E-newsletters, what are they and how can they benefit your business?

Useful stats:

• Over 1 billion people used e-mail in 2008 (many checking e-mail more than five times a day)

• In 2008, 16 million households in Great Britain (65 per cent) had Internet access. This is an increase of just over 1 million households (7 per cent) over the last year and 5 million households (46 per cent) since 2002. Ref:www.statistics.gov.uk

What is an E-newsletter?

An e-newsletter is an on-line newsletter sent directly to your subscribers/mailing list by email.
Subscribers can also sign up to receive your e-newsletter from your website, increasing your mailing list.

What differentiates an E-newsletter from a normal email?

With an E-newsletter it is designed using your brand identity (logo) and can include images, photos and links directly to your website, blog and your social networking sites. You can manage all your mailing lists from one ‘Bulk e-mailer system’ and track who opens your e-newsletters, date and time, and if they click through to your website, which is invaluable information for marketeers! You can also create multiple e-newsletter campaigns to target specific users groups and see which campaign is more successful.

How do I manage and send E-newsletters?

E-newsletters can be managed and sent using a Bulk e-mailer application. This is accessed from a ‘back-end’ administration section. The Bulk e-mailer application is a database of your complete mailing list and all contacts generated from signing up on-line. From this database list you can target emails to specific lists you create, add, delete contacts and update as necessary. You can also personalize your e-newsletters with your client/customer name. All your existing mailing lists can be imported into the bulk e-mailer system so you can keep track of your entire mailing list, so as not to leave anyone out!

How do I know if my E-Newsletter is being opened/read?

With E-newsletters you have the ability to track who opens your email, what date and at what time of day. You can also see what e-newsletter campaign was more successful by how many people opened your email and who clicked through to your website (CTR - Click Through Rate).

Why use E-newsletters? How can they benefit your business?

• Cost effective (free to send and free to receive)
• Targeted marketing to your audience
• Instantly delivered to readers throughout the world
• Tailored with your own business branding and identity
• Cultivate new sales opportunities
• Increases your profile with your current customers
• Can be used effectively in-line with your website, blog and social networking sites
• Generates traffic to your website
• Gives something back to your customers – if your e-newsletter has useful information in your specialist area, customers will be pleased to receive some helpful free advice

Where to go from here?

As part of your marketing plan for this year its not too late to consider using e-newsletters as a means of targeting your customers with useful information directly.

Unsure of setting up an E-newsletter facility yourself?, we can set you up with a system that is right for you with training and support to produce ongoing effective e-newsletters. Contact us to discuss how we can sort it for you!
T: 01273 277665