Check your e-mail. Find anything out of the ordinary (that is, apart from the requisite stream of service providers showing their gratitude towards your timely payments by relentlessly spamming your inbox)? If your inbox is anything like most people’s, then you have probably noticed a trend in the way businesses are shaking up the way they market their products and services.
They are turning (back) to email marketing.
More and more companies are cutting back on their convoluted, one-to-many approach to marketing and renewing their interest in newsletters, a nod to the effectiveness of this seemingly age-old marketing tool. Falling back on the idea that simpler is usually better—especially when it comes to marketing—newsletters have a way of getting the message out loud and clear.
Newsletters Press All the Right Buttons
If you’re in the business of saving money (and what business isn’t?), there really doesn’t exist a more cost-effective medium for establishing and maintaining positive eye contact with your target audience. Email Marketing makes reaching who you want to reach easier. They are delivered by request upon subscription, so their very foundation is centered around the bedrock of interest, making inherent in them the interest that every other marketing tool strives to engage.
Also, being well-lettered in your industry, newsletters conveniently give you the opportunity (nay, excuse) to flex your expertise, which supports your brand by building confidence in your readership. You know what you are talking about, and communicating your up-to-date understanding of important issues in your corner of the market authorizes you as both trustworthy and a leader in your industry.
Newsletters Do the Work for You
Newsletters are back in fashion because people actually read them. They read them because newsletters—unlike flyers, postcards or other similar publications—are friendly. Too often business publications focus solely on their business and read like the technical manual you throw out when you make an important purchase. Newsletters, however, are drafted with the reader in mind, appealing to their interests, attempting to be both fun and informative, short and sweet.
Newsletters account for the shrinking of the collective attention span, and are well-suited to accommodate the 140-character-or-less direction things seem to be going in. The message is pithy yet light, with plenty of pictures to hold the attention just long enough to admit retention. What’s more, good newsletters are peppered with links to encourage the reader to research the topic themselves or to contact the company for more information, empowering the reader to choose for themselves rather than forcing a glut of information down their throats they’re more likely to click away from.
Email Marketing Builds Trust
Not only perfect for promoting your products or introducing new ones, newsletters also help you maintain contact with customers between sales. Whether you publish weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, this low-cost method of communication keeps you in touch with your customer base, even if some of those customers tend to purchase infrequently. And who is better positioned than your loyal customers to recommend your product or service to others?
Newsletters are back because they are an effective, personal way to reach out to the people you want to reach. If you have any questions about how to use newsletters to your advantage, or want help coming up with a marketing strategy that fits your needs, feel free to give us a call.