7 Reasons to invest in email newsletters

Newsletters are not just about sharing articles on the latest industry happening, or the news about your brand. It is a great online tool for creating engagement with your customer base, and a way to increase your brand awareness.

Most businesses are growing their investment in social media and bulk emailing, but do not see a reason to invest in email newsletters, which is permission based and most often promoted to an existing client base or those who sign up.

Lets look at some of the reasons you might want to invest in a email newsletter.

1.     Direct communication platform with customers or investors

Sometimes you simply want to delivery the key news, to show potential investors or customers what your company has been upto. It is likely that most of them do not actually know about your other services, the latest offers, or your initiatives for social responsibility or awards that you have received. These are all activities that generate value to your brand and which is worth telling your customers about. Particularly if you are a listed company (with the stock exchange) that needs to disclose any information for particular investors, this is a valuable tool for delivering the information.

2.     Cost effectiveness

Compared to printed newsletters, email newsletters have a cost saving ability as it is produced and delivered online to a email inbox. You might also be able to score some additional revenue through placing adverts in your newsletter as well, and advertisers might find it just as cost effective if you can track clicks and request payment only for the number of clicks made.

3.     Highlight capabilities

Its not about boasting about your brand, but making sure your key capabilities are highlighted. A newsletter could include topics on what you know best, or provide helpful tips to let your subscribers learn more about what you know. It also helps for you to be known as an industry expert.

4.     Generate leads

An email newsletter gives you direct access to any interested buyers. Your existing customer base alone can be a source of new revenue, and through cross selling you can introduce them to a product or service they did not realise they needed. Subtle promotions with special offers, or free trials are elements that can be included on the side of the company news and updates.

5.     Grow your subscriber base / contact list

One of the biggest issues people have is how to reach new customer bases. Letting people know that you have a monthly newsletter through your website or social media channels gives the opportunity for anyone visiting your website to sign up with their information. It is likely they do not have the need for your services right now, but are possibly interested in the long run. With features to “forward to friend” and the ability to host the emails online, you can give your newsletter access to a wider audience.

6.     Testing of key marketing messages

Not sure of which ideas to pitch? With email newsletter tools you don’t need to send a message out, which you are not sure of. You can test two key messages through “A/B testing” which can help you decide which email will give you the best impact. This method will let you decide which key messages to actually include in your final send out, securing your brand image along the way.

7.     Increase visibility in Search Engines

Have you asked your SEO expert if this is possible? This is mostly if you have the email newsletters hosted on your website. They create inbound links which are a great way of increasing your page quality in terms of search engine optimisation. This can be done through most email tools which help to archive emails and create a hosted page of the newsletter in HTML format.

If you have an in house marketing team with basic IT knowledge it is easy to use email marketing tool to set up a template, update and send the newsletter out monthly.

Created: March 3rd, 2014