Newsletters

What is a newsletter?

Don’t say: a pile of unwanted emails. We all hate newsletters – except for the few we actually love, set time aside for every week, and possibly even look forward to.

A newsletter, in the digital sense, is an email sent out to a group of subscribers to provide updates on a topic of interest. Of interest – to them, not to you!

Ever since the GDPR came along, the world of email marketing has become a lot more complex as this European framework effectively makes it illegal to send out information newsletters without explicit, opt-in consent.

This is obviously good news for anyone who owns an inbox. But it’s good news for marketers as well: because it forces us to deliver content recipients actually want to receive.

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Why should you be sending out newsletters?

Including the word “newsletter” in your subject line will decrease the open rate by around a fifth. While this statistic speaks volumes about newsletters’ bad rap, it also highlights that the problem is bad practice rather than a bad product.

Other statistics show that newsletters are by no means an outdated marketing tool. For instance, research by The Seattle Times showed that website visitors who were referred by newsletter were 25 times more likely to sign up the the news service than a visitor from Facebook. 81 % of B2B marketers cited email newsletters among their preferred content marketing tools.

A newsletter that delivers something useful to your target audiences is a great tool for strengthening your relationship with engaged audiences. It shines a spotlight on the added value you bring, and improves recognition and awareness of your brand and what it stands for.

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Tips for successful newsletters

Here’s some expert advice for developing newsletters your audiences will welcome to their inbox:

• Be useful. Consider your readers’ needs and interests, and how they overlap with what you can offer: that’s the content you should focus on.
• Be specific. The subject line of your message is likely to determine whether recipients will open your message at all. Content-specific subject lines are what help you get through to your audience.
• Be on the ball. Since you cannot send your newsletters to whoever you want anymore, seize opportunities for collecting opt-ins: adding a sign-up button in a visible place to your website and adding an opt-in checkbox to forms users will fill in to order a service or attend an event are some of the best ways to grow your database. Offering good, timely content is another!

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