The numbers paint a compelling story: email is king when it comes to digital marketing. Research tells us that more than 293 billion emails are sent each day, and marketers are continuing to pour into email so much that it’s expected to reach 4.3 billion daily emails by 2023. But what has marketers seeing dollar signs is the whopping 4200% ROI that effective email marketing can deliver.
Because let’s face it: sending email is dirt cheap, which means you can start seeing a return on investment in a heartbeat.
Still, no amount of spending on email marketing can get you to that level of success if you can’t earn engagement from your subscribers. Let’s look at 10 email newsletter ideas that can encourage clicks, purchases, and general engagement from your audience:
1. Tell a Story
Storytelling in email marketing is one of the most effective ways to connect with your audience without sounding salesy. This is your opportunity to highlight your customers’ successes, testimonials, or even your own behind-the-brand story. When you can connect your audience to real people, you’re adding a new layer of credibility to your brand and sharing your audience’s experiences with your company.
2. Share Tailored Recommendations
More than 38% of marketers agree they need to improve how they personalize emails. One way to do this is to create curated content based on their browsing or buying behaviors. Tools like Drip can help you automate segmentation and send emails that are naturally relevant and engaging.
3. Provide a Valuable Resource
Did you just create the most epic ebook ever? What about a checklist or how-to guide that will make someone’s life easier? People love great content, especially when they can get it for free.
Share your most valuable resources with your email list with a link for them to read or download it. It could be a how-to guide to get the most from your product or service, or even a video tutorial on how to do a specific task.
4. Promote Your Blog Post
Every time you write a new blog post, you want the whole world to know about the epic content you just created. Start small by sending it to your email list and encourage them to check it out on your website. Even though 55% of readers spend less than 15 seconds reading your articles, their click-through can do wonders for your email sender score and website traffic. And naturally, the more website traffic you earn, the more favorable you look to search engine algorithms.
5. Talk about Something Timely
Right now, COVID-19 is on the top of everyone’s mind, and many businesses and service providers are using this opportunity to stay connected with their audience via email. For example, Fullscript sent out tips on how to practice self-care, whether you are working on the front lines or feeling anxiety from staying at home.
But you don’t need a pandemic to leverage this technique. Any type of timely event will do, as long as you’re providing great content and value to your reader.
6. Announce a New Product
Email subscribers are usually the first to hear about new products. Use your email list to share sneak peeks so they can get in on the action and help spread the word. For added engagement, share a link that directs them to a video or product page where they can learn more.
7. Offer a Coupon or Incentive
Coupons and incentives can be effective in making short-term sales and encouraging people who are on the fence to act quickly. The downside, however, is that they do little to build long-term loyalty and might make it harder for the user to justify paying full price in the future.
When done correctly, you should be able to provide value to your audience and maintain their loyalty. For example, you could offer a discount to an upcoming webinar if they book within a certain time frame. Include a countdown timer in your email to encourage them to act fast. It doesn’t cost you much to do this, but the discount could be very valuable to the right user.
8. Highlight a Case Study
Case studies have been touted as the single most effective form of content for B2B sales. They not only highlight your product, but also how a real company used that product to achieve a certain goal. And the best case studies dive deeper into exactly how they used the product and provide real numbers and data regarding their outcome.
Share your case studies with your email subscribers and provide a link to drive website traffic to get the full report.
9. Ask for Their Opinion
Surveys and polls aren’t just good for engagement — if you listen closely, you can learn exactly what your customers need and want from you! While it’s safe to say you’ll never get a 100% response rate, you can glean valuable insights from every poll or feedback survey.
A good rule of thumb is to make your request short and simple. More than half of customers revealed in a recent survey that they wouldn’t provide feedback if it takes longer than three minutes. The fewer questions and less effort it takes, the more likely you are to get a response.
10. Show Off Your Team
There are a lot of eyes and hands behind your company, people who help you take care of your customers. Use your email platform to spotlight someone in your company who deserves a little recognition, such as a new employee or newly promoted team member.
If you’re a solopreneur, you can highlight people who inspire you or help you make your business work.
As for using this technique to drive engagement, you can direct your audience to a blog post or other content created by the person you’re praising. This type of recognition isn’t just good for getting clicks, but also to humanize your brand and help people see the real people behind the screen.
Wrapping It Up
Make your newsletters fun by infusing creativity to engage, convert, and upsell your target audience. Know that the great thing about newsletters is that you can change them up every month to see what really clicks with your target audience. Doing so will give you more insight into which messaging and CTAs drive them to take action.
Finally, make sure you take into consideration the best times and days to send and what you’re trying to achieve with each newsletter. Besides getting opens and clicks, you want to push your audience to really be a part of your brand, and you empower them to do so with the content you serve them.
3 Responses
Thanks for the great tips! I would say that almost all of these strategies can be applied to your blog to help increase engagement there as well, and then, yes, you should use your newsletter to help distribute your blog posts.