Many a marketer has gotten burned out on email marketing. We set up a certain newsletter template with the same sections, fonts and colors to make life easier. But over time, it starts to feel like plugging data into a formula, rather than creating something that is meaningful or interesting to others. Remember, variety is the spice of life! Newsletters don’t have to be so rigid and drab. Here are 8 ways to inject some life into the process.
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1. Change the frequency.
Weekly newsletters are a bit much, even if you have a killer brand like Disney or Apple. Just because you eat, sleep and breathe the company 24/7 doesn’t mean your customers do — or have to. A friendly reminder once a month is plenty. Some businesses even find that quarterly newsletters spark better engagement and lower unsubscribe rates. Whatever you decide, be sure to make your marketing frequency predictable for consumers. You can use aWeber to set up an email publishing schedule that works for your business.
2. Wow with video.
Some people like text that they can scan quickly and easily. Other people find video to be more memorable and more personal. If you’re looking for a new way to connect with your audience, try creating a video message that you can insert into your template, along with a screenshot of the video for visual stimulus.
Did you know… Mod Girl Marketing can help your business create an engaging marketing video?
3. Design new templates.
How long have you been using your current design… years? Chances are, your business has changed a lot during that time. Does your existing template reflect what your brand is currently up to? It pays to work with a graphic designer to come up with a fresh design from time to time. You may even create several different templates you switch back and forth between.
4. Make it visual.
How many photos are in your email newsletter? The wild success of social networks like Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook has been attributed to their visual nature. You want your newsletter to be fun to browse, and the addition of high quality images does just that. You can check Fotolia for good, royalty-free images to use.
5. Personalize your content.
Personalization is the key to creating emails that subscribers love. People like to connect with other people, not face-less brands. Add photos of your staff. Include a personal message directly addressed to your readers. More advanced strategies may include using analytics data to offer product and service recommendations based on a recipient’s purchase or browsing history.
6. Use high-quality content.
Some businesses just link to other people’s articles or scrap together content as best they can. The best newsletters are well-written by professional wordsmiths and bloggers who can generate custom content for your target audience. Naturally, as the business owner, you know your business, brand, market and industry best. However, you can outline the topics and ideas you want to convey, and let a professional writer polish it. Check your analytics to know which past blog posts garnered the most attention. Outsourcing some of your content creation work will free up time for you to do what you do best — sell!
7. Experiment with fonts.
Color and font can go a long way in sprucing up a humdrum email newsletter. You don’t want it to look like an internal marketing memo, after all. You want it to look more like the page of a magazine or a web design company’s website. Ideally, the look of your newsletter will be striking — but not distracting. Check out Hubspot’s seven examples of emails they like to read for ideas.
8. Find inspiration elsewhere.
Are you reading industry-related Google News articles every day? Are you subscribed to many other newsletters from industries of all types? Do you read competitors’ blogs? Sometimes just looking around and seeing what other people are doing or discussing can completely revamp your whole approach. Examine how the information is presented, how it’s formatted, and what calls to action are used. You may find the ideas flow more freely.
Need help creating a newsletter people love to read? Contact us today!
