.jpg)
The newsletter has become one of the most commonly used ways to generate and nurture leads. Most businesses and sites offer their customers a newsletter as a simple, yet effective way to captivate and grow their audience.1
But have they gone out of style? Some would say yes, newsletters are a thing of the past for lead generation. According to Katharina Cavano, a writer for Contactually, "Your email newsletter is worthless for generating leads,"2 and she goes on to speak about why blanket newsletters are not effective for click through or lead generation. While others feel that if newspapers are still in circulation, why couldn't their digital counterparts be just as effective? Newsletters work best when they're geared toward the audience they're catering to, and offer the valuable content they desire.1 In favor of newsletters, Mail on the Mark states, "…email marketing is the most effective way to build awareness, acquire leads, convert prospects, and retain current customers."3
For those who agree that newsletters are beneficial, we've compiled a list of five tips that could help enhance your newsletter to be more effective in engaging your audience.
- Reason to sign up: entice your readers to sign up by offering a benefit, such as a free whitepaper or discount code
- Announce your newsletter: add a call-to-action on your social media to direct viewers to your newsletter sign-up page
- Amp up the subject line: it's your first point of contact, so it should be catchy and personal to captivate your audience into opening the email
- Narrow your focus: give each newsletter a specific goal, and craft the message around that focus
- Get to the point: don't waste your readers' time, if the content takes longer than a couple minutes to skim, start cutting it down4
Large corporations such as Cisco, Apple, and Samsung utilize newsletters as a part of their email marketing campaign. So, we can agree that for these brands newsletters are not an outdated lead generation method.
And, for those that feel newsletters are in fact old news, we've found a solution that can help you transition to a new way of emailing content to your readers. Invest in a CRM or email system that allows you to send out smaller batches of more personalized emails2. By breaking down your emails through strategic elements such as audience segmentation, send frequency, and content strategy, you'll be able to provide targeted content to your audience based on where they are in the funnel.5
No matter your stance on newsletters, providing valuable content to your readers is key. It just depends on how you prefer to send it. We'll let you be the judge as to whether or not newsletters are old news.
Send us a message or call us at 800-500-3501 today to discover how we can use our marketing expertise to help you effectively utilize newsletters in your email campaign.
Stay tuned for next month's post "Social Media Part 2," where we'll talk about utilizing Facebook and Instagram for lead generation.
