Company newsletters can be an
amazingly successful marketing technique. Whether you want to up-sell or
cross-sell, establish your brand or establish your authority, or simply reach a
wider market, a newsletter can do the job for you. You just have to make sure
you write it right.
Television, radio, and print advertising are often
too expensive for many businesses to justify – especially small
businesses. Fortunately, there is an alternative. Today’s internet and
email technologies make company newsletters a very inexpensive, yet
surprisingly effective, form of advertising. When it comes to newsletters, big
companies and small are finally competing on a level playing field.
So
what is an email newsletter?
An emailed newsletter serves much the same
purpose as a traditional company newsletter. Think of it as a short newspaper
– but instead of relating to a town, city or country, it relates to your
business. You can include articles on new products or services, awards, recent
success stories and case studies, promotions, specials, share price rises,
company events, research… And if it’s a quiet month, you can simply
write articles that might help your customers out.
10 Steps to
Success Follow 10 simple rules of thumb, and you’ll soon be
writing great newsletters and reaping the rewards…
1) Keep It
New! Your readers won’t waste time reading something they already
know, so make it news they can use.
2) Keep it personal: Always
use your reader’s name. Make sure when someone signs up, you get their
name, then use it in the subject line, in the greeting, and anywhere else you
can.
3) Know your reader: Find out what your reader is
interested in. Do some pro-active research, invite response, or find an email
marketing solution such as Ezemail** that tracks the links your readers click
on and keeps a history of their activity.
4) Let them know you:
Let your personality shine through. Readers are far more likely to become loyal
if they feel they know you. Always include a bit of you in the newsletter,
whether it’s humour, personal details, personal anecdotes, or personal
views.
5) Subject is Headline: The subject line of an email
newsletter is like a front-page headline in a newspaper. You need to draw the
reader in, so make it engaging and relevant (maybe promise a benefit) but no
more than 25 characters so your reader can see it all before opening the email.
6) Use a Title bar: Make the most of the title bar to add
visual appeal and establish brand awareness.
7) Make it
‘scannable’: Most people don’t read online – they scan.
Make sure you use easy-to-read bullet points and sub-headings. Don’t lose
your reader’s attention. Reading is physically more difficult online, so
make sure you’re concise. Use links to other places instead of writing
long articles.
8) Use White space!: If your page is too busy,
you’ll lose your reader. Give them a chance to absorb valuable information
by dedicating about 30% of your screen real estate to white space.
9) Easy unsubscribe: Make your unsubscribe easy to find. If
it’s obvious, they’ll feel safe and can then appreciate the content.
To many people, the ease of unsubscribing is an indicator of the integrity of
your company.
10) Forward to a friend: Include a link to
encourage readers to forward the newsletter on to their friends and colleagues.
Find an email marketing solution which allows you to do this and sit back and
watch your database grow!
About the Author:
Glenn Murray is
an SEO copywriter and article submission and article PR specialist. He is a
director of article PR company, Article PR, and also of copywriting studio
Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at
glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit
http://www.DivineWrite.com or
http://www.ArticlePR.com
for further details.
