How to Create a Newsletter
Photo Credit: SuttonHoo
E-mail marketing is a great way to reach out to your customers, so why not create a fun, informative newsletter for them to enjoy?
It’s very easy to create an e-mail newsletter. Here are 7 tips to help get you started.
1. Create a Unique Name for Your Newsletter
Most companies use their company name as the newsletter title, but creating a unique newsletter title increases the brandability. For example, our newsletter for InvestorTrip is called “Global Market Insights.” This creates intrigue and reveals more about the actual newsletter content than the site title does.
2. Outline Your Topics
Before you send out your newsletter, take 5 minutes to outline your topics and plan what you are going to say. Outlining spends up the creative process, and defines the overall focus of your newsletter.
3. Choose a Good HTML Template
Sending out plain text newsletters is fine, but a quality HTML newsletter screams high quality and professionalism about your business. While you can search Google for “HTML Newsletter Templates,” I prefer copying templates from successful e-mail newsletter then editing the HTML for my personal needs.
Why? Because I already know the template works well. Most free HTML newsletter templates just don’t cut it.
4. Fill in the Content
The main goal of your newsletter is to inform and educate your readers. Provide useful content in your newsletters, and your customers will eagerly await the next issue. I use dreamweaver to edit my HTML newsletters. Simply open up a new HTML file in your page editor, then insert all your content. You can quickly view the source code and HTML view to double check any changes, then copy and paste the HTML code once you’re done.
5. Add Links and Advertisements
You can add links with proper anchor text in HTML newsletters (something you cannot do with plain text), and insert advertisements that relate to the content of your newsletter. It’s okay to insert a few ads, but try to blend them into the content. If you just place some banners around the content, you will get poor conversion rates.
6. Spell Check and Proofread
Thousands of people will read your newsletters, so remember to proofread and spell check. I proofread my newsletters at least 5 times before clicking the send button. Most e-mail marketing software comes with spell checking features as well. If you use aweber, you can take advantage of their Test Feature to send yourself a copy of the newsletter before you send it to your subscribers. It helps identify any problems before it’s too late.
7. Decide How Often to Send Your Newsletter and Stay Consistent
Only you decide how often to send out your newsletter. I prefer weekly or bi-weekly newsletters because you stay in touch with your readers so they do not forget about you. However, there are many successful monthly newsletters around the internet too. Once you decide the frequency, stick to it. Your customers will not cry over missing your newsletter; they will read your competitors instead.
While these 7 tips will help you get started, you must take action to see the results of your hard work. Once you develop some consistency, word of mouth will spread about your high quality newsletter, and potential customers will seek out you. That’s when success comes more easily.
Posted on June 18, 2008 | Filed Under Internet MarketingRelated Articles
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