How To Promote Your Online Business Through a Newsletter
Unless you grew up watching Newsies or you have a burning desire to become the next Walter Winchell, you may not see the point of adding a newsletter to your online business website. However, a newsletter helps your online business in three ways: first, it allows you to add fresh content to your website regularly, aiding in SEO. Second, the educational/informative articles found therein give your website value and provide your customers with a reason to visit regularly. Third, a newsletter helps you build a relationship with your customers.
How do you add a newsletter to your website? There are two methods: either you can add it to your existing web server, or you can send it through a third-party server. The benefit of the latter is that they will do most of the set up for you, and you won’t run into the mass email restrictions that you might encounter on your current server. However, it might be more expensive.
What should your newsletter contain? The first and most important thing is valuable information: industry news related to the products you’re selling, product reviews, How To articles, opinion pieces, tips, etc. If you don’t have a wealth of information in your newsletter, no one will subscribe to it or read it at all, and it will be nearly pointless. You can also include information about sales or special offers on your website, but you don’t want this to be the majority of the newsletter. You might want to include some more personal info, like employee birthdays, which puts a human face on your company and helps you bond with your customers. You could also invite your customers to submit product reviews, tips, or comments to the newsletter.
How should you transmit your newsletter? Whether you send your newsletter by email, in your product packaging, or allow people to subscribe to it, you always want to have your newsletter posted on your website as well. If you are sending it in an email to your customers, make sure you have a link at the bottom where they can unsubscribe if they so desire.
The idea of writing a newsletter every month may seem intimidating if you’re not a seasoned scribe. Just remember, you can start small: it doesn’t need to be 30 pages long. The important thing is valuable information, consistency, and professionalism.
