Make Your E-Newsletter an Invaluable Marketing Tool

diamonddog enewsletter-image Make Your E-Newsletter an Invaluable Marketing Tool

Connect with Customers and Increase Sales with an E-Newsletter

The popularity of e-newsletters is on an upswing. Even with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, email is still the most used online communication channel. According to ExactTarget 71 percent of consumers favor email as their first online click of the day. That first click may be to your e-newsletter. An e-newsletter is a cost-effective way to  disseminate your latest information and/or thought leadership articles to your current as well as potential customers.

However, you may think creating an e-newsletter is a daunting task that yields minimal results. This can be the case if the process is not managed correctly. Below are just a few steps to consider when creating an e-newsletter.

  • Define Your Goals
    Before you produce your first e-newsletter determine its overall purpose and the goals you hope to achieve. Are you looking to increase visibility for your brand? Do you want to grow your customer base? Are you eager to enhance awareness of a new product line? You need to determine what equates to success for you.
  • Select Your Target Audience(s)
    Once you determine the overall purpose and goals of your newsletter then you must decide who will receive it. Do you want to send it to a broad or narrow audience? Is the target audience internal or external? Should it focus only on certain industries? Once you decide upon your audience, you may want to segment it further by roles. Do you plan to target executives, middle managers or other specific types of employees such as engineers, nurses, or teachers?
  • Determine the Frequency
    A few different factors should be considered before you determine how often to distribute your newsletter. For example, think about the type of content you plan to share with your audience. Is it deadline sensitive (i.e. registration for an event)? If so, then you may want to send out a weekly e-newsletter for a period of time. However, if the content is not time sensitive, then you may send it out bi-weekly, monthly or even quarterly. Does most of your audience already receive from you another type of communication such as a magazine? This may affect the schedule for your e-newsletter. Finally, before you decide upon the frequency, you must determine if you have adequate resources to support it. Are you planning to use internal resources or is this a project you plan to outsource to a marketing agency?
  • Create a Template
    Before you start writing any content, you should determine the look and feel of your newsletter. The template should be consistent with the overall look and feel of your company brand. Once you decide upon a template, then you can move to the next step of drafting content because you will know the amount of space available for articles versus photos or other graphical elements.
  • Monitor Progress
    After you send your e-newsletter you should monitor its progress to determine its effectiveness. This can be accomplished with marketing platforms such as Constant Contact or Mail Chimp, to name just a few. With these platforms, you can download a report that not only provides stats such as click-through rate, opens, and unsubscribes, but many other details are available too. These platforms even suggest the best times to send your e-newsletter to specific industries.

This is just a high-level overview regarding a few key steps you should consider when developing an e-newsletter. If you would like to discuss this process further, please reach out. As always, we welcome the opportunity to chat about marketing! Please feel free to give us a call at 847-269-1422 or email us at info@diamonddogmarketing.com.


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