Last updated on September 22, 2021 Due to the introduction of various new media platforms, many believe that email marketing is now dead. If you are someone who read or was told something like this, we are here to give you the proper insight into email marketing in 2021. In this article, we’ll talk about the importance of email newsletters and what you can do to develop an effective email marketing strategy.
Table of Contents
What is a Newsletter?
To explain it in the simplest way, a newsletter is a marketing tool used by organizations big or small to share relevant information with their already existing network of customers and prospects. It provides a marketer an opportunity to directly reach the clients via their inbox. Thus allowing you to increase customer engagement by sharing interesting content and drive traffic to your website.
The email newsletter format can consist of both text and media and it plays a vital role in your overall marketing strategy. Some marketers believe implementing an email marketing strategy is a piece of cake. There’s a lot of planning that goes into it to make sure the newsletter content seems both engaging and helpful to the customer.
Why Are Email Newsletters Important?
Although email marketing is amongst the oldest forms of marketing available, it is still used by over 70% of businesses worldwide. This is mainly because it has proven to be more effective as compared to other forms of digital marketing. According to a survey, around 4 out 5 marketers said that they would give up social media marketing rather than email marketing. Email newsletters can be considered the backbone of your marketing strategy. It helps retain customers and spread awareness about your products and services. Here are some more reasons why marketing newsletters are extremely effective and important for your business:
- Personalization
These days the most important factor that is being introduced in marketing is personalization. Email marketers devise a strategy that enables the creation of precisely tailored emails to promote the products that customers are more inclined to buy. Email newsletters sent out these days can cater to the different needs of multiple social groups.
- Reliability
The average expected return on investment for email marketing is around $42 for each $1 spent and newsletters are a very significant part of it. As it turns out it is one most reliable methods of communicating with your customers. It is like you are speaking to them one on one.
- Reachability
There are 4 billion email users worldwide right now and on average around 250 billion emails are sent out every day and from that around 100 billion emails are business newsletters. Email newsletters, when used correctly, can reach many people in a short amount of time.
- Relationship Building
The key to a good email marketing strategy is to be more innovative and authentic. Organizations that are willing to give more to the customers would likely receive more appreciation. Email newsletters are a great method to establish long-term relationships with your customer.
What is the Purpose of an Email Newsletter?
The purpose of an email newsletter is quite straightforward. It is to share relevant information with your customers about your products and services. The key is to make the information sound like helpful advice from a friend rather than a pushy salesperson. Listed below are some of the purposes of email newsletters
- Information Sharing
With the help of emails, you can share all the updates about your products or services with your customers. If you send out engaging and informative messages, your subscribers will eagerly wait for your next newsletters. They would relate to the content you send including the attached logos, sender names, and pictures within the content. Therefore, it can also help increase brand awareness.
- Traffic Generation
The email newsletters generally consist of helpful guides, CTAs, links to actual blog posts, and webpages where the reader can learn more about the products and services your company offers. This will help you increase traffic to your website or blog which is one of the key purposes of email newsletters.
- Social Media Promotion
It is a normal practice to include links to your social media handles like Facebook and Instagram in your email newsletter. You can also explain within the newsletter why the subscriber should follow your social media accounts and how the information you share on those platforms could be useful to them. Keep in mind that you should have unique content on each channel so that a customer would be willing to join your community.
- Inside Sales
Email newsletters can indirectly help you increase revenue. When you send your customers some updates on your products and he/she finds it interesting enough to buy them, you are indirectly selling your products or services to your customers.
5 Keys to a Successful Newsletter
There are few things you should keep in mind when you are drafting a newsletter for your subscribers. Mentioned below are five email newsletter best practices that you should adhere to while drafting your email strategies in order to make it more successful.
- Creative Subject Lines
A subject line is the first thing the reader sees and if it is not compelling enough the reader would not open the email. If you want to increase your open rate and CTRs make your subject lines engaging and unique.
- Continuous Conversation
Email marketing is more than just sending out sales newsletters to your customers, where you are only promoting your products and services. The key is to talk to your existing and potential customers. Sending them emails in a moderate frequency will help them keep engaged without irritating them with a bunch of emails. Make sure you do not give a break of 1 or 2 months. The customer may lose interest and unsubscribe from your newsletter.
- Informative Content
In order to spark interest in your customers, you must be transparent and give out all the relevant information necessary for them to make an informed purchasing decision. If your email content is focused on your customers’ interest then they are more likely to share the same on social media too.
- Mobile-Friendly Emails
According to statistics, most people access their email on their mobile devices. Make sure your emails are optimized for these devices so the customers can see them through such devices.
- Catchy CTAs
The main purpose of email newsletters is to stimulate subscribers to take the desired action like follow you, buy your product, register for a free trial, share your content or participate in a contest. Add enticing CTAs to your emails to drive people to take action.
Measuring the Success of an Email Newsletter
For whichever digital marketing tool you are adopting, defining performance metrics to measure the success of that marketing activity is important. These are the few indicators used to measure the success of your email marketing campaign:
- Number of Emails Delivered: The total number of emails you sent out
- Open Rates: The total number of emails opened by the customers
- Click-Through-Rates: The number of people who clicked on at least one CTA or link in your newsletter.
- Bounce Rate: The number of emails that could not be delivered because of the server
- Unsubscribe Rate: The total number of subscribers that clicked on unsubscribe after receiving a newsletter for you.
Conclusion
Email marketing is an important part of your marketing strategy if used correctly. Our expert marketers can devise an effective email marketing strategy that will help you generate traffic and increase your conversions.