Newsletters: one of the most effective marketing channels

Keeping your audience up to date with your news isn’t always easy. Social media is where most brands are present today to stay in constant contact with their audience. However, when you post on that channel every day, it becomes harder to highlight content you want to give more weight to, such as a catalogue update, a new product launch or the start of your company’s summer hours. So in this article we’ll explain what a newsletter is, what its benefits are and how to use this key marketing tool to communicate what’s happening in your company.

What is a newsletter?

A newsletter is a regular digital publication containing information of interest to people who have chosen to subscribe voluntarily to receive these communications by email. It’s essential that this content is only sent to users who have opted to receive it through an opt-in form. That means the user themselves has ticked the box, which is empty by default, confirming their consent to receive the newsletter.

The benefits of a newsletter

Newsletters make up most of the commercial emails sent, and they are one of the most effective channels, since 75% of consumers across different countries prefer email for receiving brand promotions. That brings advantages both from the consumer’s point of view and internally.

Web traffic

A newsletter can include various buttons that send users to the pages the brand is interested in, such as an offer on its website. Content with a well-designed call to action will get subscribers to click. This will increase web traffic and sales of your products or services, whether by winning new customers or keeping existing ones loyal.

Longevity and shareability

The content you send can be very valuable to customers, and therefore a message they want to keep so they can reread or use it in the future. Subscribers can also forward it to their contacts, reaching even more people.

Measuring performance

Email automation platforms such as Mailchimp let you track delivery, open and click rates. These figures are summarised in reports showing how your emails perform over time, compared with each other and with industry email marketing benchmarks.

Cost-effectiveness

A newsletter is quicker to create and optimise than other media, so the cost of email software and the work involved isn’t very high. Even so, the average ROI is €38 for every euro invested, far higher than other digital communication channels.

Tips

Before you roll up your sleeves and start creating your own newsletter, it’s important to develop a solid strategy for it and decide on the following points.

Goals

To begin with, you need to be clear about the reason for this strategy and what you want to achieve with each newsletter. The better you know why you want to use this marketing strategy, the more successful you’ll be. To do that, you need to know which specific goals you want to achieve and which metrics you’ll use to measure performance.

Content

A newsletter’s content should be relevant and add value for subscribers. It can include industry news, exclusive promotions, blog posts, success stories or any information that motivates users to open and read the email. It’s important to use clear, direct language, with strategic calls to action that encourage interaction and engagement.

Design

A newsletter’s design should be attractive and functional. It’s essential that it’s responsive, meaning it adapts properly to any device. It should also have a clear, hierarchical structure, with eye-catching headlines, quality images and enough white space to make it easy to read. The combination of colours and typefaces should match the brand’s visual identity to reinforce its image.

Respect your contacts

As well as refusing to buy email addresses to build a list, don’t overwhelm your subscribers with too many emails, and make sure they can unsubscribe easily if they want to. Transparency and respect for their privacy will increase trust in your brand and the effectiveness of your emails.

Newsletter examples (in Spanish)

Conclusion

Newsletters are one of the most effective strategies in digital marketing. Not only do they allow direct contact with your audience, they also offer big advantages in terms of conversion, retention and customer loyalty.

If you have any questions, get in touch with Belve.