Company newsletters can help your business grow if you use them effectively. The overwhelming majority of consumers (more than 95%) use email, so email is a good way to target new and existing customers. But there’s a catch! Many businesses have misused email as a communications tool, and that can cause problems for your business.
In the past year, according to Exact Target, an email marketing firm, more than three-fourths of online consumers report that they have become more reluctant to give out their email addresses. Another gripe? Receiving email that they didn’t ask for.
Does this diminish the effectiveness of your company newsletter? It doesn’t have to. If you manage your contact list correctly, your company newsletter can be a goldmine for your business. Statistics show that consumers who subscribe to a company’s newsletter are more than 40% more likely to make purchases from that company.
In light of that, one good way to measure the effectiveness of an email newsletter is to adopt an “opt-in” policy for subscriptions. Describe the benefits of your company newsletter in terms your customers can appreciate, them, allow your customers to subscribe to your email rather than sending it to them by default. Your subscription rates may be smaller than they would be if you sent your company newsletter to your entire mailing list, but the customers who subscribe are truly interested in your products and services, and represents the ones most likely to make purchases.
Should you print and mail the newsletter instead of sending it via email? That’s a question you’ll need to answer for yourself. Printing and mailing out thousands of copies via the US Post Office could cost your company thousands of dollars each time you publish. On the other hand, if you distribute your company newsletter to your clients when you ship out orders, or you hand them to clients in person, your printed newsletter could generate a significantly better yield.
Having an email newsletter may eliminate printing and mailing costs, but it doesn’t mean that you can skimp on design and visual appeal. The goal of the email newsletter is to engage your customers and get them to read your message. Making sure that your company newsletter is attractive, easy-to-read and easy to understand is key. Catching the reader’s eye is always important in terms of any kind of design work, but it’s especially important in electronic mail pieces to help your newsletter avoid the Delete key before it’s been read.
In the next post, I will share tips with you that will help you make your newsletter more attractive to your readers.
Photo Credit: Svilen Milev, StockXchng
