Here are ten easy steps to create your company newsletter:
1. Setting of Goals
The first step is to decide on the purpose of your newsletter. Will it be a regular company update, highlighting a different employee each time? Do you plan to use it to promote sales and new products? Consider what you can offer your audience.
Consider what you want from your newsletter and how it fits into your overall marketing strategy. Whether you want to build your list by encouraging email forwards and sign-ups, drive sales on your website, or simply raise brand awareness, know your end goal before you start planning.
2. Identify and segment your target demographic
Before you create your strategy, identify your target audience. So, who? So, what? Understanding your audience will help you better serve them, reducing unsubscribe rates and increasing brand loyalty.
Consider why your subscribers joined your list in the first place. If there was a reward, like a discount, they might be more interested. They are more likely to respond positively to educational newsletters if they signed up voluntarily or to gain access to information.
You can (and should) segment your audience by demographics and interests to better tailor content and experiences for your readers.
3. Organize Your Plan
Use your company’s existing email marketing strategy as a template for your newsletter strategy. If you’re starting from scratch, write down your goals, target audience (current and future), frequency (weekly, monthly, etc.) and voice.
Reading competitor newsletters can help you learn how they succeed and how to differentiate your brand in the market.
4. Create a Strategy
The next step is to create a strategy for implementing your newsletter strategy. Assign specific team members to brainstorm, build, and craft content, and share the master schedule.
Automated email marketing tools like Benchmark Email help you segment your list, personalize content, and schedule emails weeks or months in advance. By automating these manual tasks, your team can focus on the overall strategy and content quality rather than busy work.
5. Compose Your Content
The more content you can gather ahead of time, the better. Include a clear, visible call to action in each email — the action will vary depending on the newsletter’s goal.
6. Choose a Newsletter Template
The email template you choose will ensure your emails are effective, beautiful, and mobile-friendly. Not using a template-based platform or not liking the ones available? Hire a designer to create a custom template for you.
Your content can then be filled in, modifying it to fit the text boxes, graphics, or adding new sections as needed. Remember to include your contact information and social media handles so customers can easily find and follow you.
7. Plan the details
Now that you’ve completed the bulk of your content, it’s time to polish it up. Choosing which keywords to use in your meta description and which sender to use may seem trivial, but they can all impact your newsletter’s open rates and deliverability.
When you’re ready, send yourself a preview of your first email. Do you need to shorten the subject line? Is the email in your inbox or spam? Adjust as needed, and remember to use A/B testing to fine-tune these details before sending your newsletters.
8. Ensure Compliance
Finally, before launching your newsletter, check for compliance with business email laws. You may be familiar with GDPR, a European privacy law that requires email marketers to obtain active consent from all European recipients before sending messages.
The CAN-SPAM law, which is less talked about but more widely applicable, requires email marketers to include an unsubscribe link in their footers.
Before sending your emails, make sure they follow these and any other rules.
9. Send it Out!
Okay, you’ve got your segmented email list, personalization and details planned, and your test email is flawless — you’re almost ready to send your first email!
Hit send, then forget about it until the next one goes out!
10. Keep Track of Your Results
You won’t set it and forget it, of course. Email newsletters are no exception. A/B subject line tests to see what gets subscribers to open emails; click-through rates to see what content gets more engagement; subscriber count to see if it’s going up or down.
All of these metrics can help you improve your newsletters, and your strategy should improve with each new email. If you aren’t seeing the results you expected, figure out why and make a plan to change direction.
In Conclusion
Sending out an email newsletter is one of the most effective (and lucrative) ways to grow your customer base and revenue. With this easy-to-follow guide, you can start sending email newsletters that will delight your subscribers and grow your business!