Email Newsletters: The Basics

It seems that in digital marketing, social media has become king. Nearly every business has a Facebook page, with Twitter and Instagram being almost as prevalent. Snapchat, too, is starting to gain traction for businesses. If you Google “Tips for marketing on [insert social media site here]”, you will find thousands of articles with tips that will draw followers, likes, and customers. However, it’s important to note that even in the 21st century, not everyone is on social media or wants to frequently check the Facebook or Twitter pages of business they already frequent. While the customer base on these sites is huge, there is a downside: Unfortunately, paid ads, boosts, and algorithms make it very difficult to make sure your regulars are seeing everything you post.

Bring in the ‘old reliable’ of online communication: The email. We’ll be focusing on engagement email marketing today – the email newsletter. Email newsletters for businesses and groups of all kinds have existed since digital marketing first caught-on. They’re an easy way to connect to older customers and those who aren’t as tech-savvy or just want the convenience of promos, new products, and other relevant information delivered right to their inbox. They’re especially popular for online clothing stores to inform customers of new items and sales, and for blogs and lifestyle sites to showcase certain new stories.

While for younger entrepreneurs the notion of email marketing may seem almost outdated, it can still be a powerful tool, even if it’s not as popular as Facebook. The idea of maintaining an email list and creating monthly, or even weekly, informative email from scratch sounds daunting, but it’s not as complicated as it seems. Here’s a quick rundown and tips to get started:

  1. How will people sign up? Will you have cards to fill out in your storefront? A link on your website or blog? Will they email you to be added to the list? All the above? Once you have a list of subscribers gathered, you’ll have to choose how you want to design your emails.
  2. How do you want to create your newsletters? Do you want to design and send them manually, or use an online tool?
  3. There are templates in Microsoft Word you can use to create almost anything, including newsletters. You can look for them on templates.office.com or search “email newsletters” when you open a new Word document. You will be able to tweak these templates, make additions, and save them to your desktop or cloud storage. Adobe InDesign is also a very popular way to create documents such as newsletters though, if you’re unfamiliar with it, there’s a bit of a learning curve. Most major email hosts, such as Gmail and Outlook, allow you to easily create contact groups and send the same message to as many people as you wish.
  4. Online services like MailChimp and GetResponse host your mailing list; you can add to the list using website sign-up forms and sometimes text messaging sign-up. On these websites, once the email list is uploaded, you can design newsletters that can be sent to your subscribers. The possible advantage of these types of sites – instead of creating and sending newsletters manually – is that they monitor statistics related to your email marketing (i.e. open rate, click through, forwards and more.)
  5. What types of information do you want to put in your newsletters? There’s no right or wrong content to put in your newsletter. You may want to choose one type, do a little bit of everything, or you may even want to alternate types of content. Some of the most common types are:
  6. New Product/Service or Update
  7. Event Announcement or Update
  8. Blog/Article Roundup
  9. Single Article/Blog
  10. Internal/Company Updates
  11. Special Discounts or Offers

You can focus on one of these topics or use a mix of all the above.

  1. What Style/Formatting will you choose? The most common types of formatting are:
  2. Magazine Style – This is a good choice if you’re planning on sending a blog/article roundup, and if your primary goal is to drive traffic to your website. You will choose several stories or blogs to share small snippets with links to the full article on your website for your viewers to finish reading. This is good if you’re primarily a blog or a lifestyle or another type of site that focuses on multiple articles or stories.
  3. Single Topic Style – If you receive our blogs, you know we send out a weekly blog blast (which you may very well be reading this on)! This is a great example of a single topic style and includes long-copy, containing the entire article, instead of a snippet. It would be especially good for a major product announcement.
  4. Hybrid Style – If you’re looking to both inform and promote, this is a good choice. You can send out a variety of topics in one email with longer copy, such as providing a write-up on an event and linking to the site for more information or to register, plus company updates, and perhaps a blog. Hybrid style newsletters blend the multiple topics of Magazine style with the full copy of Single Topic style.
  5. How often will you send out? You can choose weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, any frequency you choose for the information you want to send out. It’s wise not to “spam” your list with too many emails, but also not to send out so few that they’re not paid attention to.

It all comes down to this: Sign-up, creation, information, style, and frequency. There’s plenty to learn when it comes to each of these topics, but the basics above are a good start and good to keep in mind. Stay tuned for blogs focused on newsletter creation and an overview of different types of email marketing content!