Why Your Business Needs a Newsletter
Everyone is so caught up in what Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest can do to help grow a business that some of the basics of business communication are falling to the wayside. We hear a lot of talk about SEO and email marketing and how to get more followers on your site, but the thing that every business needs – in addition to these things – is a newsletter. A newsletter? Are they still a thing? Everyone is blogging and podcasting now. There must be a better way than crafting a newsletter? Nope. There isn’t. People still like to get newsletters with sales and specials, updates and news about your company.
How Do You Make a Newsletter?
It seems like a lot of work, doesn’t it? It does take a little bit of work to set up in the beginning, but once you get your format down and get some content built out, you’ll be rocking and rolling. Your newsletter should be different than your blog or podcast information. It is like a reward for people who have signed up to hear from you. Think of those people are your VIP club. They wanted to hear from you so badly they signed up for your newsletter. You can start with a newsletter template in a free email marketing software program: Mailchimp is still pretty popular for this kind of thing, and it’s free. You can drag and drop content into the body of an email and send it out to your followers.
What Should Be Included in a Newsletter?
You’ll want to keep your special content for your newsletter subscribers. I offer my newsletter subscribers early access to courses I sell, podcasts I’ve recorded and information on upcoming events. I also write a note about how business is going, and I always thank my newsletter subscribers to maintaining their subscription. A lot of big companies will send out coupons or discount codes, and people love these. But I like to think of my newsletter as a window into my business that I only share with the most special people.
What Else Do You Need to Know?
When it comes to building out a newsletter, you have to have a website that can collect emails to be able to send that newsletter to people. One of the most successful newsletter launches I had was when I took a screenshot of my newsletter and posted it to social media announcing I had just sent out the newsletter. I got 20 new subscribers that day. Three of them bought products from me. Your website needs to be up to date with its search engine optimization so your customers can find you. If you aren’t sure about how to do that, you can contact a Toronto SEO agency and they can get your website up to speed so you can get more newsletter subscribers.
Use your newsletter to promote your business online and to send special information to those who subscribe to your newsletter. Don’t just fill it with fluff and you can be sure to maintain your audience for a long time.
