Helpful Advice When Starting A Newsletter
Effective Newsletter Creation Starts Here …
The first step to effective newsletter creation is to start planning ahead. Without a structure or foundation in place, you will start to feel overwhelmed very quickly. But if you have established how often the business newsletter should go out, the planning part should be fairly simple.
Because it’s a matter of deciding when everything should happen in manageable chunks. For example, when should the research be done, and when should the design be finished? And don’t forget about the content for the newsletter.
The Advantages of Using an Editorial Calendar
Obviously, the most common purpose of an editorial calendar is to keep you organized. It remembers all the tasks for you, while you focus on getting them done as scheduled.
But when you integrate the newsletter to the work you do online, which might include content marketing, blog posts, emails, or even social media, the advantages only multiply. Integration allows you to:
– Use every bit of content effectively
– Take the pressure off your team
– Improve overall customer/user experience
Now it is time to get that letter written…
You’ve done the planning, great. But the hard part is still waiting. And this is the part where you execute the things you have scheduled. In other words, content for the newsletter needs to be created. And when you think about it, planning ahead allows you to take content and re-purpose it for possible future newsletter ideas.
If you think you and your team will have to be responsible for writing all the content for the newsletter, don’t start stressing yet. It is very common for the content to be outsourced to professional writers that understand the concept of the business. More specifically, they understand what you are trying to achieve with the newsletter.
What about templates?
These can be incredibly useful, and you will find several free ones with most email management systems. You simply download the ones you like and use them to help you get started. Also, take note that now you are in a position to track the newsletter as well as send it out.
This is incredibly easy because all it takes is a quick upload of your latest newsletter to the designated email management system. Then you hit send and get some very informative results.
Take about a week, then look at the data you’ve gathered. There are crucial aspects you need to pay attention to, like how many users opened the mail and how many simply ignored it. You also want to see if there are people who unsubscribed for some reason.
If your intentions were to boost engagement, these are the factors you want to keep track of:
– The increase in traffic since the newsletter went out
– New and reoccurring visits
– Time spent on site
– Frequency between visits
– Overall user-engagement
– Shares, likes, and other interactions