps your audience to immediately recognize you. Adding your colors and logo throughout out the newsletter. The branding element will help increase your brand awareness.
6. How Long Should A Newsletter Be?
The newsletter content should be short, easy to read, and in small chunks. Make sure to include at the bottom of your newsletter a link back to your website and any other social media channels where your readers can get in touch with you.
7. Choosing The Right Communication Channel
Make sure to select an email marketing company that has autoresponder software that’s easy to use. There are many options to select from Aweber, Get Response, Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, and Infusion Soft.
I use Aweber they are reliable, they have great templates to choose, easy process to set up, and great customer service.
8. Write A Catchy Headline
A catchy headline can mean the difference between a visitor clicking or not. Every newsletter should include a compelling title because visitors usually scan their emails by looking at the headline title. If the headline does not leverage curiosity then they will just simple delete the email.
9. Check Before You Send
Before you schedule a newsletter issue to send to all your subscribers, make sure to do a preview test. The preview test will ensure your content is free from grammatical errors and that all links work. I recommend sending yourself a preview of the email to see how it looks when you open up the email. It might help to see it an email to see if there are any necessary adjustments.
10. How To Generate Content?
Generating ideas and content for a newsletter is not always that easy. Your content needs to be amazing if you want people to stay subscribed. So how do you generate new content?
Here are some of the things I do when in need of new ideas:
- Gather Ideas From Other Newsletter
- Create A Post To Answer My Readership Questions
- Watch Out For Current Trends On Your Niche And Write About Them
- Write About Strategies Your Currently Using
- Ask Your Readership What Type Of Content They Would Like To Receive
- Send Out Success Stories
- Share Company News
- Educational Articles
- Giveaway And Contest Announcements
I hope these 10 steps to writing a dazzling newsletter come in handy. If you have any additional suggestions I did not mention above, please feel free to leave a comment below. Make sure to subscribe to my blog to receive free online marketing tips directly into your mailbox.
Hi Nancy,
I’ve been meaning to come by your blog and I’m so glad I did! I really like the tips you shared here. You have some great suggestions and I especially liked your list of what to include in a newsletter.
I’m doing most of those but the ones like adding a profile and upcoming events, is a great idea, I’m going to have to add it to mine.
Thanks for putting this together. Have a great new week!
Cori
Hi Corina,
I am glad you enjoyed my post! Thank you so much for your kind words.