Do you have a newsletter for your business? If not, there’s no better time to start one. If you already run an email newsletter campaign, this article will guide you on how to strengthen your current campaign and gain more customers. In the digital age one thing is certain: every business can benefit greatly from an email newsletter. In this article we'll give you lots of tangible advice that you can apply right away, supported by psychological evidence on what type of content works best. Plus we’ll also discuss the benefits of a newsletter that you may not have realized. We’ll even cover how it can help your business in various ways, such as improving customer loyalty and increasing sales. Now let’s get started.
Why You Should Collect Emails and How To Do It
There are lots of reasons to collect emails from your customers, online and in person. First, it’s a great way to stay connected with your clientele. Someone might walk into your store and not make a purchase that day, but there’s a very good chance that they may be interested in your products at some point in the future or shopping in your online store. Another reason is because it’s a highly effective digital marketing strategy. Newsletters are better than social media as a form of advertising. In fact, they have a higher Return On Investment (ROI) than almost everything else in digital marketing. One study shows that for every dollar spent on a newsletter, businesses see a $42 return. One of the reasons for this high ROI, is that newsletters are extremely low cost. Many free and inexpensive software exist to get started and they also don’t take nearly as much time to produce and manage as social media.
Despite what you might think, email marketing is on the rise. People of all ages and backgrounds use their email everyday. Because of these statistics, it’s expected that a lot more businesses will create a newsletter in the coming year, especially as we see a reduction in foot traffic due to Covid-19. Many consumers are moving online and your business model definitely needs to adapt.
If spending a few hours per month working on a newsletter allowed you to sell one or more high-end products, would it be worth your time? We certainly think so!
And how exactly can you encourage customers to sign up for your newsletter? Design an attractive looking sign-up form and place it on your counter by the cash register. Engage every customer that walks into your store in a conversation and entice them to sign up for your newsletter by telling them about the content your newsletter offers (you’ll learn more about this in the next section). Another great way to collect emails from your customers is to host a monthly giveaway for all newsletter subscribers - this works even if you’re giving away a small value item. Of course, you’ll also want to promote your newsletter prominently on your website. Design a vibrant looking newsletter form and place it somewhere on your website where every visitor will see it - like the homepage and the bottom of EVERY website page.
Alright, hopefully you’re convinced to create a newsletter for your business now. So let’s dive into how to start one, what not to do, and ideas on what you can include in your campaign, specifically as an audio retailer.
Tips on Creating Great Newsletter Content
While making a newsletter might sound easy, it can be a daunting task. But don’t worry - we’ve got you covered with some easily actionable ideas to incorporate into your newsletter to get started.
Many people think a newsletter only needs to talk about your products and business, but that’s just one portion of what it should cover. A good newsletter also needs to benefit your customers by providing practical advice and further resources that your clientele might be interested in. This advice can be in your industry, but can also be from another industry that is directly related to your business. For example, a company selling audio equipment like headphones or speakers could also provide recommended albums or music tracks, since the subjects are so closely related. If you’re offering useful advice, people will come back to your newsletter and you'll gain credibility as a reliable resource for the audio and music lovers who follow your brand. It’s important not just to make a newsletter, but to make a quality one that people will actually read. If people aren’t reading your newsletter, then it won’t help your business.
Obviously, you will also be using it as a way to promote your business. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to promote new product arrivals and upcoming launches. Everyone loves to learn about new products, especially if it's from an industry they already love. You can also send out special, limited-time offers targeted just to your loyal subscribers. People love a good deal! This is also a way of applying something referred to as the scarcity principle. This comes from the field of social psychology, and simply put, is our tendency to place a higher value on something that is scarce, and a lower value on items that are in abundance. A further benefit is that deals like this also increase brand loyalty. People will keep coming back if they know you have their best interests in mind.
Other content you can include is images of your store to showcase the various listening spaces and new product displays. Be sure to also include content such as owner / staff interviews and multi-angle, close up pictures of popular products. Images of your store and staff allow customers to build confidence in your business and studies show that people tend to prefer things that they recognize. In Psychology, this is referred to as the familiarity principle. When they see your store while just passing by, they might walk in if they recognize it already. A newsletter is a great way to create a relationship with your customers and engage with them.
If you need more inspiration, we recommend signing up for newsletters from a few prominent retailers and manufacturers from the audio industry. Reading their newsletters regularly will surely give you lots of new ideas!
We are also here to help provide great ideas for your newsletters. Kevro International sends you regular email newsletters that contain all kinds of special product offers and useful content, like this article. We encourage you to re-use this type of content in your own newsletter too - you can simply use the images and promotional text from our newsletter in your own campaign. It’s also important to incorporate links and resources in your newsletter to other websites. Some links you can include are shopping guides, audio technology articles, product reviews and YouTube videos. If you provide your subscribers with valuable content and further reading, they are far more likely to open every edition of your newsletter.
Getting Started in 5 Simple Steps
Now that you have an idea of what kind of content to include in your newsletter, let’s take a look at how to launch your first newsletter. We recommend releasing a newsletter to your customers once per month and sprinkling an edition or two inbetween when you have a special announcement to make.
1) Choose a newsletter software
Online newsletter software allows you to lay out your pictures and text, and send it to your customers in minutes. There are lots of newsletter software to choose from. A very popular one is called Campaign Monitor, and it is popular for a number of reasons. First, it’s very easy to use and there are no monthly fees. You pay only when you send your newsletter out. The price depends on your number of subscribers, so if you’re just starting out then it will cost you just a few dollars each time you send the newsletter. Campaign Monitor also offers plenty of newsletter designs so you don’t have to worry about developing a graphic design for the layout - you can simply choose one of the existing templates. It also comes with plenty of analytics you can use to improve the performance of your newsletter. These include the number of customers that opened your newsletter, how many people click on links in your newsletter and which links they clicked on. One other feature we love is the sign-up form that you can embed into your website to increase subscriptions. Of course, there are plenty of different newsletter companies out there to choose from depending on your needs.
If you’re looking for other platforms, then here are some popular alternatives:
- Constant Contact is another popular software aimed at medium to large-size businesses, offering monthly plans that start at $26. The advantage of being on a monthly plan is that you can send an unlimited number of newsletters per month. Plus Constant Contact has some great professional newsletter designs.
- MailChimp - Since this software offers a free version, this is a great choice for small to medium-size businesses who are just starting out. It has plenty of layout designs and is easy to use with it’s simple interface.
- BenchMark - With simple drag and drop design elements, you’ll find BenchMark a great choice if you are looking to customize it with little to no experience. It also has a free plan and you can upgrade later on. Pay as you grow and need more functions.
- GetResponse - This software starts with a free trial, but once you commit the lowest tier begins at $15. After that you can decide what suits your needs best, but it has a lot of great services and well designed templates to choose from.
2) Choose a newsletter template
After deciding on a software, it’s time to pick a template or create your own based on your needs. The newsletter software should have plenty of choices. Use their tools and resources to tailor your newsletter to capture the brand, style and voice of your business.
3) Write the newsletter content
We recommend to start simple by typing it up first in a Word document before pasting the writing into the newsletter software. After it’s all written out, be sure to have someone edit it for grammatical errors and flow.
4) Upload your pictures
It’s important to add more than just text to your newsletter to increase readability and engagement. An exceptional newsletter has more than text; it makes use of high quality images as well.
Now, there is a bit of debate about this, so you will probably want to decide the goal of your newsletter. Newsletters with fewer images and a simple design are rated as more personable. However, in that same article we just linked, the more professional emails with strong design elements can result in higher sales. In fact, adding too many images can also be detrimental. Knowing this, you should carefully consider the goals of your newsletter before getting started.
This is why it’s also important to look at the stats and performance of your newsletter to ensure you’re using the best practices and creating content that suits your audience. For example, a newsletter for a photography website might need more images, whereas a newsletter for a tech company might need more technical information when discussing features of products. Thankfully, a lot of newsletter software includes features like A/B Testing and information like Click-Through Rates.
5) Press send
And that’s it, you’ve made a newsletter in just 5 short steps. Celebrate the launch of your first newsletter and get ready to write the next one!
Now that you’ve got the knowledge on why to make a newsletter and how it can benefit you, it’s time to get started. Implementing the best practices will help your business improve your sales and conversions, inspire customer loyalty, as well as increase brand awareness.
Email Marketing is as relevant as ever, and lots of brands know this. Now that you have the skills, you can start a successful newsletter too and grow your business.
If you’d like to learn more about how to increase your sales as an audio retailer, check out our growing list of marketing articles in our Tips & Guides section of our Blog page.