A website is great for bringing in new new enquiries, first-time sales but what about repeat visitors and existing customers?
An email newsletter is an easy way to get those same people coming back to your website regularly, reading about your news and new products, asking questions and downloading information about products they are already using and hopefully purchasing new products.
10 Reasons to Send an Email Newsletter
Here are a few reasons why sending your customers or subscribers your company newsletter, makes great business sense:
- Send your customers (who already know about and like your products) a personal message each month or each week
- Add value to your product with ‘expert’ information and tips
- Drive traffic to your your website, phone & email enquires
- Give your company a face and a personality for customers to relate to
- Get your name in from of customers regularly (newsletter arrives straight into your customer’s email inbox where it can be read without any effort on the part of your customer)
- Make customers feel special – Reward your customers with special loyalty discounts and targeted offers
- Cement your company as ‘the expert’ in your chosen area
- Invite comments, feedback and suggestions – customers often have great ideas for improving products and services
- Makes it easy for people to spread your news – “Forward this email to a friend”, twitter, facebook etc
- Create a loyal database receptive to new products, big events and other big promotions
What to Put into Your Email Newsletter
- Break your news and updates into bite size pieces – 2 to 3 paragraphs
- Add each one to your website as a separate blog post
- Include the first paragraph or 2 from each blog post with an eye-catching photo and a link to read the rest on your website.
- Add a personal message above the blog posts
- Include a special offer or featured products and services related to the blog topics
There are 3 reasons to create your newsletter this way:
- Your news posts add fresh content to your website so Google will index your website more often
- Newsletter subscribers have to click through to your website to read articles where they are then exposed to your products and services
- Your new posts bring in traffic under new search phrases and continue to do so forever
The Do’s and Don’ts of Email Newsletters
Some things you should DO:
- Use email newsletter software like Mailchimp to make managing your database easy
- Add a subscribe form to your website somewhere obvious
- Give visitors an incentive to sign up – expert content, bonus file etc
- Personalize your email newsletters. Eg. Hi Tania, This month…
- Make sure people can unsubscribe easily (this is automatic with Mailchimp)
- Include links to forward to a friend, share on social network etc
- Match the look of your website and other branding
Some things you should NOT DO:
- Add people to your list who didn’t ask to be there
- Promise expert content and not deliver
- Use advertising speak and formal language
- Promote other products, not related to yours
Ask us to create an email newsletter for your business…
About Jo Lees
