A small business email newsletter is an important part of an online marketing program. But it can have its challenges. These four tips will help you create a great one.
A small business email newsletter is an efficient, affordable and - if done correctly - effective way to reach clients.
Putting one together can be a challenge. I've seen many small business owners struggle with their online newsletter. They often don't commit to the newsletter and therefore send it out inconsistently. Sometimes, topics can be tough to come up with.
We put together this short but informative email newsletter tip sheet for small business and home-based business owners to help you get the most of your online newsletter.
1.) What's the email newsletter's purpose?
While the frequency of your newsletter can vary, the topic of your small business email newsletter should be clear. Don't let yourself be all over the map.
Every newsletter issue should have a main subject. Make it clear and concise. It's better to have only one or two topics and have more frequent email newsletters than to try to cram everything into an infrequent single newsletter. You need to make sure that your reader can follow what you're talking about.
2.) Establish a schedule
It's a pretty frequent question I get - "How often should I send my email newsletter?" There isn't a perfect answer but you do want to be consistent. Your newsletter should be regular - weekly, semi-monthly, monthly...whatever is best for you. But don't just wait until you 'feel inspired' or have enough content. Keep it simple.
Remember, you'll also likely be reaching out to your email readers for special promotions, so it isn't usually a great idea to have many newsletters. Your reader will get fatigued.
If the content of your newsletter is interesting, then your readers will develop a habit of checking it out each time you send an issue. Subscription rates will remain high. If you send out garbage and you do it inconsistently, you'll get a high rate of unsubscribers.
3.) Interesting titles that capture attention
Use simple words to create interesting titles. People won't read your small business email newsletter if you use complicated words and yet they also won't read anything that's too elementary.
Let's say you're running an ice cream shop newsletter, and you just made your coolers environmentally friendly. Of course you want your clients to appreciate the effort and budget that you allocated for this project. But do you think a subject line like "We Just Changed Our Ice Cream Coolers" would gather attention? Why not make it "[Ice Cream News]! Why We Spent For The Earth" or "Earth Friendly Coolers Now In [Ice cream shop name]".
The point is, make your headlines and your content interesting to your reader. The newsletter is meant to connect, inform, and build relationships.
4.) Keep it fun!
Don't be overly formal. The point of using a small business email newsletter is to directly reach clients, unlike the traditional ads.
Keep it fun and don't bore your readers. Show and bit of your personality and make sure that you put in your business' social network account information so that they can add you on their networks.
This article should give you a bit of an idea how you can connect with your clients correctly through email newsletters. Just make sure that you keep it informative, yet sweet and short. If you do it correctly, you'll build solid relationships and keep open rates high when you send sales promotions.
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