Keeping you up to date

Launching an email newsletter can be a daunting venture as it requires both creativity and diligence. Whilst email newsletters may have the misconception they are simply promotional emails that inevitably end up in junk, a well planned and well informed newsletter that adds value to your customers can enhance brand loyalty and keep you front of mind for future business opportunities.

For more information about launching a newsletter, you may like to listen to this episode of our Revitalise & Grow podcast. Or read on for our top tips to consider when launching a newsletter … 

1. Build a database: You may already have a database, perhaps of your past and existing customers, suppliers, prospects, staff etc. The obvious choice would be to send your newsletter to everyone in this database to reach as many people as possible. However, finding unwanted emails in your inbox can give people the wrong impression of your brand, especially if they haven’t chosen to sign up to receive the newsletter in the first place. We would recommend creating different groups from your database, known as “segmenting”, as this helps to increase the chance of your newsletter reaching the right people, who are then more likely to engage with your content. Try not to feel disheartened if your database only consists of a handful of people to start with, as Libby says in our most recent podcast episode, “It is better to have 10 people on your database that open and read your newsletter compared to 1000 that don’t.” Top tip: always have trust in letting your business’s database grow organically, the process may be longer but the results will be far more rewarding.

2. Think about content strategy: The content you produce is undoubtedly the most important aspect of creating your newsletter, but it’s hard to know where to start! To put it simply, you must keep in mind quality over quantity; focus your attention on making your content valuable to your readership. It’s vital to consider the way in which your newsletter will be consumed; nowadays most of us have the option to read our emails on our phones as well as laptops, so do give some thought as to how it will look on different devices. It must have enough white space within the content to make the information clear and easy to consume. Try to strike a balance between it being a sales tool and offering interesting, engaging and entertaining content to your audience that they want to seek out to consume. To reiterate Jenny in our newsletter podcast, “You want it to be 90% inspirational and 10% promotional – no one likes a hard sell.” Trust us when we say the promotional element will come! 

3. Test your emails: Ensuring that all aspects of your email campaign works is imperative to the success of your newsletter, you will lose a significant amount of consumer engagement if there are flaws in the content. Check that any links you have included are working correctly, as well as testing out different design and layouts in the email – people are usually too busy to give their time and attention to a newsletter that doesn’t look professional or fails to work first time. Similarly, monitor your open and click through rates depending on what time you send it. We noticed a big increase in opens when we changed sending our emails out (to a B2B audience) from 10am to 4.30pm – try out various options and see what works for your audience. 

These are our some of our main tips to get you started with launching your newsletter, if you are interested in learning more, or would like further advice on how to get started, drop us a line at hello@adpr.co.uk – we always love to hear from you and share our expertise.