Starting an Email Newsletter for Your Business
By Derek Goodman of Inbizability
An email newsletter can be very beneficial to companies, particularly new businesses. Most people receive a large number of emails per day, and they are more likely to open an email that has an enticing subject line and is something of interest. If you are curious about expanding your new or existing company, here are some ways to start an email newsletter for your business.
Write Effectively
When people open their inboxes, the majority of them scroll through their unread emails very quickly. This is why it is imperative to be concise in the content of your email newsletters. Some ways to do this include:
- Using active voice rather than passive voice
- Eliminating filler words or phrases
- Being straightforward
In addition to writing in an engaging manner, ensure that your topics are catchy and will attract customers’ attention.
Know Your Audience
One of the most critical aspects of advertising is knowing your audience so that you understand how best to relate to those who are seeing your ads. The same is true for email newsletters and similar forms of outreach. Find a way to get a grasp on your customer demographics, whether through simple surveys, market studies, or search engine analytics. Once you know who you are talking to, you can customize your newsletter to the audience.
Entice the Audience
Once you have done your best to figure out your audience, you need to entice them to read the email newsletter. This can be difficult since most people receive lots of advertisements, newsletters, and other information via email on a daily basis. Fortunately, there are some ways that you can keep people reading your content, such as:
- Providing information that is different from anything your competitors offer
- Formatting graphics and fonts that look nice and drive eyes to the document
- Teasing something at the end of the communication, such as exciting details that will be provided in the following newsletter
Think of something unique to include in the newsletter to keep customers clicking on those emails, whether daily, weekly, or monthly.
Invest in Design
We have already touched on this a bit, but it cannot be overstated how important it is to have a good email newsletter design. If you decide to use a template to design your newsletter, keep in mind that you may be limited to what the software provides. It is helpful to learn certain technical skills yourself in case you need to do something outside of a particular platform. For example, if you wish to enhance the color of a particular logo or remove the background from an image so you can repurpose it, use a free image background remover to do so.
Include Data Visualization
Many people are visually-oriented, meaning they respond better to images and graphs than walls of text. If you have the opportunity to provide data visualizations in an email newsletter, take advantage of that. For example, you can include a line chart showing how quickly your business is growing or a pie chart showing the most commonly purchased items in a given store location. No matter what you choose to visualize, make sure it is user-friendly and easy to read.
You can include so many things in an email newsletter, so consider what matters most to your readers.
