Does a Newsletter work?

Does a newsletter work? Depends on it's purpose, but for us, 100% categorically yes

Can you add the same message to your website? Depends on the message. If it's a special promotion for your newsletter peeps, then they won't feel very special if you have the same offer on your website for general visitors.

But if its web content/blog/useful info, no reason why you can't send that as a newsletter.

At the risk of stating the obvious, I think it depends how frequent they are and what the content is like.

Amazon, eBay and PayPal send me rubbish several times a week - emails full of promotions for stuff I'm not that interested in purchasing. I don't even bother to read it any more - I just delete it unread. If they ever have anything important to tell me chances are I won't notice.

There's also a smaller, more independent shop I used once who send out a fairly infrequent newsletter (good) that simply isn't interesting (bad). I'm sure they're thrilled about having taken on a new member of staff/adopted an office cat/raised

Yes, I would have to re-interate what the others say. Plus I would add that in some areas it helps if you have a well known name or brand that gives you credibility as a source of information. Alternatively if write witty blogs posts.

Offers do help, but I end up getting fed up some of them as they bombard you. However, I have signed up on a few occasions when I have seen offers.

I realised that I never read the RSS feeds of newsletters that I have subscribed to, but if I feel that a website is a good source of information, then I will bookmark it and I have been known to go back to browse through the latest info.

Thanks for the good ideas, frequency is the key factor we was concerned about.

The frequency to send an e-newsletter will very much depend on your industry and what the aims of the newsletter are. The other key factors are targeting, personalisation and call to actions!

frequency - for most service type business I always advice monthly as long as you have something interesting to say. So in your case Mark, monthly is good. Also look at the day of the week and time of the month you are sending it. You will be surprised at the response rates if you can get into a pattern for sending. (for example the first Monday of every month). For websites that are more consumer based (e-commerce) you can get away with weekly emails as long as they are targeted to the the recipient needs and behaviour when on your site.

Targeting - make sure the info in the newsletter is right for the recipient. If you have to do several versions of the e-newsletter then so be it! Again this extra effort is worth it for your business and what you may achieve revenue wise.

Personalisation - make sure you are personalising the communication you send. Put the recipient name in the subject-line to encourage opens and when possible in the actual body of the e-newsletter to encourage clicks to the site and landing page.

Call to action - your e-newsletter has a purpose and that is to attract your customers back to your site or business in general. It is no good having a load of text on the newsletter and expecting the recipient to know what you want them to do, you need to tell them! Clear and precise calls to action are therefore needed........." click here, read more, buy now, do this or that.........."

There isn't a "one fits all" solution to sending e-newsletters (as with any marketing method) - it has to fit with your customers needs and your business needs.

Newsletters do work, possible two new customers.

Mark

When you say it does work, do you mean these people have come to your site and signed up to receive a newsletter and as a result have expressed an interest to do business with you?

Basic answer is yes.

Hi Mark

Newsletters letters are the perfect way to keep in touch with your existing clients and potential clients.

It's vital that you have some form of data capture on your website, even it's only as simple as a newsletter to sign up to.

Whatever your business, this is one area you can grow your business.

We would recommend utilising the services of MailChimp - very easy to set up and use and initially FREE.

Good luck.

Kind regards

Christine