Digital newsletter campaigns are an excellent way of engaging your client base. They can also help you build an active community for your SME. Also known as email or permission marketing, newsletter campaigns can enhance brand image and have a proven record of driving sales. If you don’t have any kind of digital email campaign, it’s certainly worth your consideration. There are some simple guidelines you must follow before you can send all your customers an email. Once you have these right, you will gain a valuable database which can help your business grow.
Always obtain the right permissions
The word ‘permission’ is key in this instance, especially with GDPR looming. GDPR is the new data protection law which comes into play on May 25th, 2018. You can read our blog on GDPR to help you understand the rules you must follow. Following these rules and spending time organically growing your email database will pay dividends. You will only be targeting people who have a genuine interest in your SME. Email marketing campaigns are monitored by anti-spam features, so if you are sending newsletters to fake addresses your reputation will be affected. This is why the double opt-in system of gaining new subscribers is preferable. This way, there is no question over whether your customers have agreed to receive correspondence from you and it avoids you being listed as spam.
Other important factors
Other important factors to consider include ensuring that your newsletter:
- engages rather than annoys
- is relevant and interesting to your client base
- looks professional and is visually appealing
With the average time a person spends reading a newsletter being less than one minute, the content needs to be easily digestible. Platforms like MailChimp make designing the layout straightforward. MailChimp can also help your email look professional as well as enabling it to be delivered to all mail servers.
Spend time thinking of a compelling subject line to capture attention while exploiting design features such as picture and text boxes. It’s also imperative that you plan your content and make sure no more than 20 per cent of it is promotional; the other 80 per cent should be educational and relevant to your clients. Bombarding people with dreary and irrelevant mail is a sure-fire way to lose followers, so design it with individuals in mind to help nurture the bond between client and business.
MV Marketing specialise in helping SMEs with a wide range of marketing activities. For flexible marketing solutions that don’t cost the Earth, please contact us today.