Breaking the Ceiling on ROI with e-newsletters
I’ve always been quick to advise clients that the world doesn’t need another newsletter.
In the old world, it seemed like every marketers job was dependent on how quickly he or she could get a newsletter written, printed, mailed and in the hands of every hot prospect and valued customer. Newsletters were typically long and drawn out brag bulletins and most offered very little value to the reader. The prevailing attitude among marketing departments of any industry was that “if they read it, sales will come.” Most often, they didn’t and neither did the second issue. Somewhere there must be an archive of all the thousands of newsletters that ended with the debut copy.
Things have changed. Digital newsletters have become one of the most powerful tools of marketing. Few mediums today can boast double digit open rates among target audiences. E-newsletters done right can.
Just recently I sent out a debut e-newsletter for a client. The content was written specifically for past customers and focused on issues of direct relevance. It was simple, to the point and powerful. The open rate for this newsletter broke all previous records, upwards of 30%, and got the phone ringing within minutes of hitting the send button. It also generated hundreds of new visits to their website the first day it went out.
What an amazing difference from newsletters of the past. The distinguishing factor is relevance. With tools like Constant Contact that provide simple to use templates, you can quickly and efficiently customize newsletters for various target segments and thus personalize the message down to the individual. The digital format also plays well with the new generation of consumers that will rarely commit to reading anything longer than a bullet point as they can scan headlines and click through on just the topics they care about.
As Larry Brummond, president of The Write Touch in Denver, Colorado, a Constant Contact (CTCT) Business Partner, says, “An e-newsletter should be an integral part of an email marketing program. If you provide good value in your e-newsletter, you’ll create trust, loyal following and many more revenue opportunities.”
According to statistics offered by Constant Contact, open rates and click-through rates in most industries easily exceed 10% for email campaigns. For medical services, the open rate is around 17% and the click through to corresponding websites around 13%. That is far better than response rates for most advertising campaigns utilizing other mediums.
The key to success is direct relevance. As Brummond puts it, it is all about “providing value - what they want, not what you want. “ That is one of the fundamental differences between the old style of newsletters and the new. The former was about the brand; the latter about the customer.
Making e-newsletters work:
Planning:
Like any marketing project, have a plan. Don’t just dump copy in an e-newseltter template and hit send. You need to have a strong understanding of your audience, what message will resonate the most at the time of the e-newsletter, and how to organize the flow of your message. Content flow is critical in digital communications. You have to give them a reason to scroll down and see what is below the screen. Good copywriting is essential. You must grab their attention and inspire them to read on immediately.
Part of your plan must be timing. How often is appropriate for your audience to hear from you? Too much frequency with too little substance results in a lot of opt-outs.
The foundation of all planning is to know what you want to achieve with your newsletter. Don’t just do one because you can. Do it because you want to drive visits to your website via click-through traffic, generate new leads for your sales database, keep your brand’s name, message, and products on your client’s mind – all of these are solid reasons for starting an e-newsletter program
Engagement:
Your e-newsletter is not a digital brochure. It is a tool to engage your customers with your brand, your product, and your core value. Engagement is enhanced by meaningful offers and incentives, and ROI is directly related to the quality of engagement, points out Brummond, who has seen an e-newsletter for an insurance industry client get above average open and click-through rates by including a contest, humor and personal information in its e-newsletters.
Data:
Without a solid customer database there is no reason to do an e-newsletter. Collect it, keep it current, and use it. Segment your database into customer groups and create newsletters that reflect the needs for each group directly and relevantly. Get email addresses from all customers and prospects and permission to use them you’re - newsletter. Before a solid data management system is in place you cannot be effective with any type of email communications campaign.
Measurement:
One of the greatest values in anything digital is that you can track results to the individual level. Always incorporate metrics into your e-newsletter so you can measure how it is working to achieve your business goals. You can learn a great deal of valuable information from this tool, such as:
What customer segments respond to which offers
What offers get the most response?
What time of month gets most response?
The accuracy of your customer data files. Emails that bounce back are a great indicator that something has changed with a customer or prospect.
When done correctly, e-newsletters work very well. According to Brummond, Constant Contact has seen customers increase revenue as high as 30% among existing customers from email campaigns. The key to succeed is to focus on the customer, include timely and actionable offers, track results in order to improve relevance and efficiency, and finally, stick with it. –
About the Author
Jeanette McMurtry is a sales and marketing expert specializing in psychology-based strategies for health care and other industries. She is the principal of e4marketing and can be reached at jeanette@e4marketingco.com or 970 390 6909.
