Truth 22. Creating an email newsletter

Although email newsletters generally feel like a necessary evil for many marketing teams that produce them, they are a great way to share relevant content with email subscribers and also weave in a little promotional nuance. Compared to more direct response promotional emails, they can take longer to produce. It's also much harder to measure the ROI of a newsletter, since immediate sales are rarely the objective. Newsletters are relationship builders, which means there is revenue to be had, just not the immediate kind that promotional emails often deliver.

Email newsletters generally provide specific content and differ from promotional emails in that they are not “selling” anything. Financially, they sustain themselves by offering advertisements or by delivering visitors to the website where ads are displayed. An example would be a daily newsletter from your local newspaper or preferred media outlet that highlights the top stories of the day.

However, on the recipient side, email newsletters are often preferred due to their less frequent nature and valuable (hopefully) content. Content companies have long championed email newsletters and monetized them in different ways. But many organizations primarily use email as a tool for generating revenue. That means online and traditional retailers often ignore the option of a newsletter and stick to sending promotional emails.

The Nielsen Norman Group¹ has reported that, when compared to websites, newsletters have the emotional capability to create much more of a bond between end users and a company. Implementing a newsletter, in addition to your overall program, can deliver some powerful results.

 Build the relationship; don't burn it—The primary goal of a newsletter should be to enhance the relationships you already have with customers and prospects. This is more difficult when you have sales goals to achieve and use email primarily as a sales channel. You must, however, provide a reason for your audience to stay subscribed and believe there is value in providing permission to receive email communications from your company.

 Provide unique value of being a subscriber—While special “email-only” coupons are of value (and great for acquiring new opt-ins), retaining a subscriber's permission and interest is a different challenge. A newsletter can remind them that there is significance in being a subscriber. Remember, especially for retailers, after a person completes a purchase, they might not need your emails, especially the promotional ones. However, a newsletter that offers product or service usage tips and news, surveys, and general contextual content will help keep them on the list until they're back in purchase mode.

 Soft sell—You don't want to hammer away at one of your most valuable assets (your mailing list) with constant offers, “news,” and irrelevant sales propaganda. The soft sell is a way to communicate various messages without being overly promotional.

 Cross promote—Email newsletters, when designed properly, provide a powerful venue for cross-promoting, upselling, and marketing additional capabilities and products, as well as sister brands and partners. Whether with text or images, there are many ways to do this. Use the right layout and messaging, and you can achieve targeted cross-promotional goals. Even better, you'll be able to quantify these results and optimize in future editions. The subtle background messaging in most newsletters should be “Our products/services are great—buy them.”

 Reduce your frequency (but not your marketing messages)—Using many of the best practices mentioned here and getting cross-departmental involvement, one of the major benefits of an email newsletter is that it reduces the need for unique emails from every department within your brand or company. While getting buy-in on a newsletter is tough, your prospects or customers win when they get less frequent email messages but more valuable content. Remember: Your sales and marketing team may not view it this way, but the user will thank you by not unsubscribing. One client even used this rationale in pitching the concept to his company. They were worried about internal “email users” burying their subscribers with competing individual messages. Instead, the company created a new email product that combined disparate content and messages into one monthly newsletter that accomplished all company and group goals while keeping its email subscribers’ needs at the forefront.

 Get paid—After you have built up an audience, a nice variety of content, and some solid metrics to back up your success, revenue for advertising and sponsorship of newsletters can serve as an additional income stream. Many newsletters exist solely for this reason, and it is usually unknown to the subscriber (when done properly). Especially with niche newsletters that attract a loyal audience, an advertiser may love the targeting and economics of exposure to your audience. As long as the sponsorship/advertising is CAN-SPAM compliant and done responsibly, the subscriber may find this beneficial, while your investment begins to pay off.

Nielsen Norman Group research has stated that email newsletters that are informative, convenient, and timely are often preferred over other media. However, the study found that only 11 percent of newsletters were read thoroughly, so creating the right layout is key.² Newsletters must be designed to facilitate scanning and a quick read. Of course, you need to spend the extra time on the upfront design, coding, testing, and tweaking to see what your users prefer. Remember that this should not be an email version of your annual report, but one that emphasizes brevity with a compelling and easy-to-read layout.

 Tease the articles and link back to your site, whether you are a content- or retail-oriented company.

 Your headline copy is crucial. Test some copy on Google AdWords or through a small test on your list.

 Monitor the stats and see what sections are clicked most often and how that compares to your sales-oriented email campaigns.

 Test different Subject lines, layout, and even a text-only newsletter against an HTML version.

 Establish a set frequency. Whether it is monthly or daily, let the subscribers know how often they will receive your newsletter, and don't change the publishing schedule for each edition.

 Let subscribers know what they are getting. The sign-up form should articulate what the newsletter will entail and how often it will be sent.