How to make a newsletter?

0 1.775 8 minutes of reading

In this article, you will learn: what a newsletter is, what it is for and how you can create your first newsletter to connect with your audience.

You are probably here because you are taking your first steps in the world of email marketing.

Congratulations!

With a little planning and the right tools, you can create truly effective newsletters and email campaigns that have a very positive impact on your business.

However, it can be difficult to know where to start, which is why in this article I will walk you through the steps to:

Create a newsletter .
Dramatically expand your list of contacts.
Automate your marketing by e - .

By the end of the article, you will have a much better idea of how to create newsletters and run successful email marketing campaigns.

Let's start!

What is a newsletter?

A Newsletter or Bulletin is a tool used to communicate regularly with your subscribers, by delivering the information you want in their mailboxes ...

These messages can contain simple text or a structure made up of images and text.

In practice, we all receive different newsletters on a daily basis and it is in a way a way of keep regular contact with the brands we follow.

What is the point of making a newsletter?

People who have websites, blogs, or e-commerce often use newsletters to promote product advertisement, contents, article, communicate an event or participate in remarketing campaigns, like the abandoned cart, not to mention typical transactional communication (order confirmation, shipping, etc.).

More generally, your newsletter helps you:

Maintain regular contact.
May your site or blog not be forgotten.
Increase visitors to your content.
Submit different types of content.
Create visiting habits.
Attract traffic.

Why do you need to send newsletters?

The answer: why newsletters are always important to your email marketing campaigns.

Considering the popularity of social media and online advertising as a means of generating business, some believe that the use of newsletters is quite outdated.

This is a big mistake. Even with the wide range of other options of marketing and advertising digital available today, email marketing can be an incredibly effective way to generate income.

En despite the rise of social networks as a marketing tool, bulletins information generate a fantastic return on investment and are a key way to generate sales.

1.- Start with your database

Before thinking about "how" you are going to send a newsletter, you need to think about "who": the database of people you want to communicate with by email.

To send the most relevant and revenue-generating newsletters, you need the best database possible.

(If you don't have a database or contact list, you can go here to find out how you can create one for free.)

Now, many businesses have their contact email addresses hidden away somewhere in an Excel spreadsheet, or more likely spread across several very messy spreadsheets.

If this sounds like you, it's a good idea to consolidate all of your files into a clean, well-organized file before trying to send newsletters to any of the contacts they contain.

Segment your contact list

You should also make sure that your own database is segmented as best as possible; This means putting a field (column) in it that contains information that allows you to tag and identify people as potential customers, current customers, former customers, etc.

How far you go is up to you; For example, you can segment your email list, storing information about specific product purchases, demographics, etc.

Or you can keep it relatively simple, it will depend on your business.

Either way, the basic goal of the exercise is to shape your data so that you can send the right message to the right person at the right time.

When you are done preparing your data, you should have a spreadsheet that has all of your segmented and cleansed data in one place. This is your mailing list, which can now be uploaded to an email marketing app.

Remember, you need your contacts' permission to send them emails. When compiling your mailing list, consider local data protection laws and only include people who have opted in to receive your communications.

2.- Create your content plan

The next step is to plan your communications very carefully.

It is a good idea to create your electronic communications schedule which accurately describes:

What type of content will you send in your newsletters?
Who will you send your content to?
When are you going to send them?

Then you can check out this schedule throughout the year and make sure you have all the necessary content ready to publish well in advance of each newsletter going out.

It will also give you plenty of time to think about various creative newsletter ideas that can encourage your readers to trust your brand.

And because you will have segmented your data well in advance (see step # 1 above), you will be sending your newsletter to precisely the right group of contacts.

3.- Choose the appropriate application

Many small business owners still think that sending newsletters means compiling a list of email addresses, then copying and pasting them into the Bcc field of a clunky-looking Gmail or Outlook message.

It's a time consuming way of doing things; it is also really inefficient because:

1.- It does not allow you to send very professional newsletters.

2.- This prevents you from accurately measuring important statistics such as open rates and clicks.

3.- Increase the likelihood that your email activates spam filters.

Therefore, it is a much better idea to use an electronic marketing tool designed to send your newsletter, a tool that allows you to send "HTML newsletters".

HTML newsletters, as the name suggests, use HTML code to display text and graphics in an attractive way. They are also more likely to display correctly in email programs.

What programs are used to create newsletters?

There are many web solutions you can use to send HTML newsletters: 2 of the classic and most popular programs in the world are GetResponse et AWeber.

Both platforms are great for getting started with email marketing and include several additional features ...

You can test the Programs GetResponse for 30 days.

How to send newsletters for free

However, there are many options to send newsletters for free and to save you some work, the one I recommend is AWeber.

You can create your account in AWeber 100% free. In addition, it offers you many functions that other platforms do not have.

These types of tools allow you to import the database you created at the start of this process (or start one from scratch) and use a variety of attractive newsletter templates.

With this, you can send appropriate HTML newsletters which have the highest probability of being delivered and, more importantly, read!

It is important to note that these tools do not require any knowledge of HTML code to use them; You typically use a drag and drop editor to design your newsletter, and the app creates all of the HTML code for you in the background.

Recommended reading: The 5 best email marketing platforms.

4.- Choose a newsletter template

Once you've decided which email marketing app to use, you need to figure out what your newsletters will actually look like.

The good news is that the tools mentioned above provide a wide range of newsletter templates that you can use as a starting point for your newsletter design.

Once you've chosen one, you can edit it with a drag-and-drop editor to make your newsletter match your brand. You can then save it and reuse it as your own template for your future newsletters.

If your design skills aren't particularly strong, you may want to consider hiring a designer to set up your newsletter template.

For this type of task, you can always go to Fiverr et hire a freelancer to do the job you want to from $ 5 in some cases.

But in most cases, you should be able to edit an existing option from your email marketing app's template library.

Do you need visuals or enough text?

Sometimes simple text templates, which look like normal emails, work best, because when used, your newsletter is seen as more personal (and less advertising).

It is always a good idea to include your logo, images, colors, etc., to grab your reader's attention.

The image above shows a Sample GetResponse newsletter which includes eye-catching visuals and make email much better.

5.- Insert registration forms

All email marketing tools allow you to easily integrate signup forms for your mailing list on your website. Usually this just involves taking a piece of code and adding it as an HTML block on your website.

Make sure you do this as it is one of the best things you can do to grow your list fast.

Ideally, you should have a newsletter subscription form on every page of your website, and you could also consider using pop-up boxes on certain pages of your site to maximize the number of subscriptions to your list. broadcast ..

(Yes, pop-ups can be a bit annoying, but they're very effective.)

Beware of pop-ups on mobile devices, however: Google may penalize sites that use pop-ups in a way that negatively affects usability.

Detail the benefits of joining your list

When you add forms to your site, don't make them boring. Make sure they explain the benefits of joining your mailing list; that is, instead of using a simple call to action "join my mailing list", explain the type of content your site visitors can expect to receive when they sign up. .

Consider the importance of your form and the affirmation of the call to action.

Depending on the social media services you use, it's often possible to add signup forms or buttons to your social profiles as well. Do this whenever possible, and where it isn't, provide a featured link to a URL where people can join your list.

6.- Use landing pages

If you use advertisements in line to grow your mailing list, make sure the landing page (or landing page) that you use for your campaigns is as strong as possible.

When someone clicks on your ad, they should be taken to a page that encourages them to take a specific action, for example: subscribe to your mailing list.

This usually means creating landing pages that don't contain a navigation bar or links to other parts of your site. Everything should be to focus the attention of the visitor on a registration form.

Some email marketing tools, like Getresponse and AWeber, provide you with built-in landing page builders ...

But if your email marketing tool does not include this feature, you can use third party tools like ClickFunnels, Unbounce ou Leadpages to create them.