A newsletter is an email or a pamphlet an organization sends out to let its regular customers or subscribers know about the recent activities and updates happening around the organization. It is ideal for staying in contact with your audience and gaining visits to the website that can convert into sales. In fact, for every $1 spent, email marketing generates $44 in ROI. Below are tips about how to create an email newsletter that drives sales.
1. Establish a goal for the newsletter
It is best to establish a goal for the newsletter and how this fits into your company’s overall content strategy. This should align with the overall business goals. It is also best to see what your competition is doing via email and how they leverage this tool. Are they trying to generate leads? Drive traffic? Build awareness about an event or sale? This step is crucial because it lays the proper foundation for your email newsletters.
2. Build your content arsenal
The email should be very reader-centric and the information in your newsletter should be focused on their pain points. A lot of this content can be gathered from the company blog and social media channels.
3. Do not make it too “salesy”
Although the goal is to create a newsletter that drives sales, the newsletter should not be too “salesy.” While writing a newsletter, you should keep in mind the balance a letter should have. A great email formula is to keep 90% of the content educational and 10% pf the content promotional. Newsletter readers don’t always want to make a buy, but they sometimes want to know about the latest trends and gather some knowledge. You or your digital marketing agency should ensure that the copy sounds authentic as readers can sense when a company is trying to sell rather than connect.
4. Choose a creative subject line
It is not guaranteed if a subscriber will always read or even open your email every time you send one. In an effort to get a better understanding of your reader, you should run A/B tests with your subject line to see which receives more opens. It is also better if you have a person’s name as the sender’s name. Finally, it is also important to have the email newsletter addressed to the reader, since personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates. This will make the message appear more personalized.
5. Have clear messaging
It’s extremely easy to have your email get cluttered which in turn can overwhelm the readers. You should try to keep your email newsletter to about 200 words to maintain interest. Finally, it is important to include a clear call to action button instead of a text link. Having this will increase conversion rates by as much as 28%.
After you send your email, it is best to analyze your newsletter and make adjustments to it moving forward. These constant little tweaks will help you come closer to reaching your overall goal of creating an email newsletter to drive sales.