Understand the Specifics of Newsletter Writing
What Newsletters Can Do For Your Business
Content marketing was popularized because of blogging and SEO but there are many other ways it can be applied to your business. A good example of this is email newsletters. As you might expect, this type of content marketing does have a little bit of a learning curve.
Those who aren’t sure about how to write a newsletter will be glad to hear that it is fairly simple. You’ll first want to make some preliminary decisions and then plan out your calendar. After that, it is simply getting everything written and then sending it out and tracking the results.
There are some things that you’ll need to know before you’ll be able to write your newsletter or outsource it. It’ll be important in helping you stay consistent if you make these decisions before you start sending out the newsletter and it will help it be more effective.
Decide on The Topic
Come up with a specific type of content to focus on for your newsletter. It should be something that fits with the core aspect of your business. The newsletter should help establish you as an authority and build your credibility.
Decide on The Type of Content You Want for Your Newsletter
Consistency is important and that’s why you’ll need to choose the type of content you want to include. Consider yourself similar to the editor of a newspaper. Each week you need to choose different types of content that can appeal to the interest of your subscribers and keep them engaged.
Name Your Newsletter
Come up with a suitable and memorable name for your newsletter. Just as with any magazine, newspaper or book, there has to be a name. It should be something that is memorable and that ties into the area of focus you want the newsletter to be about.
Set Goals
Before you start sending out your newsletter, you’ll need to determine what you want to accomplish with it. Do you want the newsletter to help get more traffic to your site? Are you trying to get more engagement from your subscribers? Do you have a new product or service on offer, and you want to make some buzz about it? Do you want another way of generating sales?
Knowing what your goals are will help you design your newsletter. The answers to the questions will help you design the content and determine what it is you want to keep track of. Having these questions answered will help you develop an effective newsletter.
Determine Your Methods
Decide how you want to implement your newsletter. It is not that there’s a wrong or right way to do it but how you decide to do it will be based on what you want to accomplish. Some of the most common ways of producing a newsletter include coming up with unique content that is specifically for your subscribers and won’t be found elsewhere. Another idea is to send them a portion of the newsletter that intrigues them and then provide a link to the full article.
Another idea is to give your subscribers related stories and then provide a link to specific articles. There’s also the choice of keeping newsletter archives that are only available to your subscribers or members. There’s even an option to provide printed newsletters to special groups.
Come Up with A Unique Design
What image do you want your newsletter to display? Are you willing to pay to have a professional design it for you? Do you want the newsletter to include company colors or a unique logo?
Determine Your Scheduling
Your subscribers will expect consistency. This will mean you need to determine what type of schedule you’ll send it out on, and it needs to be consistent. Some experts suggest that the morning time is the best because more people open their mail then. According to GetResponse the hours of 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and the afternoon time between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. are best.
Track Your Metrics
Determine what metrics you’re interested in and track them. You may want to know what your open rates and bounce rates are as an example. You may also want to know how many people click on a link in the newsletter.
It’s best to make these decisions upfront and then produce your content. One of the biggest factors that most have is how to write it. After you have decided on all these factors it will be relatively easy to produce a good newsletter.