According to Forbes, the average person checks their email 15 times a day.
Newsletters are a powerful way to involve your target audience in a narrative about who you are, what you do, and why they should invest in your product.
Email newsletters have a higher rate of engagement than any other form of digital marketing. And with 66% of people reporting that they check their email first thing in the morning — before even pouring a cup of coffee or opening Facebook — email exists as one of the most effective ways to capture your customer’s attention and deliver content that makes a lasting impression.
The question stands: how do you get a customer to open your newsletter, and then take the next step on their buying journey?
These four steps will show you how.
1. Say their name.
According to Forbes, the average person checks their email 15 times a day.
Newsletters are a powerful way to involve your target audience in a narrative about several things. Such as, who you are, what you do, and why they should invest in your product.
Email newsletters have a higher rate of engagement than any other form of digital marketing. And with 66% of people reporting that they check their email first thing in the morning — before even pouring a cup of coffee or opening Facebook — email exists as one of the most effective ways to capture your customer’s attention and deliver content that makes a lasting impression.
The question stands: how do you get a customer to open your newsletter, and then take the next step on their buying journey?
These four steps will show you how.
2. Engage with photos and videos.
We’ve talked about the power of visual media in past blogs. However, we’ll say it again: a piece of content without a photo or video is dead in the water.
People love looking at images. People love clicking on images. Across all forms of social media, posts with a photo increase user engagement by 37%. Videos? Even more.
Open your newsletter with a carefully chosen photo, ideally one that represents the feel and voice of the email. On Instagram, photos with people’s faces are 32% more likely to receive engagement; the same is true for a newsletter. Keep the photo big enough to be easily visible, but small enough not to fill the entire screen.
Place a photo or video in at least one other place throughout the newsletter, breaking up the text and headlines with engaging, colorful imagery.
3. Remember the 80/20 rule.
When it comes to email marketing, remember the 80/20 rule: 80% of your content should be offering free information, while the other 20% should ask the customer for a purchase.
When this give-and-take falls out of balance, customers start to feel like their newsletters are paid ads or just another opportunity for a business to siphon away their hard-earned money.
By providing free, valuable content, customers build trust in your brand and come to believe you have their best interests at heart. When the time comes to finally ask for the sale, customers will gladly trade their money in exchange for what they already perceive as ongoing product value.
4. Be consistent.
Studies have shown that 4.2% of people who open a company newsletter go on to buy a product or service from that company.
The secret? Consistency.
Very few customers open a newsletter once and opt to immediately make a purchase. A good newsletter builds on each one before it, laddering up to a greater narrative. With each newsletter, strike a familiar tone, talk directly to the customer, and create a sense of urgency around what you share.
In addition to being consistent with your tone, get into a pattern of when to send your newsletter. Most businesses choose either the beginning or end of the month, allowing them to either recap what’s gone on or cast a vision for the coming weeks.
Whatever you do, create an expectation, then meet (or exceed) it.
At Goalpost Group, we help our clients break the cycle of bad marketing using strategy, structure, and killer content that drives sales and wins the day. Get in touch with a member of our team to learn more about how we can help transform your marketing.
