What to Know and Do Before Starting a Newsletter
Sending out newsletters is very nearly a business basic these days. Unfortunately, many companies decide they want one and even assign the creation of it to a staff member before considering the most critical factors that go into creating not just a newsletter, but a successful newsletter.
Name your goals
Do you know what would make a newsletter successful for your business? Smart business people never undertake a new venture without knowing what their goals are. The same is true for newsletters. What goals do you have for creating a newsletter? Increased web traffic? Establishment of thought leadership? Building of social profiles? Selling of particular products or services? Name your goals before you begin to set up your newsletter and not only will you be a fair distance ahead of any business who hasn’t thought this through, you’ll be able to measure your progress and refine your efforts.
Know your audience
Are you looking for a way to increase the connection between you and your existing clients? Or will your newsletter be for prospective clients instead? Will it be targeted toward one particular segment of your market, or will you try to cover several areas at once? Once you know who, precisely, you want to subscribe to and read your newsletter, you’ll know better how to create the content and deploy it effectively.
Give them good reasons to subscribe
Not only should you determine what the content of your newsletter will be based on who will be receiving it, you want to offer valuable incentives to sign up. Reports, e-books, prizes, and other incentives can help you get your subscriber base started.
Don’t sign them up without their permission
Nobody loves a spammer. And you aren’t going to position your brand well as a trustworthy resource if you sign up people without their permission. Most email services (such as Aweber or iContact) will require you to allow people to opt in, and most offer double opt in services so that you can be absolutely certain your subscribers know what they are getting.
Make it easy
Long forms that require everything from a first and last name, company name, snailmail and email address, and so on are daunting hurdles for a subscriber to leap. Try to keep your subscription form to two or three form fields. If you need more information than that, you can invite your readers to submit it to you in other ways (surveys, free product offers, bonus giveaways, etc.) as you develop your relationship with them.
Have you decided that you could use a business newsletter, but need help with creation, delivery, and maintenance? Calvert Creative can help you navigate everything from choosing an email service provider to writing the content for your newsletter.
Contact us today and get a free consultation and a quote on getting your business newsletter up and running!
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