Newsletters aren’t dead!

In almost every blog article we write we make it clear that web marketing is evolving, leaving old practices behind. This isn’t the case with email marketing however. Email marketing will always exist, this is because everyone will always use email, especially in the working environment.

Do you have a business email newsletter?

If you’re involved in a business that is very customer relationship based, you should have already considered an email newsletter. If you haven’t, maybe you should. Your target market deserves to be updated on the progress of your brand, especially if they repeatedly use your services.

Without getting deep into the legal mumbo-jumbo, you are allowed to send email newsletters to customers and clients who have registered their email address with you previously. Chances are that you already have some sort of customer database, so why not make good use of them with an email marketing newsletter?

Email marketing – how can a newsletter help?

You probably already send emails to your clients updating them on some developments, and it’s great that you’re considering email marketing in your strategy. Even if they are just plain text emails this is a good start. What you need to do now is take a look at your emails and take them to the next level in terms of design. An email newsletter works to give your email updates a professional look and feel.

The biggest brands are using email marketing to update you on the latest internal developments. Charities such as Oxfam use email newsletters to thank people for their continued support, showing them where their donations are helping.

Benefits of Email Newsletters

Email marketing newsletters come with certain benefits that could strengthen your brand:

• Update clients on the latest announcements: Are there any new projects? What about new partnerships? Show that your business is growing!

• Direct traffic: An email newsletter helps direct traffic by including hyperlinks in text and images. Banners for things such as limited offers go a long way because they get people clicking. You can even include your website navigation at the top of the email.

• Establish your brand: Your email newsletter should follow your brand guidelines. Keeping a consistent style throughout all communication shows that you are professional in all that you do.

• Personalise communication: Your newsletter can be personalised with fields that automatically include a customer’s first name in the greeting. This makes your relationship with your audience more friendly.

There are a lot more benefits of email marketing, but these are just a few examples that can really help your business.

Can’t design or code? Make use of Mailchimp

Email marketing with newsletters might seem a little scary for someone who doesn’t have experience in design or coding. Email newsletters are built using HTML, so it’s understandable that some companies pay a designer to deal with them. However this shouldn’t be the case anymore because of a great product called Mailchimp.

Mailchimp lets users build attractive newsletters and send them to their database without the need of any prior html or design experience. By choosing from the templates already available, you can send an attractive and professional email newsletter, meanwhile monitor the results. All this and more is completely FREE!

Email marketing newsletters are not dead, in fact they are still an important form of advertising and communication, so don’t neglect them in your strategy.