Due to the explosive growth of social media, many businesses have let newsletters fall to the wayside in recent years. Why spend the time writing out a lengthy document that ‘probably no one reads anyway’, when instead you can just do quick, small updates all the time? Well, contrary to what you may think, newsletters still offer a lot of value to your business. Here are 4 reasons why newsletters need to be part of your marketing mix.
Newsletters allow for greater depth
While your newsletters probably shouldn’t be essay-length documents detailing every last aspect of your business since your previous blast, they do allow you to go into a level of detail that social media doesn’t always allow for. You can create a much more personal connection and reveal more intimate (but not too intimate-no one wants to hear about your divorce, Sharon) details about you and your business.
They’re also great for promoting any sales or product launches you may be running at the time of publication.
Newsletters work as an additional touchpoint
We’ve discussed the importance of multi-channel marketing before, and there’s no reason why newsletters can’t (or rather shouldn’t) be a part of this repertoire. Think about the type of customers you service, and what their media habits are like. Not everyone is on social media or uses it as much as others. This leaves these clients at a deficit when it comes to receiving updates from your business. What we all have to do, however, is check emails. In publishing a newsletter you’re ensuring that these customers cannot forget about you.
Familiarity
If it seems as though we’re always harping on about the Mere Exposure Effect in these blog posts it’s probably because we are. With good reason. We know that consumers generally stick to what they’re familiar with, so not only do clients need to first be aware of you, but then they need to feel comfortable, and continue to feel comfortable with you. Maintaining brand familiarity is critical if you want to keep repeat customers. By proactively sending out new messages, customers will recognise your brand as familiar and will think of it more often. It’s an efficient and consistent way to remind people of your presence.
On top of this, if your content is timely and compelling, it’ll drive your audience to act.
Content Recycling
Not everything in your newsletter needs to be an original piece. If you’re an active user of social media or run a blog (like ours) then you can quite easily lift content from that and incorporate it into your newsletter. That said, try to rejig information or use excerpts to prevent consumers from feeling like you’re just rehashing the same news. That way, clients who are across all of your brand’s media points will still feel as though they’re getting something from your newsletter.
Newsletters are not obsolete. For those businesses that are prepared to put the time and effort into setting one up the payoff can be significant. They’re great for increasing brand recognition, increasing customer awareness, and just increasing your marketing ROI in general.
So what are you waiting for? Get started on your own newsletter today. Not sure how to set one up?
Our dedicated design team are on standby and ready to help.
