Hi, I'm Justin Fraction for TechnologyAdvice. Over the past few decades we’ve watched business
transform the way it has been conducted. From typewriters to keyboards and monitors. From
whiteout to the delete key. It would seem that the one thing constant in
business is change and well one other thing. The Business Newsletter is the cornerstone of any
business. I get tons of them I opted into for editing technology advances from my favorite
companies to design trends highlighted in a newsletter from my favorite design firms.
Business newsletters can have many functions, like informing people about the products your company
offers, the things your group is accomplishing, or just even just letting them know that you’re
still here and ready to rock and roll. One thing has changed: the method by which
business newsletters are transmitted. At my first job, when I was 15, I had a typewriter and
I don’t anymore, we were, kinda, ya' know, not advanced working for the state. While business
newsletters are still sent via the post they’ve become synonymous with email transmissions.
In that way, they’re a lot easier to get out now and also a lot safer
for the environment but I digress! This brings me to my next point: business
newsletters are for businesses of all sizes and types. They’re not just for large companies or
small ones, they’re for the person just starting out and the person that’s been doing it for
decades. Why wouldn’t you take this opportunity to let people know who you are, what you do, and what
you've accomplished, also where you’re headed. One of the things I’ve learned from working
in social for the past decade is that you can never fully replace the written word.
Sure, businesses are getting to ah, or they have been for a while, pivioting to video.
Businesses are starting to use, ah, Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, TikTok,
TikTok ... more but nothing beats an old-fashioned newsletter. It doesn’t
matter if your company is B2B or B2C, these new marketing channels cannot replace this niche,
if they have for you then you’re missing out. 77% of B2B marketers still use email newsletters
which means that only a quarter of marketers in this space don’t.
One reason why newsletters work for B2B marketers is that their core audience,
employees, already have to keep track of their emails during the work day.
Essentially people are going to see those newsletters because they have to. Also,
you could say that keeping abreast of what’s happening in businesses that may
do business with your own business is a part of many of our job functions.
According to our friends at Adobe, in 2021, workers spent 149 minutes a day,
or 2.5 hours, checking their business email while at work. And yes, some of that time
we’re spending reading your marketing emails to see if it’s offering information we’re
interested in or a new service that we or our company may want to take advantage of.
Studies have shown that people treat email and social media differently.
More specifically they differ in how people engage with them during the work day.
In short: people recognize that checking their email is a normal part of their
day while at work. However, if they have social media access, they don’t necessarily
make a regular habit of viewing it. What ends up happening is that people
view their marketing emails at work while they wouldn’t necessarily view the marketing they may
run into on social during the work day. Also, there’s a chance that companies might
block social entirely which is one of the reasons why sending marketing emails through
email (which isn’t blocked) is a norm. Part of my job is being on and interacting
with social media but for most people, that’s just something they do during their breaks or
when they need to look up something they’re personally interested in.
However, I don’t actively subscribe to a social media user, who could be posting about anything,
in the same way, that I would subscribe to a newsletter.
Because when I'm doing that, when I subscribe to your newsletter I’m telling you that I want
you to send me content related to your company’s efforts/goals that I will be able to receive in
a format (email) that I will definitely be able to view during the work day.
Alright, ah', yes. The review section. Now most of these are going to be the
same thing you’ve gotten used to since grade school but we should review them anyway.
Ask yourself why you’re writing this B2B newsletter and figure out where
it fits in your sales funnel. For most people, it’s somewhere
in the middle like most business emails. You have to remember, that if a customer has
signed up to get your business newsletter then they’re telling you that they have an interest
in your company, your product or you. So stay focused on moving the reader through
the sales funnel with every letter. If the intent is to make a sale then you
must focus on saying things that will help you make a sale. In other words,
you know what your topic is so focus on it. Do you know who your buyers are? Hope you do,
sounds like a great idea for another video. Personalize your newsletter to what your research
shows are your subscriber’s behavior on your site and their previous interaction
with their email newsletters. We suggest starting this off by
working on your email subject line. Then follow up that subject line with
a more personalized note and curated content. Make your newsletters look visually appealing,
in a consistent format/template, while also making them fit with your company’s branding.
Have clear CTAs (calls to action) and don’t forget to put those everywhere
along with your links to your social media and a link to subscribe to the newsletter.
Finally make sure they’re optimized for mobile phones,
tablets, and desktops because it's 2022 and there's really no excuse for not checking.
It's just weird. Make sure you look. Tying this back into keeping it personal
and keeping it cute, if your company has the budget then invest in CRM or
customer relationship management software, Ones with built-in email functionality will
help you segment your customers so you can better target their interests with your communications.
Figure out when it’s best to send marketing emails. Some of it is common sense like don’t
send them on the weekends, don’t send them on holidays, don’t send them when … people won’t
be working or checking their email regularly. That extends to watching your time zones. You’re
more likely to read a marketing email when it comes into your mailbox during the day.
If you send a marketing email before people arrive for work, it might end up among all of the other
emails that the person has to comb through in the morning. So maybe send it later, maybe around
lunchtime so it’s not just the first thing they see with everything everything they have to take
care of from the night before. Mondays in general have the highest
open and click-through rates for emails that come so keep that in mind too.
Don’t send them too often or people might unscribe or just ignore them or not often enough or people
might be shocked at what you're sending like, "What is this?" SPAM! Like you never know. Be
somewhat consistent! Weekly or every other week is a good frequency to start with but tailor that to
your industry, audience, and strategy. There are also specific software analytic
tools like Campaign Monitor that can help you figure this number out.
So in the spirit of giving you Technology Advice, we want to remind you that the best
way to get good at writing newsletters is to check out the competition.
So here’s a list of newsletters that you may want to subscribe to for inspiration!
The Hustle features a roundup of various business and entrepreneur news stories from
the previous day. They also use graphics and memes to make it more visually appealing.
Taco from Trello only goes out twice a month and they focus on both broad,
general business productivity, topics and specific topics relating to their software, Trello.
This one’s a little different from the last two. It’s mostly text with no visual filler.
But they’re an audience research tool so I know that if they ... they probably researched it
so they know that's what they need to do.
Their Insights newsletter sends statistics related to your Grammarly use, stories that encourage you
to continue to use Grammarly, and general updates to the software that users may want to know.
Grammarly also sends out marketing emails linking back to their blog full of communication tips.
They offer different newsletters to both their paid and non-paid subscribers, which of course,
encourages you to read their content. By the way, did you know that we have
a newsletter here at TechnologyAdvice? Click the description below if you want to join up!
So starting a newsletter can be tough initially but we hope we’ve given you
some things to think about while you travel along your business journey, on the business highway,
in the city of Industry. Stay tuned for more awesome videos on TechnologyAdvice,
right here on this channel and I will see you next Friday. Cause I'll be
here Fridays. I'm here all week but you'll see me on this channel on Friday. So ....
that's it. You can go.