By Glenn Murray, Director of Divine Write Copywriting
Company newsletters can be an amazingly successful
marketing technique. Whether you want to up-sell or
cross-sell, establish your brand or establish your authority,
or simply reach a wider market, a newsletter can do
the job for you. You just have to make sure you write
it right.
Television, radio, and print advertising are often
too expensive for many businesses to justify –
especially small businesses. Fortunately, there is an
alternative. Today’s internet and email technologies
make company newsletters a very inexpensive, yet surprisingly
effective, form of advertising. When it comes to newsletters,
big companies and small are finally competing on a level
playing field.
So what is an email newsletter?
An emailed newsletter serves much the same purpose
as a traditional company newsletter. Think of it as
a short newspaper – but instead of relating to
a town, city or country, it relates to your business.
You can include articles on new products or services,
awards, recent success stories and case studies, promotions,
specials, share price rises, company events, research…
And if it’s a quiet month, you can simply write
articles that might help your customers out.
10 Steps to Success
Follow 10 simple rules of thumb, and you’ll soon
be writing great newsletters and reaping the rewards…
- Keep It New! Your readers won’t waste
time reading something they already know, so make
it news they can use.
- Keep it personal: Always use your reader’s
name. Make sure when someone signs up, you get their
name, then use it in the subject line, in the greeting,
and anywhere else you can.
- Know your reader: Find out what your reader
is interested in. Do some pro-active research, invite
response, or find an email marketing solution such
as Ezemail** that tracks the links your readers click
on and keeps a history of their activity.
- Let them know you: Let your personality shine
through. Readers are far more likely to become loyal
if they feel they know you. Always include a bit of
you in the newsletter, whether it’s humour, personal
details, personal anecdotes, or personal views.
- Subject is Headline: The subject line of
an email newsletter is like a front-page headline
in a newspaper. You need to draw the reader in, so
make it engaging and relevant (maybe promise a benefit)
but no more than 25 characters so your reader can
see it all before opening the email.
- Use a Title bar: Make the most of the title
bar to add visual appeal and establish brand awareness.
- Make it ‘scannable’: Most people
don’t read online – they scan. Make sure
you use easy-to-read bullet points and sub-headings.
Don’t lose your reader’s attention. Reading
is physically more difficult online, so make sure
you’re concise. Use links to other places instead
of writing long articles.
- Use White space!: If your page is too busy,
you’ll lose your reader. Give them a chance to
absorb valuable information by dedicating about 30%
of your screen real estate to white space.
- Easy unsubscribe: Make your unsubscribe
easy to find. If it’s obvious, they’ll feel
safe and can then appreciate the content. To many
people, the ease of unsubscribing is an indicator
of the integrity of your company.
- Forward to a friend: Include a link to encourage
readers to forward the newsletter on to their friends
and colleagues. Find an email marketing solution which
allows you to do this and sit back and watch your
database grow!
** Ezemail enables you to create, manage, deliver and
track your email marketing and sales communication.
Email kathpay@ezemail.com.au
or visit www.ezemail.com.au.
To Take Copy...
Food packaging copy for health food products.