In need to improve the content strategy, companies, affiliates and e-commerce representatives continuously search for new opportunities. Not long ago, talking about content meant for most people talking about e-mail marketing and articles on a blog at most. But, nowadays, we all know these are not enough. It is a must to generate some alternative that offers something different to the audience and, also, to fulfil other necessities. Let’s see what a newsletter really it, what it is good for and that you must consider in order to build one. What is a newsletter?
What is a newsletter?
If you are not yet clear on the concept of the term “newsletter”, do not worry, as you have surely heard of it in the past on some marketing e-mail, right? Well, both the newsletter and the marketing e-mail are a sort of advertising a brand, company, salesman or affiliate do on a regular basis. In other words, the main characteristic of this content tool is that it has a fixed frequency, turning almost into a business newspaper.
Thinking about the newsletter as if it were a newspaper, it is easy to understand there are certain rules one must follow. Every edition must have the same structure. This means, when you choose a certain newspaper to read, mentally you already know the structure it has, the colours that identify it with the brand, the type of letter of the articles and even which are the partner brands that might have advertising or promotions, right? Well, same thing goes for the newsletters. That way, when a customer receives the e-mail, mentally he or she will have to recreate the image of what it is.
Then, an informative e-mail must always keep a certain line of production, such as:
1- Letter font.
2- Colours.
3- Style and size of the images.
4- Values and general knowledge that represent your brand.
5- Registration, style and type of communication.
6- Length per article.
E-mail marketing and newsletter: Are they the same thing?
As previously said, a newsletter, even having things in common with e-mail marketing, is a different tool. Both have different objectives, they have different structure and information. In a nutshell, content, structure and length greatly vary.
E-mail marketing, mainly, focuses on short messages, advertising of promotions, delivery of information about important events, or even congratulations for special dates. This means, in other words, that it must catch the readers’ attention, becoming a must, with a catchy tittle and a soft image.
Newsletters on the other hand, are usually more extensive. Of course they are not meant to be the size of an e-book, but they are also not limited to a certain amount of letters, since they aim at bringing full information to the reader, and not just a peak such as a link. This been said, you must plan carefully your content strategy for the bulletins, since it is important for all of them to fall under the same line of ideas. You cannot lose your focus, changing completely your theme from one bulletin to another.
Yet one more difference between newsletter and e-mail marketing is that the first one is sent exclusively for whoever requested it or is subscribed, while the latter, could often be send to your audience at random.
What is to be considered in order to build a newsletter?
Content, content and more content! It may seem an exaggeration, but that is what you should focus on. Every little thing needed to build up a newsletter is about the information on the content. Then, the best way to achieve this is to believe that every bulletin must be useful for your audience and must only be there if it is meaningful. For this, please take a look at the following tips:
1- Elaborate a content strategy, always follow the theme of your business.
2- From there, search for info that identify your main topics and work around them.
3- Make sub-divisions of those topics, increasing your theoretical reach but without deviating too much from the original topic.
4- Determine the tone and vocabulary to be used on the bulletin, in order for it to be respected and well-known throughout every edition.
5- Always base your texts on the need of your audience.
6- Include relevant news for your brand.
7- Choose a style for your images and always follow it.
8- Write, correct and re-write as many times as needed.
9- Never lose your focus, both for info and education, as a newsletter must not turn into a direct sales channel.
10- Work on the total length of your text without over doing. Keep in mind: All information must be relevant.
11- Just like in e-mail marketing, take care of the tittles. They are the key to your content; if they were not to be clear, catchy and originals, the text will never be read.
How often should a newsletter be sent?
When anxious to deliver something to your customers, in order for them not to think the company have forgotten about them, we sometimes make the mistake of sending info way too often. This, far from generating a good image, ends up tiring up your audience and causing good e-mails, well done and really good to be completely forgotten and sent to the trash box. So, it is not recommended to send newsletter all the time. You have people that say they should be weekly, others say they should be twice a month, or even the ones that say they should be monthly. There is no ideal and you should do what best suit your audience.
What is the advantage of a newsletter against e-mail marketing?
The main advantage for the newsletter against e-mail marketing is the conversion rate. It happens that the customer gets a newsletter just because they subscribed to our company and agree with our brand. This means he/she is interested in getting it so it won’t be sent to the spam box because they agreed beforehand. As a conclusion, the chance of the newsletter being open is greater, in comparison to e-mail marketing.
Now that you know exactly what a newsletter is and how it could be useful to increase your sales, even more than the common e-mail marketing. What are you waiting for to include this tool into your content strategy?
IF YOU ARE NOT YET WORKING WITH US, COME AND BECOME PART OF OUR TEAM!
