Electronic newsletters provide a chance for you to communicate directly with your customers (or even internally with your staff if your business is large and has offices in a number of locations).

 

E-commerce sites can use newsletters to link directly to their storefronts, but they can also be used by almost all businesses to:

 

• keep a business at the front of customers’ minds
• let people know about new offers, launches and news
• build a relationship with the customer. For example, providing helpful or entertaining content is likely to increase brand loyalty.

 

Need to know

 

The information to include in your newsletter should be carefully chosen and be of special interest to your readership. A newsletter doesn’t need to be long – in fact the best newsletters keep the information short and to the point.

Content will depend on its purpose – a newsletter for shareholders, for example, will be very different to a newsletter for customers who have bought your product or service in the past.

People will open your newsletter based on your subject line, which should be a tantalising glimpse into the content within the email. Keep it short and relevant.

 

Legal issues

 

Your e-newsletter can only be sent out to a list of engaged consumers who have opted, where their IP address, datestamp and unique code are recorded, to receive them.  However, it is important to remember that legally you must allow your subscribers to unsubscribe easily and quickly. In each correspondence an unsubscribe function must be clearly visible.

It is also illegal to spam your subscribers with emails. The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, a set of technology-neutral rules designed to protect the confidentiality of communications, launched in 2003, have had a major effect on the way firms conduct email and SMS marketing campaigns. A new version of the Regulations is due to come into force in May 2011.

Other legal issues involve data protection; you must not pass on an individual’s personal details to a third party unless they agree for you to share their details with a nominated third party which offers a service or product that may interest them.

 

Pros and cons

 

A newsletter can be an excellent way to reach a large group in one hit. It can help drum up new business, and is a valuable marketing tool.

But a poorly put together newsletter will make your business look unprofessional – at best it won’t be read and at worst it will put people off your company.

 

What next

 

In order to make the most out of your newsletter you need to do the following

• Set a time to send the newsletter. This time should be consistent – is it going to be weekly, monthly, or quarterly? The newsletter should be sent at the same time of day on the same day of the week where possible, as you want your readers to form the habit of opening and reading it.

• Set objectives: what is the purpose of the newsletter and what are you trying to achieve? These questions will help determine what content it should include.

• Create a template: many companies offer newsletter template services, either free or for a reasonable price. Keep your design simple and clean as this will make it easier for readers and won’t distract from your message.”

 

 

 

Contact us if you’re interested in newsletters for your business. And check with us next week when we’ll be discussing the trendiest inbound marketing tactic yet: social media. See ya next week!