How do you turn a one time client into a repeat customer? This is the question every single business owner needs to ask themselves.
Attracting a new client has a certain acquisition price attached to it—how much you spend on advertising and marketing to make a sale. However, successful businesses are the ones that figured out a strategy to keep the customers coming back time and time again.
The trick to promoting customer loyalty is engagement, and one of the best ways to promote engagement is with a company newsletter.
Newsletter Definition
A newsletter is either physical, or more commonly, digital periodic content that a company distributes to its customers. You choose what to put in the newsletter, but typically it contains product-specific articles, coupons, deals, new product announcements and more.
A contact list is required to distribute the newsletter, which means that businesses should collect their customers’ email addresses online or at a brick-and-mortar location.
Benefits of Utilizing a Newsletter
There are numerous advantages that set apart businesses that distribute newsletters from those that don’t, including:
- Increased sales—when customers are alerted to new products or sales, they are more likely to make a purchase.
- Customer loyalty—when you upkeep regular communication with your customers, your brand stays fresh in their mind and they don’t forget you.
- Customer trust—when you share relevant and educational content with your customers, they start viewing you as an expert and trust your recommendations.
- Cost effective—a digital newsletter is free to create and distribute, which is a cost effective marketing strategy.
- Trackable—online software allows you to analyze how many people opened your newsletter, and whether they took any actions (clicked a link, visited a website, made a purchase).
Three Tips for Creating an Effective Company Newsletter
It’s important to remember that your customers typically get dozens of new emails in their inboxes, so you must take steps to encourage them to open and read your newsletter. Follow these tips to create a truly effective newsletter:
Research
You want to create a unique newsletter that offers your readers tips and advice they can’t find anywhere else. However, how do you know what’s out there without doing research? Subscribe to your competitors’ newsletters to see what content they are disseminating, what you can learn from them and what you can improve on.
Do research in your industry to read about the latest developments to see what you can share to educate your customers and set yourself up as an authority figure.
Keep it Simple
Don’t get overly excited about the opportunity to connect with your readers; instead, decide on the angle you want to cover in each newsletter. Don’t bombard your customers with too much content, but focus on a specific topic (individual product or service, how to guide, a review, etc.) and then organize your newsletter around that.
Avoid Being Too Salesy
Although the main goal of the newsletter is to increase sales, don’t give that fact away to your readers. While you want to promote your brand, focus on the educational aspect first. A good balance is 90% educational and 10% promotional, which would provide the ultimate value to your readers.
You may want to invest in software in order to create professional and unique layouts and formats for your newsletter. It may be advantageous to hire a professional copywriter and designer to create graphics and images. If you need help with affording this venture, IOU Financial is ready to help. We offer convenient and fast small business loans of up to $300,000 in under 48 hours. Click here to learn more!
