One way to keep people engaged and up-to-date on your industry’s news is by regularly sending out a newsletter. Online systems like MailChimp make it easy to customize emails (such as a holiday-themed layout in December) to send to your entire database.
However, if you have ever shopped online or attended a conference, you know that it’s easy to get sucked into a stream of unwanted emails. So how do you keep an audience hooked – and keep people from hitting that “unsubscribe” button?
- Discover your perfect number of emails to send: You don’t want to spam people multiple times a day, yet if you rarely send, your fans won’t be as connected. Therefore, think about sending either a monthly, quarterly, or announcement-based (meaning you only send one out when you launch, make the news or on holidays/big occasions) blast.
- Make it pretty: Let’s be honest – no one wants to stare at something with a million different fonts, that contains no pictures or that is full of mistakes, so make sure your newsletters flow, match up with your branding, and are error-free with engaging visuals.
- Think about what your industry likes to read: While your investors and family will want to know about your latest interview or team member, not everyone in your database may stick around for every update – that’s why it is important to include industry information in your newsletter. If you are in the defense sector, for instance, share the latest industry data that came out with your company’s reaction to it. If you’re an expert in your sector on defense AI for example, add in some relevant information about things happening or new policy within the industry with commentary about potential impacts, giving your audience takeaways that will add value to their work and show them that you are keeping up on the latest happenings within your industry.
- Take it off-line:Add a call to action. Are your executives going to be speaking at or attending a big industry event? How can you use the newsletter to direct people to meet at the conference? Do you have an upcoming LinkedIn Live or webinar you are hosting? Add a sign-up button to drive traffic and engagement. Offering free consultations? Add a button where people can book one-on-ones with your sales team. The point is to try and move people to the next phase of the sales cycle using the content in a valuable and engaging way.
- Think holistically and plan-ahead: Your newsletter is part of your bigger marketing strategy. It is a way to highlight what is occurring to your customer base, prospective partners, investors, and other key stakeholders. When planning a marketing and communications calendar, it is important to start with the end in mind –thinking through how your activities will lead to obtaining your organizations overall goals. In setting up your plan think about your target audience, channels they will be receiving your communications through and the overall story you need to tell to reach and engage them. Once you have a clear picture of this you will map out the content and activities happening throughout the quarter. We have found it is best to plan quarter by quarter, so you have a clear picture of how activities tie in to one and other. For example, if you have a corporate reception at a major conference how can you tie this into your newsletter to set meetings for executives ahead of time? Do you have a speaking engagement coming up? How can you use the newsletter and the accompanying social media posts to tie in other speakers raising your social proof and getting more eyeballs on the event. Are you planning on announcing some big news via a press release? How can you map this so that it comes out right before your newsletter does so that you link your release into the newsletter sharing big news and making sure all your content is maximized.
If done correctly newsletters can be an effective way to reach and engage key stakeholders. With that said, if you are not adding value to your readers, it is better to leave it out of your marketing plan—as it can lead to countless unsubscribes.
Interested in building your marketing and communications strategy? We would love to connect and share how we can help. Book a meeting with us here for a free consultation.
The Distinctive Edge team is comprised of business builders with unique communications expertise and industry specialization. We help leaders solve business problems, thrive through transition, and achieve growth and engagement goals. The tools of our trade are strategic storytelling, investor and public relations, communications, and marketing. To learn more about our services, visit https://distinctiveedge.partners or book a free 30-minute consultation here.
