Considered one of the most powerful tools in marketing, newsletters give businesses direct access to their audience. Used by businesses to share engaging content, promote their products, and drive traffic to their websites. With the evolution of technology, marketers today can segment their customer profiles and send personalized messages. Newsletters are a versatile tool that marketers can use to educate, engage, and entertain their subscribers. They can become a helpful tool or suggestion from a friend rather than a hard sell. When done in the right manner, newsletters can accelerate business growth.
Digital technology has accelerated the growth of newsletters and transformed it into a successful digital marketing tool. The evolution of marketing into digital channels has offered newsletters to become a powerful tool for the digital age. Today with billions of people having access to the internet and free email accounts, there is ease in the distribution of newsletters. Our rapidly evolving technology landscape is bringing in personalization and a degree of automation of tasks for newsletters.
Also read: The digital transformation of the jewellery sector
Let’s look at some stats that reflect on how newsletters are a better way to connect with customers and gain business growth:
> According to Statista, 2021, they forecasted that email users worldwide by 2022 would be at 4.3 billion and that this figure is set to grow to 4.6 billion in 2025. A little over half the population of the world.
>According to Omnisend, 2022, report, for every $1 spent on email marketing, brands can expect a return of $40. The ROI of email marketing is said to be higher than other channels like SEO and keywords.
> According to Yes Lifecycle Marketing, 2019, emails with personalized subject lines have 50% higher open rates
> According to Omnisend, 2018, sending three abandoned car emails results in 69% more orders than a single email.
These numbers sure give us an idea of why marketers need to embrace newsletters as a prominent tool for their marketing efforts. Now, let’s understand the various compelling reasons why newsletters are an essential tool for marketers to broaden their reach:
Build a direct connection with your audience
Newsletters offer brands direct access to the customer’s inbox. When your newsletter reaches the customer, the first thing they notice is the sender’s identity. This helps them remember your brand and reinforces your brand identity in their minds. In the social media landscape, the algorithms today can limit the reach of your adverts or posts. However, in the case of newsletters, the message is directly sent to the subscribers. This direct connection helps to build a connection with the audience.
Many neighbourhood businesses expand their customer base by reaching out to nearby residents through physical newsletters and weekly brochures. The consistency in sending out these weekly lures in the customers to check the new store. An effective way to build a connection with the locals.
Also read: Snap AR: Redefining visual experiences and AR based revenue model
Customer segmentation and personalized content
A key strength of the newsletter tool is its ability to deliver highly targeted and personalized content. Marketers can segment their users based on their past purchase history, demographics, and preferences. This tailored content is what resonates with the segment customer groups and can lead to a higher engagement and conversion rate.
Educate and lead the audience to your culture
An effective newsletter is one that encompasses the mission and vision of the brand in all its messaging. If your brand is about beauty and wellness, simply talking about products is not enough. The brand should encompass wellness as an overall concept and include concepts or advantages of herbalism, plant-based diet, benefits of seasonal fruits, and gut health amongst other aspects. This helps a brand to build a fan base for their newsletter where causal readers and customers can turn into brand advocates.
Brand identity and recognition
Building a newsletter design that your audience can immediately relate to is a must. Consistent design builds strong recall value in customers’ minds. From logo placement to colour schemes, witty taglines to informative messaging, they all reinforce brand recognition. Think of the Amul Girl Mascot campaign that has served the brand as an effective tool for brand recall with its wit, design consistency, and cultural connectivity.
Also read: How Groww disrupted traditional investment systems
Data insights
Marketers today can track how well their newsletters are doing amongst various stakeholders. The robust data available along with many analytics tools can help them to track customer responses. Marketers can track open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and more. These insights are a useful tool that offers valuable feedback to marketers on what works, and what needs improvement for the segment groups. This way newsletters are useful tools for marketers to develop campaigns that bring results for the brand.
Building trust and subject matter expertise
A regular newsletter from a brand can build consistency in its approach as subject matter experts. This helps to build trust in the customers. When subscribers consistently receive insightful and helpful information, they are more likely to trust the brand. Cult.fit often invites experts in mental health and nutritionists to add to their various channels like newsletters. This helps their subscriber base to build trust in the brand for their expert advice. Building customer loyalty and advocacy.
Another key example is IKEA. IKEA often sends out a physical catalogue to their customer’s home in certain countries. This helps the brand to stay on top of their customer’s minds for any home furniture needs and encourages them to visit the store. A tangible newsletter provides a lasting experience for the customers. It helps in brand reinforcement and offers a multi-sensory experience.
Also read: Introducing Meta’s latest app: Thread – A new way to share with text
Cost-effective marketing
As we learn from the stats shared earlier, many marketers and experts believe that newsletters are far more cost-effective tools when compared to other marketing tools. Newsletters offer an affordable solution with a significant ROI. Offering brands, a large audience to reach without incurring heavy costs associated with traditional marketing or targeted social media marketing.
Many luxury automobile brands often send out their latest launch as a newsletter catalogue to some of their most curated clients on their database. These physical newsletters are still considered to be crucial for their brand marketing as it helps them to engage the cream of the crop in the most cost-efficient and effective manner.
Newsletters are a critical tool in a marketer’s toolkit that helps them establish lasting connections, offer personalized content, build trust, and drive traffic to the brand to boost sales. Let’s understand how various brands are using the power of newsletters to build a brand community and boost sales:
A. BookMyShow
A digital platform to nook movie and event tickets, BookMyShow sends a newsletter to keep their audience informed about various entertainment options in their city. They unlocked a successful way to boost platform ticket sales by informing their subscribers about upcoming events, exclusive artists’ performances, and shows around.
B. Airbnb
The global digital marketplace for travel experiences sends newsletters featuring travel guides, and unique stays on their website across the globe and offers exclusive offers to hosts and travellers. This helps them to encourage repeat bookings, help hosts attract guests, and contribute to the platform’s global success.
Personalization, tailored content, latest updates, and targeting a lifestyle choice not just the customer are key differentiators for email newsletters to become a success story for marketers. Brands across industries can harness this power to maintain relationships with their customers.
Also read: Here are top ways to optimize your voice search
Admissions are open
You can download the application form with this form
