All businesses need continues marketing to obtain new customers as well as maintain relationships with past and existing customers. This is where email newsletters come in handy.
What is an Email Newsletter?
While you get printed newsletters, we’ll be focusing on the more modern ‘email’ newsletter. An email newsletter is an email that contains useful information, updates, tips, links to your website or e-store, and various call-to-actions. They are sent in bulk to a list of contacts and can be personalised with recipient names and other details like birthdays. Some newsletters look like simple emails, using copy only, but others are beautifully designed with big buttons and stunning visuals to entice the recipient to click links and make purchases. Newsletters can be mailed once a month for basic updates, or even weekly with custom themes for each.
To gain subscribers for your email newsletter, you can (and should) add a newsletter sign-up button on your website’s homepage and on your social media platforms. You can also run ads and giveaways to motivate sign-ups, but the best way to gain more subscribers is by ensuring the content you share is of great quality and useful to the recipient – DO NOT share irrelevant news that will not benefit them.
Let’s have a look at how companies, especially small businesses like us here at Real Receptionist, can use email newsletters to grow the brand.
5 Business Benefits that Email Newsletters Offer
#1: Making Sales
Newsletters and mailers are great for encouraging sales. You can create product lists, special offers and discount announcements, seasonal gift ideas, limited products and new product launches, and send these to your subscribers in the hopes that they see it and get motivated to spend money on your goods or services.
#2: Updating Consumers
Closing for the holidays? Opening a new store at a different venue? Offering free deliveries? Making any changes that will affect your customers? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, then you should be communicating it to your loyal consumers. Communication is vital when it comes to running a business successfully, especially if you want to sidestep any disgruntled customers that dislike unexpected changes.
#3: Collecting Data
To grow your brand, you’re going to need to learn as much as you can about your target audience/s. Information like age, gender, location, product preferences, favourite colours, what they like and what they don’t like, all of this can help you with marketing and sales endeavours. With sufficient data, you can set up digital ads with specific targeting, making the best of your budget. Or you can create special offers or launch new products that you know will be well received by your consumers. You can collect data by sending out email newsletters that contain links to online surveys and polls.
#4: Maintaining Customer Loyalty
It’s always great to encourage return shoppers and client retention. Having a list of subscribers that you can cater to makes marketing campaigns easier and has a higher return on investment as opposed to distributing an advert to a broad audience. Create a loyalty campaign or a rewards program for your subscribers and gift subscriber-only vouchers via email newsletters. A well-cared for mailing list can be the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to sales.
#5: Boost Office Communication
While email newsletter will never replace physical or online meetings, it is still a great tool to maintain quality communication and motivation for all staff. This is especially handy when your team reaches over 50 employees and most of them work from home. You should share office / company updates such as new employees that joined the team or building maintenance, announce birthdays, incentive programs or competitions to boost sales and customer care, share praise for employees that did a great job, and offer a motivational message every now and then. You could use a simple copy-only email for this, but beautiful newsletter layouts create a happier ambience as your staff feel valued and part of a company that strives for quality.
How do I create a newsletter?
Want to create stunningly beautiful email newsletters, but you don’t have the budget yet for a skilled graphic designer? No to worry. There are numerous online tools and licence-free resources you can use to easily create gorgeous mailers. Our favourite tool for startups that lack a graphic designer is Canva. It offers numerous templates, free images, and design elements, PLUS it is free (with limited options), so you can test it out to see if it’s a marketing tool worth investing in.
A Final Tip!
As a small business owner, it’s best to start out with one newsletter per month (or per quarter if, should that be more comfortable and manageable) and grow from there. This avoids overwhelming yourself or your team with content creation and eases in the concept of email marketing. You should also be ready for increased customer communication, as your recipients may be inclined to call with questions about the information or special offers you shared in your newsletter. We recommend signing up for a call-answering service, like Real Receptionist, to help alleviate distractions by politely tending to all your incoming business calls. Our professional off-site call operators will take care of your callers, so you can take care of other more important matters. Get a custom quote for Real Receptionist right here.
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