These days, business owners and organizations of all sizes have access to more tools than ever before to market and promote their brands, products, or services. However, being successful in today’s competitive marketplace, you have to stand out from the crowd by being memorable and creative.
What is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal? You might be surprised to learn it’s a sample newsletter.
The Advantages Of Maintaining A Mailing List
A mailing list is a compilation of contact information for people who have expressed an interest in your products or services or are existing customers.
There are several significant advantages to maintaining a mailing list:
Keeps You Top Of Mind – The number one advantage of a good mailing list is that it keeps you top of mind. Studies have found the most effective marketing tool isn’t a website, paying for advertising, or even word-of-mouth. Instead, it’s actually in your inbox: email!
Why? Because people spend more time reading their email than any other form of communication.
Establish a mailing list, and you can get regular feedback from your customers about what they like, don’t like, need more of, etc. This information can give you a competitive edge to develop future products or improve those you already have.
Regularly sending out newsletters lets you stay in front of your customers and prospects – even if they don’t need or want to engage with you right now. With regular contact, your name comes to mind when prospects are ready for business.
Affordable Marketing – Sending a newsletter to an E-List is more cost-effective than sending out a direct mail campaign or advertising in a local newspaper or magazine. The recipient has already expressed interest, so you know they will be reading it – there is no waste with a mailing list! The beauty of an E-List is that it allows your message to go out at any time and still get noticed.
Highlight New Products, Services, Company News, Or Special Promotions – Newsletters are an excellent way to make announcements, showcase new products or services, and highlight special promotions. Keeping in touch with potential clients about these changes ensures your business stays top of mind.
Easy To Track Results – The people on your mailing list have already indicated an interest in what you do, so all you need to do is track the results of your newsletter: open rate, click-throughs for more information, etc. You can then use this data to create targeted segments based on clicks, opens, or other recipients’ actions when interacting with content.
Give Your Customers An Inside Glimpse Into Your Company And Services – Newsletters provide an excellent opportunity to brag about successes at your business without being too “salesy.” As a result, customers enjoy reading newsletters because they get an inside look into the inner workings and personalities of the people behind the company.
Alternatively, you can use a Newsletter to link to fresh content on your website that readers would find helpful or make them aware of important news that could affect them.
Segmenting For Targeted Marketing
Segmenting a mailing list means separating your recipients into different groups according to their demographics, interests, or common characteristics. For example, you might create segments for people in specific age ranges, country regions, gender, or income level.
Segmentation allows you to narrowcast your messages – targeting only those most likely interested in what you have to offer.
This strategy is much more effective than sending a general newsletter to your entire list since they’ve previously engaged with your content in one way or another.
Segmentation also allows you to identify prospects most likely to become customers and then contact them at optimal times with relevant and valuable offers.
Track Responses And Engagement To Improve Your Marketing Efforts – Create a list of the actions you want recipients to take and use tracking links in your newsletter. By doing so, you can determine who was interested and took action.
For example, if you’re promoting a webinar related to seasonal trends in your industry, you might create an online form asking people to sign up for the webinar. Tracking allows you to see who submitted a form and if they did so from the newsletter.
This information will help you determine which marketing strategies are working best for your business. From there, you can adjust your approach accordingly or give yourself some well-deserved recognition for getting everything right!
If you could use a hand in setting up or maintaining a newsletter for your company or organization, contact us to start the conversation!
