The words “email newsletter” can spark a certain bad feeling in your stomach. Many of us scroll past marketing emails from companies and end up just throwing them into the virtual trash bin.
The negative feelings you have towards an email newsletter tells you something important about email marketing. It’s telling you to do email marketing right, and not annoy everyone who has an inbox.
You can get up to $40 back on every dollar spent on email marketing. That tells us that it is worth our time to figure out how to do email marketing properly. If you feel overwhelmed, that’s normal. All you need is a push in the right direction to start creating content that will actually connect with your customers.
The Niche
The first step is to acknowledge your niche and who it is you are talking to. This is the first step to most marketing, and email marketing is just the same in that aspect.
Do not try to reach everyone you possibly can. Narrowing down your audience, and understanding the tone that they would prefer, is a great way to keep your emails from going in the trash bin.
That being said, don’t be afraid to write an email that isn’t going to appeal to every single person. Know your voice and the content you should be putting out in the world and own it.
If you have a variety of people you are trying to reach out to, make sure to make multiple lists and different content for each subgroup. It may be worth your time to have different members of your team write for separate groups as each team member may be an expert in a specific area that relates to a specific list.
People can tell when you are writing just to have something to send out and, in the end, push your product. Take time to make quality content if you want it to be successful and engaging. If you don’t like writing, this is where hiring a writer can be helpful. The goal is to have your content be personal and relevant to a specific crowd.
The Process
Once you have a better idea of what you should be writing about and who you are writing to, it’s time to create an email newsletter. Set up a day where you are committed to having an email sent out every week, no excuses. People prefer consistency so that those who enjoy your specific newsletter know when to look for it.
Whether you are sharing recipes, local news, or great reads, you want your audience to be able to anticipate and get excited for a specific day that your content regularly comes out. You of course can give additional emails during the week for any special news, but give yourself a strict schedule for your newsletter.
The writing process will vary depending on your content and how quickly you can write and edit. Try giving yourself a solid week to get your first email newsletter together. A tip; spend your first day writing down ideas for your newsletter.
Once you feel that you have all your ideas down, make lists. List which ideas could work for this week and which ones could work for specific holiday seasons or events coming up.
The next part of the process may sound like school, but it will help you get the best result. First, write an outline. After that move to your 1st draft, 2nd draft, 3rd draft, and then final edit. Why so many drafts? As Justice Louis Brandeis said, “There is no great writing, only great rewriting.”
Though some have found great success in writing long, and well-developed newsletters, it is good to shoot for around 200 words. You’re not writing a blog post in your mails, most people will be opening them on their mobile devices, and most are easily distracted.
Promote On A Variety Of Platforms
Now that you have finished your first email newsletter, it is time to promote it. While you should have employed some marketing tactics beforehand to get people’s emails, now is a good time to find more readers.
Promote a photo of a part of the newsletter or an interesting quote on your social media that will grab people’s attention and lead them to a form where they can sign up for a newsletter to see the rest.
To build your email list in the first place, you can tease your first newsletter and provide special deals in return for an email address. Take time to figure out which list your addresses should be in. If someone bought a product related to a specific topic, put them in that newsletter list.
You can also pitch your newsletter to publications that are interested in your specific field. Approach these businesses with proper business etiquette and offer a sample of your work. Don’t be afraid to put your work out there. The worst these publications can do is say “no”. If they say “yes”, you have just expanded your business reach!
Layout And Structure
Don’t forget to make your email design aesthetically pleasing. You can achieve this by carefully curating your layout and structure, and using premade email templates could save you some time.
Always remember to be consistent with your branding. Try not to change the visual appearance of your newsletter designs too much from week to week or you could lose brand recognition.
The layout is the overall look and feel of your email. This means choosing a specific color scheme, font, image style that represents your company in each newsletter. Make sure your layout makes sense with the content you are creating and still works with your overall business brand.
The structure is how your newsletter is organized. You will need to decide where images typically go, where you put articles summaries, etc. You want to make sure you have enough spacing in your newsletter to keep it easy to look at.
Once you have a layout or multiple layouts you’re happy with, save them as email newsletter templates. This will save you time in the future and help keep your email branding consistent.
Writing a compelling subject line is an art of its own. Don’t everything it, but as the same time, you need to be very deliberate with your subject lines as they can greatly affect your open rates.
There are 5 elements every newsletter should have in some fashion: a greeting, headline, content, call to action, and closing.
Ready To Write Weekly Email Newsletters?
If you would like to invest in email marketing and learn more about creating effective email campaigns, but need experts to make the process easier and more beneficial to your business, our team at Elevare Agency can help you get started.
Fill out a form below for a FREE consultation from our team.
