In the times we live in, digital tools have taken over our daily lives. Gone are the days when we were obliged to do business in person or to receive physical correspondence at our homes’ front door. In the latter case, the change has been resounding because we still receive correspondence, but via email.

For a company, having an efficient email contact system is almost like knocking on the door of a potential customer’s house and leaving a message. Its potential is infinite and that is why taking advantage of it should be a primary issue in the marketing plan of any business.

When it comes to creating an email marketing campaign that is truly effective, there is nothing better than reviewing examples of good newsletters because they are focused on getting the most out of this tool and that is something that can be useful for inspiration. Big brands invest a lot of effort in this type of actions because they are clear that only in this way they will be able to stay in the minds and hearts of users and become a place where they always come back to buy.

Focus on users

The focal point of any marketing-related action is the users or potential customers. It is thanks to them that brands have the opportunity to remain operational and it is not possible to repress or underestimate the value of this. Understanding the needs, desires and beliefs of the people on the other side of the screen will give you a stronger and closer idea of what they want to read and the ideal way to get them to take the actions you are looking for.

Within the group of contents that tend to be better received by subscribers we can find the “tips” category. These can be applied to any niche, making the appropriate adaptations depending on the case. Guides and contents that give away tips on how to carry out a certain action are also well received.

Appropriate design

As they say, everything goes through the eyes and in email marketing the situation is no different. Ensuring that the design is in line with the brand concept and that it fits visually to what users can consume more easily is key.

A good design will include some attention-grabbing element, such as an image or logo, but make sure that it does not overload with heavy graphic elements or steal attention away from the main message being conveyed. Canva is a great example of what an ideal newsletter design should look like, as although they work with graphic elements, their emails are displayed in a clean and elegant environment.

Include persuasive texts

Nothing can be said against the power of words to get a person to take a certain action, which is why the use of persuasive text in emails is so critical. It could even be said that sending a campaign without text is a waste of time and resources, even if you use an image to summarize what you want to say.

Storytelling is one of the techniques that works best in this regard and this can be seen by the number of brands that use it today to connect more easily with their audience.

Vary the types of content you send

Although the ultimate goal of an email marketing campaign is to sell, the reality is that if it is only used for this purpose, people will end up getting annoyed and unsubscribing. To avoid that negative episode, the safest strategy to use is to vary the types of content used in a way that ensures that users are interested in each new piece of content they receive.

The three basic pillars of content are: entertainment, education and sales. Although the main objective in the first two cases is not to sell, it does help a lot in this purpose because they are messages that create links and produce a desire in users that they then see compensated with the purchase of the product or service. In this case, the emails sent by Amazon Music fully comply with this recommendation.

Define a call to action

Effective email marketing campaigns are classified as such because they achieve a certain objective. This objective usually consists of clicking on a button to be taken to another page where a specific function will be performed. For example, this could be watching a video, reading a blog article or entering bank details to purchase a certain product or service.

The call to action is almost always placed with a button in a colour that contrasts with the rest of the message so that it can be easily located. Each email sent should have a single, pre-defined call to action because if more than one is placed, it is possible that the person receiving the message will be confused about what to do next.

Include incentives

Incentives offer a wealth of possibilities, both for brands and for users who feel good about being part of their community. Most commonly, a brand will decide to give a gift to people who subscribe to its list as a way of motivating them. However, initiatives should not stop there and from time to time new ways should appear to include incentives that lead people to buy.

For example, important book companies have sent out flyers informing that for a certain amount of time all shipments will be free. Also the Lumen5 tool, which is ideal for creating videos, has proposed the idea that its users take advantage of it and share a video created with it.

The number of elements that are included in an email marketing campaign must respond, almost necessarily, to the needs and interests that brands have and that, in turn, come out of the detailed study of their ideal customer. Advancing in increasingly human contacts and with a particular objective is what is working best at the moment and brands must learn to enhance this digital marketing action because it is the one that offers the best return in these times.

Newsletters are ideal resources to reach your target audience directly. One of their greatest advantages is that potential customers decide to receive them, so there is already a positive predisposition towards the brand. Some recommendations should be taken into account for this email marketing tool to be effective, one of them is to have good software.

With the advent of the internet, a resource that changed the ways of communicating were emails, and it did not take long for it to also become a promotional tool for companies.

This is how email marketing was born, a digital advertising strategy that over time, far from weakening, has evolved and today coexists with other resources such as SEO/SEM positioning, social media management, inbound marketing and much more.

And when it comes to email marketing, one of the most used tools for its great effectiveness is the sending of newsletters or newsletters, which are issued by companies through email periodically to inform their regular customers and potential buyers’ news about their products, brand and many topics related to the sector to which they belong.

How to achieve a good result with newsletters?

When you have made the right decision to include newsletters as part of your digital marketing strategy, it is advisable to follow recommendations that have a substantial influence on obtaining excellent results.

A very good tip is to review successful newsletter examples that are usually provided by specialized portals that serve as support for the successful use of email marketing resources.

Seeing examples of newsletters is a source of inspiration to create your own style that identifies your brand and your products or services. Most of them are examples of well-known companies that bet on simple newsletters, always with their respective calls to action, but very well elaborated, with which they have obtained excellent results.

Well-known newsletters that can serve as examples are those of Carolina Herrera, Amazon Music, Canva, Friki Trip, Pompeya, Lumen 5, among others.

Another aspect to consider when working with newsletters is the frequency. This will depend on the type of business you have and the related content you can produce. A good way to start is with a monthly one that includes promotions, latest news, new launches, even more so if it is a new business, if it is small or if you do not have the necessary experience with this type of strategy.

To maintain a certain constancy, a fortnightly newsletter is an ideal frequency so as not to saturate users. If it is an online shop or blog that is constantly updated, sending a weekly newsletter is a good decision, as the public will be able to find out what is new instantly.

There is also the option of seasonal periodicity, i.e. sending newsletters on special dates such as Christmas, brand anniversary, Valentine’s Day and more.

Choosing a good software is essential

To achieve the primary objective of email marketing, which is to keep the brand in contact with its target audience, build loyalty and translate this into more sales opportunities, it is necessary to have the support of a software for creating newsletters, as this way you can ensure that the strategy is a success.

With a good email software you can speed up the sending of emails, in this case newsletters, which would be too slow and complicated to do manually.

One of the advantages is that using software of this type is very economical, in many cases free of charge. There are programmes that, in their free versions, allow you to send up to 80,000 emails per month to 20,000 contacts. If they are paid options, but quite economical with respect to their benefits, these limits increase substantially.

The free mass mailing software usually has support without additional payment, does not generate advertising in the emails, allows you to create subscription forms, access advanced statistics and many more features.

On the other hand, it is important to know, also as a recommendation, that special care and dedication should be taken with the content that will be sent through newsletters, as it always has to be interesting material for the target audience and that offers added value. It is even better when the information helps to solve a problem or meet a need, this is what is called “hitting the target”.

Some advantages of sending newsletters

There are many advantages of sending newsletters as a strategy to have contact with the audience. Among the main ones is precisely the fact that it allows you to create loyalty and long-term relationships with customers. It is an excellent option to send potential buyers information of interest that keeps them connected with the brand sustainably over time, and can turn them into indirect promoters of the company.

Although newsletters are not direct sales tools, they can become a platform for building customer confidence and, in this way, increase the likelihood of making sales.

The fact that you can do analytics on this tool, it is possible to study the behaviour of the potential customer, and with that to adjust on the fly the email marketing campaign with a view to obtaining better results. It is possible to know who opened or deleted the email, what is most viewed, and more.

One of the great advantages is that this strategy is extremely cost-effective. As mentioned above, the use of mass mailing programmes can even be free of charge. If this is related to the wide reach it has, it is arguably the cheapest digital marketing strategy in terms of price-performance ratio that exists.

Another of its advantages is that it is the perfect way for customers to reach the brand’s website, i.e. it helps a lot to improve web traffic.

As we have seen, newsletters can bring a long list of benefits to any business, so there is no reason for your business to not have a successful one. Start working in one today and reap all the benefits this type of marketing campaign brings into the table.