Seven Ways to Create a Successful Newsletter

As the theory goes, it’s more cost effective to increase sales from an existing customer than to recruit a new one. With that in mind, company newsletters play an important role in customer retention, and may also convert to further sales.

If you own a domain then WordPress hosting is one of the most popular ways to create a newsletter. Here’s five ways you can bring your newsletter to life, in a way that engages and grows your subscription base:

• Chose the right email plugin

Start with an email plugin that collects email addresses and creates subscription requests. There’s plenty of choices for WordPress hosting, such as; Newsletter, Chimpmate and SumoMe.

There’s a host of options available to accommodate different size businesses and needs. Some are free, while others charge a premium with added benefits. There’s no one-size fits all, so it’s worth shopping around.

• Develop your strategy

There’s numerous ways that a newsletter can help a business, but what is your overarching reason for hosting one? Is it to drive traffic to your .ie domain, or perhaps to invite guests to an event, or maybe to grow your social media following? Think about your core objectives and how a newsletter can grow each of these areas.

• Frequency

One of the main reasons for launching a newsletter is to keep customers informed about company news and product releases. Although some businesses choose to send weekly newsletters, a good approach is to aim once or twice a month, to avoid overkill.

• Engaging Content

Your newsletter should be a reflection of your company and brand, so it’s important to strike the right tone. This should be undertaken by a professional writer, preferably someone with WordPress hosting experience. By their nature, newsletters should be engaging, somewhat light-hearted and speak directly to the consumer. Content can be drawn from your blog and website. You may wish to include competitions, discounts or give-aways as incentives too.

• Personalisation

With the average open rate for newsletters at 25%, brands need to work harder to achieve clicks. This starts with a catchy and compelling headline. Use puns and humour, and tease readers with a reason to want to learn more, asking questions is a good way of doing this.

Research has found that subject lines with 10 characters or less are the most successful, possibly due to the number of newsletters read on mobile devices. Test and try what works for you.

Where possible, use customer’s first name in the copy – this has been shown to be far more effective than a generic message.

If you can, segment newsletters to the right audience. For instance, a newsletter about .ie domains holds no value to customers outside of Ireland.

• Bring it to life

With a deluge of newsletters from companies, you’ll need to go the extra mile to encourage customers to open and read your communication. Strong images and snappy content is key to this. There’s plenty of websites like Pixabay that offer copyright images for free. However, if you can rustle up some budget, try Shutterstock for an impressive library of images.

• Keep content topical

As well as sharing your own company news, think about keeping content topical. There may be issues in the news that affect your business, be it Brexit or the growing interest in Irish domains. Have a look, and share your insight and knowledge with customers, this will encourage them to look forward to reading your newsletters.

Visit LetsHost.ie for a selection of affordable solutions for your business.