Are you using an email newsletter to boost your conversions, engagement, and sales? If so, you're not alone. Email marketing is one of the most common tools business owners, and marketers use to keep in contact with their target audience.
Newsletters are beneficial because they allow you to deliver relevant content to your subscribers, offer limited-time promotions, and allow for exclusive testing and events. Here’s another question: Is your email newsletter meeting the expectations of your brand and users? Missing out on an opportunity to delight your email subscribers could result in a higher bounce rate and less traffic.
There are plenty of ways you can build a more compelling email newsletter. Today we are going to look at several tips that will help you use these marketing tools in a way that will result in massive growth for your small business.
Let’s get started!
Qualify your leads.
The first thing you need to do if you want to build a successful newsletter is to qualify your leads. In other words, are you getting people to subscribe that are genuinely interested in your product?
You can qualify your leads by creating various lead magnets designed to attract your customer personas. For example, the owner of an online sporting good store could create content designed to get fans of specific sports to sign up for their email list.
Imagine creating a promotion for 40% off all of your football gear for new subscribers. Do you think you would see more sales and convert more visitors to subscribers? You would, and what makes this an even better deal for you is that you qualified your new leads. Now you can create a newsletter that targets these like-minded customers and build rapport.
Another way to qualify your leads is by asking them what kind of content they want to see when they subscribe. Instead of looking at data or behavior, you can hear from your audience directly. Use this opportunity to create segmented lead lists and develop your customer profiles for future marketing campaigns.
Send your emails at the right time.
Now let’s talk about when you're sending out your email newsletter. Timing is essential, and missing this step in the process could result in significantly less engagement. The first thing you should think about is the timezone of your target audience. If you're a company based in the U.K., and your primary audience lives in the U.S., you have to post your content and send emails at the right time.
There has been extensive research on the best times to send out emails. The research we found compiled past surveys and studies and determined that the three most effective days to send an email are Tuesday, Thursday and Wednesday – in that order. You could argue that this is due to Tuesdays and Thursdays being less busy for people who work a traditional 9-to-5 job.
The two best times to send emails were found to be 10 am and 8 pm. A similar argument could be made here that 10 am and 8 pm are generally considered less busy than the rest of the day.
It's worth noting that this could change depending on your niche. For instance, a horror-themed affiliate store might want to post later in the evening so they can reach their audience when they are statistically likely to be online.
Use social media to grow your list.
Finding qualified leads is crucial for building an effective newsletter, and so is sending your message out at the right time. But we should point out that building your email list should be a continuous part of your marketing campaign. Your goal is to get as many qualified leads as possible on your list.
The best place to get more subscribers is social media. Websites like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are jampacked with people that are likely interested in your product or service. When you consider that over 3 billion people use social media, and the average user spends 2 hours and 29 minutes on social media every day, it's clear that these platforms can help you dramatically grow your email list.
When you're reaching out to people on social media, you have to build trust over an extended time. There's a good chance that a user will not instantly subscribe to your email list to receive your newsletter after they click follow. Consistently posting great content, valuable commentary and friendly banter can help you win over users and turn them into subscribers. The more bonds you can build on social media, the more extensive your email list, which will make your newsletters more effective.
Keep a consistent brand image.
A good brand image helps make you more recognizable, increasing the chances of subscribers opening your email. When you send emails, post on social media or write content for your blog, make sure you’re using the same voice and tone throughout your content.
You don't want to send the wrong message to your users and offer a friendly, helpful tone on social media, only to deliver a lackluster, dull newsletter.
Similarly, you want to use the same color tones in your emails, social media and onsite branding. All of these different tips tie back to one theme: consistency. People like working with companies that are consistent on all platforms, especially in their emails. Remember to carry over your brand voice and themes when creating your emails.
A/B test your newsletters.
A/B testing is important on your website, but it can also help you craft a more compelling email newsletter. Essentially, A/B testing is the process of tweaking various elements of your website, email or social media posts to get better marketing results.
There are many elements you can test to improve your results. You could change the color of your call-to-action button, which has yielded impressive results for some businesses. One company found that by changing their CTA to red from green resulted in 21% more opens.
When you look at email marketing as a whole, A/B testing has an even more substantial impact on overall conversions. In fact, research shows that by properly split testing your emails, you can boost your conversion rate by 49%.
You can tweak everything from the text to the type of content you include in your emails. Experimenting with different aspects of your newsletter can help you drastically increase sales and improve engagement campaignwide.
That point leads us to our last tip for building an effective email newsletter.
Add your own touch.
Don't be afraid to add your own personal touch to your email newsletter and marketing campaign as a whole. The tips we provided today are designed to help you generate a more substantial following, get more activity and conversions, and give you opportunities to learn more about your target audience.
The truth is, every business is different. Feel free to use our advice, but think carefully about what you can do to separate your newsletter from everyone else in your industry. It's possible to grow your email list, but that's not the only factor that will determine your success. A touch of uniqueness can take your newsletter from average to extraordinary.