Email newsletters are an excellent tool for nurturing prospects and building customer loyalty. They showcase your thought-leadership efforts and industry expertise, keeping your brand “top of mind” with all your prospects and customers. If you aren’t using email marketing newsletters in your marketing mix, now’s the time to start. But before you do, here are a couple of ground rules to consider:

1. Get permission. Only email those prospects and customers that explicitly opt-in to receive marketing messages.
2. Segment your list. Start by segmenting between customers and prospects, and then move into stages of the buying cycle or segment by vertical (ideally, both). Segmentation can get pretty complex, but proper segmentation leads to marketing people actually like.
3. Test. Your newsletter is like any marketing tool. You need to test and refine based on performance. Vary your subject lines, design, copy/content, and calls-to-action (CTA) until you see the performance you want.

Now to the specifics. These are the elements you should include in your email newsletter:

1. Content. A great newsletter starts with content, specifically editorial content. According to Epsilon and the Email Experience Council’s Q4 2011 North America Email Trends and Benchmarks Results, if you do your job right, editorial content can generate an average open rate of 33.3%. Examples of editorial content include how-to blog posts, links to relevant industry research and studies, and links to articles from industry publications – basically anything that qualifies as unbiased news and information. This content should stay segment specific.
2. Compelling subject line. The strength of your subject line determines whether or not your email is opened. When writing subject lines, try to take advantage of emotions or general curiosity. Numbered lists and “how-to” subject lines also work well.
3. An offer and a CTA. The primary focus of your newsletter is delivering solid news and instructional information to your subscribers. But that doesn’t mean you can’t include an offer or other promotional content. It just can’t be the focus. Consider providing a CTA to download your latest whitepaper, sign up for a free consultation, or offer a free trial of your service. Just remember that your newsletter isn’t about the hard sell – it’s about relevant, unbiased information.
4. Sharing. Because of its unbiased nature, editorial content (the basis of your newsletter), is inherently shareable.   Provide easy buttons for sharing your newsletter content through social media. Also provide the option to forward the newsletter to a friend.
5. Design. Keep the design simple and straightforward. It shook reflect your branding elements, whether that’s specific colors, fonts, or logos. Keep rapid smartphone adoption in mind, and design for mobile users.  

Addressing these elements should make developing and distributing an email newsletter a much simpler task. Have you had success using a newsletter? If so, please leave a comment below. Thanks for reading!

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