Permission-based
email newsletters are a powerful way to interact with your customers
and increase quality traffic to your site. A well-researched and well-designed
opt-in email newsletter will increase brand awareness and customer
loyalty, and is highly cost-effective when compared to traditional
direct marketing.
Guidelines for Successful Connection
Here are our guidelines for creating a successful email newsletter
that will win and retain subscribers, and ultimately customers:
Develop a Content Formula
Content should be interesting enough to keep subscribers' interest
and demonstrate your industry expertise. It should not all be about
your company. Some ideas for sourcing content include:
- Create custom content using in-house resources, freelance
writers or syndicated content providers.
- Source existing content like reports, research, proposals
etc from within your organization for re-editing.
- Research interesting documents online, summarize these and
provide credited links to the original articles.
- Ask your customer to provide real-world tips, success stories,
and/or testimonials
Design for Impact
Consider producing your newsletter in both text and HTML formats.
HTML newsletters appear like web pages in the inbox, offering more
branding value and ease of navigation. Not all email browsers can
accept HTML emails however, and some subscribers prefer text so
it's best to produce both. Be sure that the service you select offers
the ability to send in HTML, text, and even AOL.
Build Your Opt-In List
It can be simple. Put a sign-up box on every page of your site
(in the upper right-hand corner is a good spot).
- Send the first issue to your existing client list.
- Promote your new e-newsletter in your signature file every
time you email someone
- Encourage subscribers to forward the email newsletter to colleagues
and friends.
Archive each issue on your website and optimizing the pages for
search
engines.
Test and Listen
Make sure each issue is well written and of a high quality overall.
Set up a test email list and check the HTML newsletter in several
browsers before sending the final version
Your readers are a great testing ground. You'll find out what they're
interested in by what articles they click on and whether they
open your newsletter when it goes out. Yet another reason to go
the HTML route. It's still not technically possible to get open
rates for a text e-newsletter. Be sure the service you select includes
click-through and ROI analysis as well as a campaign-end review.
Kim Ruby (kim@santacruzclicks.com)
is a partner and co-founder of Santa Cruz Clicks. Santa Cruz Clicks
(www.santacruzclicks.com)
creates effective online campaigns and builds hard-working web sites
that support the bottomline. They help bring more visitors to your
site, more often, and turn them into satisfied customers. Santa
Cruz Clicks can design your web site from scratch or give an existing
site a tune-up. They can also develop targeted email campaigns with
remarkable tracking and reporting.
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