Use our free guide to design and launch a newsletter that engages your target audience.
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Email marketing campaigns are integral to your overall marketing strategy. A newsletter for your business can be an invaluable tool for marketing, promotion, and growth. Similar to creating a newsletter for your blog, a newsletter for your business should provide content that's relevant and useful to your audience.
Read on to discover the advantages of a business newsletter, how to create one for your business, and how to measure its success.
The advantages of a business newsletter
A newsletter enhances your marketing activities in many ways.
It establishes you as a thought leader. Some business owners prefer sharing company updates via a brief, casual note to a newsletter mailing list. However, more detailed company newsletters can help position you as a thought leader or expert, which helps you develop subject matter authority and encourages people to put trust in your brand.
It’s a way to diversify your email marketing activities. Many brands and businesses want to promote their products or services but are wary about seeming too sales-focused. Newsletters solve this dilemma by offering businesses a different way of communicating on a more human level with customers. For example, a business might send a monthly customer newsletter featuring a brief, casual introductory message followed by a showcase of upcoming product launches, website articles, or discounts.
You can reach different audiences. A business newsletter isn't confined to being sent only to customers. If your company works with clients, you might create a newsletter for business development purposes. For example, you could send a periodic newsletter sharing news of recent wins or updates on projects. That way, clients see your capabilities and may want to hire you in other capacities.
It is an opportunity to build a deeper connection with your customers. Only communicating with your audience when you want to sell them something or promote your work can produce diminishing returns. A newsletter allows you to build a substantial connection with customers. For example, you can launch a quarterly newsletter focused on providing information connected to topics or ideas that would interest your audience. As a result, your newsletter becomes something that they look forward to, like a monthly magazine arriving in their mailbox.
Creating a newsletter for your business
If your business website has a blog, your newsletter can repurpose that content. Blogs often showcase a company's capabilities or provide links to available products. Sharing these blogs in a newsletter is an excellent way to augment your regular email marketing activities.
If you don’t have a blog, consider curating a roundup of interesting links, or share a bulleted list of recent news items or accomplishments. Many businesses take what's called a hybrid approach to a newsletter. They might send monthly emails with a content mix that includes an introductory message followed by upcoming product launches, business advice, articles, interviews, colorful graphics, or videos.
Creating a content calendar and establishing consistency
A content calendar can help inform your business newsletter design and help you focus on the type of content to send. For example, you might pursue an interview or write a response to an article. In addition, a calendar is helpful to set a send cadence, so your newsletters are delivered on a consistent schedule.
Save time by using a reusable email template. Emails that offer a consistent content structure are good for subscriber growth. When readers are familiar with what types of information to look for each time they receive your newsletter, they’ll be more likely to open and share the content more easily.
Know your audience and plan your strategic goals to match who they are. For example, if your goal is to get a certain percentage of your user base to repeat a purchase, consider what types of newsletter content can help you achieve this. Before sending, be sure to proofread your email for errors, such as broken links, typos, or incorrect graphics.
Determining newsletter success
Much like blog newsletter success, defining business newsletter success depends on your goals and what you want to accomplish.
After each newsletter, review your analytics and look for patterns or surprises. Compare and contrast the results. Are they different from email to email? If they're the same, how can you improve them? If they're different, why might that be? It’s normal to need to adjust your content strategy or messaging tone in response to learning from your email analytics.
There's no one-size-fits-all solution that guarantees business email success. When you're starting out, a less-is-more approach is best. Work your way up to a regular sending cadence that's informed by analytics and your content production schedule.