With the right platform and strategy in place, email marketing is still highly effective for businesses of any size. Email newsletters, in particular, provide a great vehicle for your company to get up close and personal with customers and prospects. Unlike the content on your website, a newsletter lets your small business connect with readers in real-time, and in much the same way that a trusted friend might do. To create an ongoing bond with your contacts, it’s important for your marketing email newsletter to be informative, without sounding like a plug for your business. Remember, relationships are a two-way street, and nothing will encourage your readers to unsubscribe faster than an email message that’s all about you!
Related: Email Marketing for Small Business Owners (free eBook)
Email Newsletter Basics
Company updates are great, but you should also get in the habit of using email newsletters to offer your readers something a little more actionable – whether that something takes the form of:
• News about upcoming promotions and special events
• Links to blog posts your clients might find useful, or
• Subscriber-exclusive deals that will call your readers to action
All in all, your email newsletter should be brief but have value, and should leave your readers wanting more. If you’re wondering what to put in your email newsletters, read on for a more in-depth look at each of these email newsletter elements.
Company News
Readers appreciate being kept in the loop. As such, current and newsworthy updates about your company or trade will be right at home in your company’s email newsletters. Company news may include:
• Launching a new product or service
• Welcoming a new employee
• Opening up another location
• Achieving a new milestone or fundraising goal
Blog Posts
There are lots of options when it comes to using your business blog in your email bulletins. You can:
• Provide links to interesting blog posts that are already on your website
• Summarize relevant blog content for your readers
• Create entirely new posts specifically for your newsletters
You may find that one, two, or all three of these strategies works. Don’t be afraid to try out different combinations. After all, experimentation is an email marketing campaign best practice that will help you get best results.
Events & Recaps
Events are a great way to generate leads and increase brand awareness, but not just during the event itself! Properly promoting your event beforehand and afterward is key to maximizing the success of your event marketing. Events include:
• In-store or online sales
• Exclusive to loyal customers or open to your community
• Educational events like in-person seminars or online webinars.
• Fundraising or charity events
Tell your readers about these events in your newsletters! If you’re excited about the event, your target audience will be too. If you recap the event, your readers will get to see what missed out on (and why they should come to the next one!) Maximize attendance, expand your reach, and generate more leads out of your events by incorporating them into your email newsletters.
Important tip: No matter the event, don’t forget the photos. When it comes to an effective email newsletter, a picture really is worth a thousand words.
Upcoming Promotions and Subscriber Exclusive Deals
What customer wouldn’t want the chance to save on a product or service that’s already of interest to them? It won’t come off as marketing rhetoric if you use your newsletters to let readers know about sales, deals, or other promotions that might be of benefit to them. Subscriber-exclusive deals are also a great way to incentivize emore email sign-ups and for current subscribers to stick with you.
Links and Calls To Action
An exciting call to action is one of the best ways to keep subscribers on board and engaged with your email newsletters. For the various elements of your email newsletter, use call to action phrases and buttons to show readers how to learn more and engage with your business. You might use calls to action in for:
• Redeeming coupons, discounts, or other offers
• Downloading an eBook or other guide
• Clicking on a link to a blog post or landing page
• Checking out an album on one of your social media accounts
• Visiting a page on your business website
Email newsletter calls to action are key to online lead generation, and can support a variety of digital marketing goals. Just be sure not to overwhelm your readers with too many options.
Other Content to Put in Your Email Newsletters
Here are some other types of content you can include in your email newsletters that your subscribers may find appealing.
Checklists and How-To’s
Providing a valuable resource that’s designed to be used today, or referred to later, can benefit your email marketing. If they’re detailed enough, some companies turn checklists and how-to guides into call to action offers, but this isn’t necessary. You can include simpler versions of these. Think vacation packing lists, how to prepare your car for winter, gift guides for family and friends, and the like.
As an alternative, you could also make these resources available by providing links that will take your readers directly to where they’re located on your website.
FAQs
If your business gets frequent queries on the phone or through live chat, why not consider addressing some of these in your emails? You can include answers to one or more FAQs as a regular newsletter feature, or design entire blog posts around the questions you hear most often.
Surveys and Results
The only thing people love more than quick, online surveys, is the chance to find out how their responses compare with others. Consider including short, fun questionnaires in your email newsletters, and unveiling the results to readers in follow-up bulletins.
Success Stories
You just have to look at what gets shared online to know that people love positive news. Has your business made an impact by helping the local community? Do you have a customer who struggled to overcome a personal challenge, and went on to achieve success? Your newsletter is the ideal platform for sharing the kind of success stories that inspire and motivate readers.
As a final word on what to put in your company’s email newsletters, remember that people like to stay informed, be heard, and be guided. Make sure you provide information that is important to them, use their feedback to dictate future newsletters, and also keep your messaging and calls to action clear so as to help them engage with your business in a meaningful way. For more help with your email marketing, download our free eBook below:
