How to write an email newsletter for your business

Writing doesn’t come naturally for many business owners. After all, you didn’t decide to go and work for a newspaper or magazine. You chose to start a business serving the marijuana industry. But being a business owner comes with a multitude of challenges.

Maintaining tight control of your costs is certainly one of the biggest challenges. This is why it helps to try to perform some marketing activities in-house rather than outsourcing everything. Learning how to write a newsletter can help you do this.

Plan your newsletter first

Do not just start writing – plan your newsletter first. You can quickly ramble yourself into a corner and wind up with 200 words of unusable content. Take some time and think about what you want to include in the newsletter and you will achieve superior results.

Start off by thinking about the topic or topics you wish to include. Whether you have single or multiple topics, you should make a bulleted list of the information that has to go into the newsletter. By understanding what you have to include from the outset, you can keep your newsletter clear, concise and effective.

Email newsletterCreate an engaging subject line

Email inboxes are now overloaded with unappetizing spam that is destined for deletion. Your task is to rise above the spam emails by capturing attention through writing engaging subject lines. Of course, this is not without its challenges.

Think about the main message to draw from your finished newsletter. Now try to write some subject lines that convey this message in several words. Try not to make the subject too short or too long. Ideally, you can aim for six to eight words. Anything more than 10 is a little overwhelming. You need to find a balance in order to draw the attention of possible readers.

Ask a second person to edit

You should never send out an email newsletter without proofreading. Even professional writers can make the odd mistake, and they often depend on another person to point them out. Neglect to have another person proofread your newsletter and embarrassing mistakes can easily be made.

Scheduled email marketingMaintain an email newsletter schedule

Create a quick spreadsheet to record the name of your current newsletter, the date, and the topics covered. You might not be ready to plan the next six months in advance, but you can think of your next couple of newsletters now. Any current ideas that you do have will easily be forgotten if you do not make a note of them.

Arranging a few newsletters at once will help you to create a more cohesive schedule. You might realize during the process that you actually want to create shorter newsletters that focus on a single topic. Summarizing multiple topics might only dilute your message, but the point is that you will actually understand what you want to include if you plan in advance.

Find time to do research

Do plenty of reading in your industry and you will find yourself coming up with great ideas for your newsletters. Avoid reading and you will struggle to come up with ideas, and the ones that you do come up with will not be as good as they could have been. Just try doing Google searches for news or else check out informative blogs related to the marijuana industry.

Newsletter Ideas

You’re sitting in front of your laptop wishing you could focus on the daily activities of your business. Instead, you’re sitting there trying to figure out what you want to say in a newsletter to your mailing list. You know it’s important to build connections with your customers, but that doesn’t change how tough it can be to come up with newsletter ideas. Fortunately, help is at hand with the following ideas.

1. Announce your next public appearance

There are now multiple marijuana trade shows hosted in the US each year. And the chances are that some of the people on your mailing list will be attending some of them. Of course, this is provided that you have taken the time to build your mailing list. Anyhow, you should take the time to send out emails to announce where and when your public appearances are taking place. Encourage your readers to introduce themselves if they are in attendance.

2. Send out glowing testimonials

Modern businesses have to maintain active websites, and crucial within that process is to request testimonials from your customers. Periodically, throughout the year, you could send out a round-up of your most recent testimonials. You can take this as an opportunity to thank and name-drop your customers, while simultaneously selling the qualities of your business to prospective customers.

email marketing3. Create an original infographic

Commission an original infographic for your business and you can share it on your website plus social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. But what you should also do is send out the infographic to your email list, and don’t forget to explain that it was commissioned by your business. Get in touch with a graphic designer and you can share industry statistics with them to help come up with an idea.

4. Write a monthly news review

During each month, you should set aside a little time to record approximately 10 links to the most important news stories related to the marijuana industry. Write a few lines of analysis to outline your thoughts on each story and you will soon have a news review for your mailing list. You’re a professional within the industry, and they may well be interested to read what you have to say. Don’t forget that someone should proofread your email before sending.

Cool Office Interior Designs

5. Provide snapshots from your business

For businesses with a few different employees, you can create updates every couple of months to explain how each person is doing. Take pictures from behind-the-scenes and you will likely be surprised by how willing people are to look at them. This is an under-used strategy and it will showcase your creativity.

6. Host interviews and share them

Use your position to arrange interviews with fellow professionals from your industry. When conducting the interview, ensure that the interview is focused on questions that will interest the people on your email list. This will give your interviews the best chance of resonating with readers. The simplest approach is to film the interview and share a YouTube link. Write a few lines to introduce the interview and share important quotes before sending the email.

 

Benefits of Sending an email newsletter

An email newsletter can benefit any business online. Of course, it takes time to learn the basics and to create successful campaigns. But, when you do, the benefits will be immediately clear. Below are seven benefits that you might encounter with your next email campaigns.

1.  A captive audience will listen

Nobody likes it when an old friend or distant relative appears from nowhere, only to ask you for a favor – I doubt this is something you appreciate, either. The same can be said in business and with running websites.

All too often you will see small businesses make social media pitches after doing nothing for weeks on end. They mindlessly decide that it’s time to explain why Facebook users should consider, for example, their tax advisory services.

The point of that extreme example above is that email newsletters will enable you to maintain regular contact with the people who are most interested in your brand. Provide them with regular content of value and then you can gradually integrate email newsletters that are for your benefit.

2.  Know your success rate

email newsletter

Nowadays, email marketing programs can do so much for you. Not only are they capable of automating much of the process, but also they can be used for gathering data on the people from your email list.

You will get to see who is opening your email newsletter, and then who is advancing to your website. Having such data readily available will let you see your effectiveness in the cold light of the day. There is no sense in speculating aimlessly about your success rate when you can know exactly.

3.  Stretch your marketing budget

email newletter

Google AdWords can drain a marketing budget quicker than you can whistle. The complex nature of this advertising tool means that amateurs should stay away. Only seasoned users of AdWords can achieve the lowest keyword prices and yield the best results. Email marketing is much cheaper by comparison.

As long as you have taken the time to build an email list, you will be able to achieve effective results through your email campaign. You won’t have to invest hundreds or even thousands of dollars – just a couple of hours of your time. However, don’t expect a sudden rush of sales if you are only sending to 20 people.

4.  Communicate effectively

Provided you take the time to learn about the various principles associated with developing an email list, this approach can work for you. Email marketing software is something you can actually use without encountering major difficulties. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for mastering Photoshop.

Email marketing software typically comes with clear instructions. In under a couple of hours, you could have a new campaign ready to rock. This will give you the power to respond rapidly to new opportunities and changes in the market.

While competitors will be waiting days for banner ads to be created for expensive Google AdWords campaigns, you can already be generating sales having created a new email marketing campaign.

5.  Develop customer relationships with personal touches

email newsletter

Another benefit of email marketing software is that you can add personal touches. The simplest of these is to address the recipient by name at the start of the email. To be a little more creative, you might also be able to integrate their name in other portions. A little extra time will be required, but feeling like the email was personally addressed to them will be appreciated.

6.  Improved results with targeted messages

Building on the personalization concept, it is possible to segment your audience and send emails to those who will be most interested. Look back at sales data to see what your customers paid for. You can then notify specific customers with fresh news that relates to their purchase.

This makes it possible to exclude users who might not be interested, helping to foster a positive relationship with them. No one likes to received marketing emails that they have no interest in. With advanced segmentation, you can ensure your emails reach only the most interested recipients.

7.  Emails are a useful testing ground

You can add new visuals and marketing messages to newsletters to try new ideas. A highly positive response from customers will let you know that you’re doing something right. This will also help you to save valuable funds when new campaigns don’t work. For instance, a new logo can be held back from your website if customers don’t like it. Testing new ideas with email marketing is much safer than steaming straight into them. Email marketing is alive and well.

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