Enhance Your Email Marketing Campaign with e-Newsletters

At the time of writing we are approaching the end of the year, the Christmas and New Year holiday period when businesses may take a short break and reassess their policies and campaigns for the coming year. Email marketing is likely to be a major focus of any company’s marketing strategy and the end of a month, quarter or year are popular times for sending out e-newsletters.

A regular e-newsletter can be an effective way to develop customer relations at virtually no cost other than the writer’s time. Results from an e-newsletter may not be immediate but over time, provided you publish regularly, they can produce excellent returns, making this one of the most cost-effective components in your marketing strategy. An e-newsletter can help establish you as a leader in your industry or field of expertise. Think of your newsletter as if it were an informational brochure to hand out to clients or prospective clients; the aim should be to inform, educate and possibly entertain, rather than to sell. A stockbroker might provide investment tips, a restaurant could suggest wine pairings, etc. Let your passion for what you do, or create, show through - people will be more inclined to relate to you and remember you.

E-newsletters and bulletins can be used to notify clients about new and updated products, special promotions or exciting new developments in your field. They should generally have a single focus and not be overlong – 250-350 words is an effective length to aim for. Make every effort to ensure that the intended recipients are happy to receive your email marketing missives; it is a good idea to have customers validate their email address to ensure they have ‘opted in’ to receiving your company’s messages.

When writing e-newsletters, as with any kind of email marketing, it is important to bear in mind that your intended readers may receive hundreds of emails a day, so persuading them to even bother opening your particular communication means having a really snappy headline and attention-catching preview pane. It is also worth remembering that reading online produces eyestrain much faster than reading print; it is tiring and therefore it is important to make e-newsletters as easy and comfortable to read as possible. Readers can move away from the text with a mouse click - and often will. Including pictures and graphics and breaking up blocks of text with white space to ease eyestrain will help maintain your readers’ interest.

For larger companies, managing an email marketing campaign, with possibly thousands of customers or potential customers, can be time-consuming and may seem like a massive undertaking. Even smaller businesses may need help organizing their email marketing and distribution of e-newsletters to clients.

InSite can help you with all aspects of your email marketing campaign. Their award-winning email marketing software is convenient to use and provides a cost-effective way to manage your marketing campaigns and stay connected with your customers. InSite’s ‘Messages’ software allows you to set up lists of contacts, to design and send your e-newsletters, keep track of responses and access real-time feedback anytime, anywhere. You will be able to send hundreds of e-newsletters or bulletins in seconds. The software is mobile compatible and can be utilized on any handheld device, ensuring your customers receive your bulletins wherever they may be.

Janet Taylor writes for InSite Systems, a leader in surveys systems and a pioneer of online survey software. For more information about our online survey tool visit http://www.insitesystems.com