How to grow your business with e-newsletters
How to get started
First, find yourself an email marketing service. Back in the day, we all turned to MailChimp which still offers a great free option to start with and easy-to-use templates but there are now hundreds of others to choose from.
Sendinblue is another good option with a free plan. You can have unlimited subscribers but can only email 300 per day.
Other good free options include Benchmark and OmniSend. Check them out and see which is best for your business.
At Southside Marketing we also like Get Response which while not free is still inexpensive and has some great extras.
All these providers have simple drag and drop templates that you can use to make your e-news look professional and inviting.
Creating an email list
First add a ‘Subscribe Now’ button to your website. If you have a WordPress site you can find a simple plugin for this or ask your web developer to help out. It’s a simple job that shouldn’t cost much to do and will pay for itself in no time.
This button should be linked to your email marketing service so that it automatically updates your list. You will need to follow their instructions or again ask your web developer for a hand.
Adding a pop up to your website is another great way of attracting subscribers but don’t annoy your visitors with it popping up every time they visit. You can alter settings to have it appear once a day, once a visit or just the one time.
You can also use your social media accounts to find more subscribers. Facebook has made this easy with call to action buttons for business pages. You can choose a Sign Up button and start recruiting your Facebook followers straight away.
Use lead magnets to capture more subscribers
Lead Magnets are special offers used as an incentive to join your email newsletter. These offers could be an exclusive download, competition entry or a discount coupon.
7 Tips for an Effective E News
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Focus on the ‘Why’
Think of the main reasons you are sending out this newsletter and stick to a common topic. Keep to the point with short snappy sentences and a clear call to action.
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Don’t sell, sell, sell!
Include educational items for your readers, such as what to wear with your amazing new earring designs or the many ways your food product can be used.
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Create a great subject line
Your subscribers have signed up but, there’s no guarantee that they will open your emails once they arrive in their inbox. Think of an interesting subject line that will entice them to click and find out more. Also make sure your Sender Name is something they will immediately recognise – or that will make them laugh.
Subject Line Examples:
- WIN! Enter Now To Win (insert awesome prize here)
- WARNING! This Email Is Red Hot!
- Amazing Summer Offer! Don’t Miss This One!
- You Won’t Believe How We Do This
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Keep design and copy minimal
Don’t forget your email is to entice people to pop on over to your website. Keep it simple and enticing with buttons to take them to your site to find out more.
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Put alt text on all your images
You want to make your E News look great with some great images of your product, service or venue, right? But with email your images won’t show unless you make your subscribers care enough to download the images. Alt text is the alternative text that appears when images aren’t loaded in an email. Use this to entice subscribers to click to download images.
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Test before you send
Now your E News looks great and is fully of witty copy, you’re ready to push send, right? Wrong! Send yourself and a grammar Nazi, eagle-eyed colleague a test to make sure everything is lining up as it should. And test it on different email apps and on mobile and tablet.
Now you can push send!
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And what now?
Keep your E News regular but don’t turn your subscribers off with constant emails. Too frequent contact is one of the main reasons to click “unsubscribe”.
And one extra little tip — as your subscriber list grows you can download it to Facebook Audience Manager to re-target your subscribers with your Facebook ads to remind them once again why they need your product or services.