Should You Start A Newsletter For Your Business?
Are you thinking about incorporating newsletter marketing into your business strategy, but need help getting people to sign up for your newsletter? You may even be wondering if email marketing is even worth it!
If you want to improve your business marketing strategy without social media, creating a newsletter can be an effective way to connect with your audience on a more personal level and increase sales.
Let’s answer some of the most frequently asked questions about business newsletters, including what kinds of businesses benefit from email newsletters, how email marketing works, and marketing strategies to encourage newsletter sign-ups.
Are Newsletters Still Relevant?
Email marketing and sending business newsletters may seem like an outdated form of marketing with so much emphasis being placed on social media. But, newsletters are still relevant in today’s business landscape.
This is because people still rely on emails! And, the amount of people who use email keeps increasing.
According to research by Litmus, email is still one of the most effective marketing methods out there, earning businesses around $36 for every $1 invested.
People do still sign up to receive email marketing especially when social media is extremely saturated, and people are looking for more personal connections with brands.
This is further shown in stats iterated by HubSpot: “...40 percent of B2B marketers say email newsletters are most critical to their content marketing success, and 73% of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email.”
How Effective Is Newsletter Marketing?
Newsletters are an effective form of marketing because they allow you to speak directly to people who are interested in your business and want to hear about your services and/or products.
Email marketing can be effective for any business that wants to remain connected with their clients and potential clients, and grow. For example, content creators (bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers) can use newsletters to drive traffic to their content; e-commerce stores can promote products and announce sales; and service providers can share tips and industry news.
Through newsletters, you can:
Increase website traffic and improve SEO
Build relationships through direct communication
Experience a higher ROI as you’re marketing directly to people who’ve shown interest in your offers
Build hype around new offers and increase sales
Keep your business top of mind with your audience
However, newsletters aren’t just about pasting the first two paragraphs of your blog in an email and sending it to your email list. There’s a lot more that goes into successful email marketing.
How Does Email Marketing Work?
Once you have a list of email subscribers and an email service provider, you can send newsletters. It’s important to use an email service provider like MailChimp or Zoho Campaigns as it has an unsubscribe option and can create automated campaigns.
But, in order to gain traction and have your audience excited to hear from you, marketing expert, Neil Patel, advises business owners to:
Use people’s names in the email, i.e. address the person by name, such as “Hi Jessica!”
Have a compelling hook or subject line
Ensure your newsletter is mobile-friendly
Include CTAs (call to action)
Only email people who have signed up to receive messages from you – never buy an email list
You can create warm-up email campaigns to lead up to a service or product launch, have a welcome sequence with special offers once someone signs up, or share tips and tricks with your audience. There really are so many newsletter ideas!
How Do I Encourage Newsletter Sign-ups?
So, how does this all start? How do you build an email list from scratch?
Offer a freebie
A freebie is a free resource in the form of a PDF, Canva template, or video/masterclass. Depending on your niche, create a freebie to help your audience with something. For example, if you’re a health coach, it could be a grocery list or three healthy and easy office lunch recipes.
Tip: Ask your audience on social media about that freebie they’d be interested in. Even though it’s a freebie, this resource should still be needed and valuable. You can also do Pinterest keyword research to find out what your ideal clients are searching for.
Add pop-ups to your website
Your freebie and newsletter opt-in need to be in the form of a pop-up on your website. However, keep the user experience in mind. Too many pop-ups can be annoying and lead to an increase in website drop-offs.
Market your newsletter
Don’t just repeat what you’re writing on social media in your newsletter… Assure your audience that they’ll be getting more in-depth advice, tips, and even special offers via email if they sign up. Add your newsletter sign-up link to your social media bios.
One of the best ways to grow your email list is with Pinterest marketing. You’ll need a landing page where people can sign up for your email list. This page should be set up for your lead magnet so people who click on the URL of your Pins can exchange their email addresses for the freebie.
Pinterest pins generally drive traffic to your website; once people show up on your site, your freebie newsletter pop-up will appear.
Also, add a CTA for your freebie on your Pinterest business profile.
Don’t have Pinterest yet? Find my step-by-step guide to marketing your business on Pinterest here.
If you want to improve your marketing efforts and grow your business without showing up on Instagram and TikTok more, consider creating a newsletter and putting more effort into email marketing. This more personalized and direct form of marketing can take your business to new heights.
Hello, I'm Megan!
An introvert at heart, Pinterest is the perfect platform for me. Simply posting your content using the right marketing strategies gets you an abundance of website traffic? No engagement or ‘showing up’ needed?
Who wouldn’t want to use this powerhouse of a platform …
