Newsletters provide a great opportunity for you to keep your relationship with your customers alive and kicking.
They are relatively cheap to produce and easy to deliver – all it takes is the push of a button.
But that means there’s a downside to them as well; everyone’s sending them, which means your customers’ inboxes are bulging with them.
So how can you be sure yours is read and not binned?
The secret is not what you think
The whole point of your newsletter is to maintain and strengthen existing or potential customer relationships.
Someone has given you their contact details because they want to learn more from you, be kept updated with your offers, and maintain their relationship with you.
But all of that will only happen if their first experience of your business was spot on.
Yes, that’s right, it all starts with your website, customer service and buying experience.
For someone to sign up to your newsletter, they have to like what they see. If they bought from you but got terrible customer service, they won’t want you to stay in touch with them.
But if you deliver an exceptional online experience and customer service, they are going to want to be associated with your company.
OK, so you’ve done all that, and they’ve given you their email address, so what comes next?
Delivering great content
I mentioned earlier the vast number of newsletters that clatter into your customers’ inbox every day. Somehow, you have to make yours stand out.
By giving an amazing online and customer experience, you’re half way there already; now you have to generate the type of content that will have them actively looking for your newsletter among the hundreds of emails they receive.
The first thing to remember is that your newsletter is for their benefit, not yours. Therefore the information in contains must help them in some way.
That means you can’t stuff it full of offers or information about how great you and your products are.
The things you should be including are:
- Latest blog posts
- Information about industry news that will affect your customers
- Top tips and advice
- Recommendations that will benefit them
That’s not to say you can never add an offer, but make sure most of your content is of direct benefit to the reader rather than to you.
By offering them help and advice, they will be more inclined to open your newsletter when it arrives because they’ll know you won’t just be trying to sell to them.
It is as simple as that.
Granted, it means a bit more thought will be needed when creating every issue, but the rewards you will reap as a result will be worth it.
Looking good
First and foremost, it’s essential you get the content right, but it’s also important your newsletter looks great too.
A design that’s on brand, quick to load and easy to read will make a huge different to your open rate.
One final thing, make sure you always add a call to action too. It could be a link to a full blog post or a case study that’s on your website. It could be a coupon or a request for your latest report.
Whatever it is, it will ensure your relationship continues to grow.
Remember, your newsletter must be all about your reader and not about you.