ARE YOUR ONLINE NEWSLETTERS
DOING THE BUSINESS?
How to make your newsletters work
harder... much harder
Many companies were early to embrace the eZine/email newsletter for CRM purposes. But have email newsletters evolved as quickly as digital marketing itself? If executed poorly, email newsletters can hurt rather than help your customer relations.
Your email newsletter should actually be a key driver for sales, not just a passive routine piece to tick off your monthly task list. eZines are inexpensive, and their potential to reach people is huge. Email is a popular medium that is so simple to use, but many companies are still not realising the enormous ROI that email brings. Here’s a few pointers to ensure that your email newsletters haven’t fallen behind:
Selling tool 1st, branding tool 2nd
Many eZines are ‘over branded’. The idea of an email newsletter is to sell your product ‘softly’ not beat your client base constantly over the head with your brand electronically.
Beyond this, how many businesses are actually using it as a sophisticated selling tool? In order to sell to your customers, you firstly need to understand them. An eZine can help give you far greater customer insight than you may have thought possible and I don’t mean just knowing who opened it.
Capture and realtime tracking
Is your email newsletter allowing you to capture and segment all your customers? Your online newsletter should enable you to capture, segment and sell to your customer base in a highly targeted fashion. This is achieved by monitoring click-through activity for the different product offerings that are disguised as articles.
This will ensure that you only promote specific products to people that are likely to have an interest. This reduces the risk of saturating your database with unnecessary promotions whilst preserving customer loyalty.
Companies should also be tracking activity in realtime themselves, in order to launch immediate follow-up campaigns. More importantly, tracking tests the effectiveness of any outsourced design and construction.
Usability – design, style and tone
eZines actually create a stronger bond between user and company than a website can. Usability of email newsletters is therefore of great importance. Companies lose up to 25% of subscribers through poor usability, functionality and design, not to mention how much actually is viewed or read. It’s easy to forget that your clients and customers are as time poor as you. It can be difficult to get across your message whilst keeping it brief. It should always be shorter than you think, and then shorter again.
Many companies are still using in-house ‘editors’ for online newsletters who have never written for email before. Using someone with web writing expertise will drive your investment further. Spend what you save on traditional hard copy postage with someone who really knows what they are doing.
A number of companies are now turning to more sophisticated eZines just like the one you are viewing now. It fulfills all the functionality that a successful eZine requires by merging design elements (which are often overlooked) with usability issues seamlessly. Something that ‘template e-newsletters’ often fall down on. More importantly, it will be an email newsletter your valued customers will want.
Subsidise costs
How many of you are actively searching for vendor funding to put towards the production and delivery of your eZine? It may come as a surprise to some that many suppliers are often very willing, if not begging, to sponsor articles within your eZine. And why not? You’re providing them with a very targeted vehicle that delivers a powerful message to a very valuable data list – yours! Beyond article sponsorship, you could also try the introduction of banners that have exclusive offers from suppliers for your readers. This will go a long way to building upon the loyalty you have already worked so hard to create. If you would like to learn more, contact editor@open-ezine.com
