Why Newsletters Work!

There can be some negativity around email newsletters; we all receive too many of them and yes, some can become tedious and often ignored. However, don’t be too quick to dismiss newsletters as being wrong for your business – when done well they can be very effective at bringing high quality traffic to your website. High quality traffic that wants to buy from you.

Firstly, consider that you are talking to an audience who has already told you they want to receive news from you. These people have admitted they are interested in your product or service. At Tomahawk we often see healthy website traffic from newsletters on our clients’ Google Analytics accounts – low bounce rates and a high amount of time spent on the website. So, whilst there will always be a percentage who don’t open your emails, there are many who will.

The people who do open your emails have instantly engaged with your brand on a deeper level. This connection is an opportunity. Build loyalty, long term customers and word-of-mouth advertising through your branding, all of which can be communicated through a well-made newsletter.

Content is the next important thing to consider. Keep it clean – trying to tell your customers too many things at once will turn it into “white noise.” People are busy, and you want to catch (and hold) their attention quickly. Choose the most important message and stick with that one topic for the newsletter, and they’ll learn to trust your newsletters to be relevant and easy to read.

How to build the right audience

So, you’ve got a newsletter signup form on your website. But is it in the best place? Does it have the right call to action? For example, “Sign up for news” might not be as effective as “Be the first to receive our latest offers!”

Something to consider is an “exit intent” sign up. This is a window that pops up when a user looks like they are about to leave a website (e.g. they move the mouse cursor to the top right of the page). The pop up could include a special offer or incentive to the visitor in exchange for their email address. Remember, we’ve learnt from this previous blog post about remarketing that returning users often provide better quality traffic and are more likely to buy from you.

Again, whilst some people view these pop ups as annoying, they have been proven to increase sign ups by 15%. An alternative example is one that appears in the bottom corner when you reach the end of a page, like CrazyEgg does here:

Another way of increasing newsletter subscribers is by offering an “opt-in” for those who book or buy from you online. Talk to your booking engine supplier to see if you can add this feature and integrate with a great newsletter software like MailChimp. You could also consider running a social media campaign encouraging people to enter to win a prize by providing their email address.

Whatever way you get sign ups, it is really effective to welcome them to your subscription list with a personalised auto-responder email. A great option for small businesses is Active Campaign, who provide this service for a small monthly fee. It allows you to track what the user has looked at on your website, and include it in the response. 

So what should you be including in your newsletter? Get in touch with our team and we’ll be happy to walk you through it!