• How-to

It is probably one of the most overlooked and under-utilized marketing strategies. We are talking about the newsletter—the hugely important follow-up technique that allows you to solidify your relationship with existing customers and build new ones. Newsletters should ideally feature trade news, case studies or customer success stories and information about products and services where applicable.

It’s not a tough one to crack but more often than not, when people receive an e-mail newsletter, they tend to promptly delete it at best, or unsubscribe themselves from the mailing list, at worst. This could be attributed to the fact that customers assume it’s a boring mail with company news and no takeaways whatsoever. It is up to you to make sure the customer not only clicks on the mail but is kept engaged. We tell you how to go about it.

Content is king
Incorporate information that is interesting and meaningful to your customer. Updates on company news are unlikely to spark his interest. Statistics and industry trends presented in an engaging format though will be helpful as will information on new products and services and upcoming events. You don’t want to end up in the spam folder, do you? The idea is to build traction for your company and increase awareness.

Use descriptive headlines
Your content may have substance but if your headline says something as insipid as “X’s quarterly newsletter,” rest assured it’s going straight to the deleted items folder. Instead, pique the interest of the reader: “10 ways to…,” “Trends to watch out for in…” or “How to…” are all attention-grabbers. People love tips and advices! Alternatively, you could also pick out a short, interesting statistic as your header.

Design & format
Once again, even if your content is great but the layout and formatting of your newsletter looks shoddy, you’ve lost your reader. Use a hosted e-mail service to avoid the headache of taking care of seemingly little details such as subscribes and list management. Offer your customer the option of reading your newsletter in both HTML as well as plain text. Remember—the keywords here are short and concise. Make it reader-friendly by providing headlines, blurbs and pull-outs that are linked to your website. A few relevant images and even embedded videos could be used to grab the eye of the customer.

Highlight success stories
A feel-good case study about how your business/company has helped in solving problems would make for a great value addition. But make sure you don’t blow your own trumpet and end up sounding too self-promotional. This is not a sales pitch. Let the customer’s vouching speak for itself.

Involve your customer
You can give out discount coupons or special offers and make it exclusive to the subscribers of the newsletter. Invite people to write in and provide a direct link to reach the author of the newsletter.

©Entrepreneur March 2011

Tags:
marketing, newsletter