By Rhonda Campbell
Social media rose to prominence and it was as if email, particularly email newsletters, went out the window in the eyes of some freelancers and small business owners. Yet, it’s newsletter subscriber contact information that freelancers and small business owners can call their own, not followers at large social media networks; that information is owned by shareholders and/or company founders.
Email Newsletters Increasing Customer Engagement
Additionally, the more media outlets business owners and freelancers own, the more leverage they’ll have to make changes as they see fit. When they use large social media networks to engage customers, those large scale efforts will be an added benefit of their other, basic online marketing efforts.
For example, a freelancer who grows her email newsletter subscriber base to 30,000 a month has direct access to those subscribers. She doesn’t have to pay to promote social media posts (think Facebook) to reach larger numbers of her followers. Instead, she can simply send sales and discount updates about recently launched products or services in her monthly email newsletters. She can also email holiday greetings to her subscribers at low monthly rates as some newsletter software companies charge about $50 a month to send countless newsletters to several thousand subscribers.
To save time while building engaging email newsletters, business owners and freelancers can use newsletter software. Companies that offer newsletter software and a range of newsletter layouts include Constant Contact, Vertical Response, Mail Chimp and iContact. Building engaging email newsletters with the templates offered by the companies is generally an intuitive process. It’s possible to start and finish an online newsletter in less than an hour using the templates.
Building Engaging Email Newsletters
Fields you generally can complete while building an online newsletter is:
• Your name or your business name
• A company logo (it’s good to give subscribers an image that they can easily recall; consider using the same logo you use at your website, on media kits, etc.)
• Letter from the editor, company president, you as the freelancer, etc. (personal notes, words of encouragement, tidbits about recent learning experiences you’ve had are good items to share in the letter)
• Pictures of recent business events you attended, hosted or sponsored
• Discount coupons loyal subscribers can use to enjoy additional savings on your products and services
• Tidbits, advice or interviews with industry leaders (the more valuable information you give your newsletter subscribers, the better)
• List of upcoming events, contests, etc. your subscribers will benefit from knowing about
Tips to Grow Email Newsletter Subscriber Base
Although there aren’t as many weekly email newsletters around as there were 10 years ago, building and distributing weekly online newsletters may help you improve customer engagement. As with other marketing strategies you implement, measure the return on your investment (ROI). As a tip, newsletter software and newsletter template companies generally deliver metrics on each newsletter you distribute. The metrics are generally sent within 48 or 72 hours of the date you distribute a weekly or monthly email newsletter.
Pay attention to these metrics. They can reveal changes you can make to improve subscriber engagement so you can increase the numbers of clicks, new subscribers and social media shares you get with each issue. When choosing newsletter software companies, also consider looking for companies that give you the option to add social media share buttons to each of your email newsletters. One other tip, consider adding subscription buttons for your newsletter to your website and blog so you can grow your readership.
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