Marketing with Newsletters

Looking for a great, low-cost way to promote yourself and stay in touch with your past customers (or attract new ones)? One way is to do an e-newsletter. Almost every major company has one now, and there’s no reason YOUR business couldn’t follow in their footsteps.

Newsletters are fantastic because they remind your buyers that your company is still here, and that they should come back and shop with you. You can use them to give a little behind-the-scenes look at your creative process, your studio space, share your thoughts, and, maybe most importantly to your business, newsletters can be an effective way to announce sales and special offers.

Sound good? Now it’s time to do some thinking.

Consider of the kinds of newsletters you like to receive – are they colorful? Simple? What do they offer? What do they say? What grabs your attention? What doesn’t work for you? At what point do you lose interest and close the email?

Now think of how you can translate the things you like into a newsletter of your own. Your newsletter should reflect your company - brand it in the same style as your logo and website. Adopt the same tone you use when writing out your item descriptions. If you include articles, keep them short, to the point, and relevant to your business or your craft; remember, many people may be reading this at or before work, so time may be limited. Put the most important information first and grab their attention before they close their email.

Before you get carried away brainstorming, here are a few more tidbits you need to know:

Always ask permission – This is so very important, and I can’t stress it enough. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission created a law in regards to commercial emails called the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.shtm). Since newsletters are considered email marketing, you need to have permission to email someone information about your company; otherwise it’s considered “spam”. If you spam enough people with unsolicited information, that can affect you in a big way – your Internet Service Provider may shut you down (because it doesn’t know you’re a real person with no malicious intent), and if you’re using an email marketing company’s service to send your newsletters, your account can and will be terminated if enough spam reports come in.

Not only is spam annoying to the recipient, but may impact your business, too; you may have just lost a customer. One customer isn’t so bad, you may be thinking, but people like to share their bad experiences, so that one person can influence 10 or 20 other people. Now multiply that by the number of people on your list.

So, when in doubt, err on the side of caution. Use a double opt-in method (such as asking for someone to fill out a form on your website, then asking them to confirm their email address), or send an invitation email with no strings attached (“Hi So & So, I just wanted to take some time to invite you to sign up for my newsletter. If you’re interested, you can sign up at….”). Remember to protect yourself and your company as best as you can.

Email Marketing Companies – While you can absolutely use your business email to compose a newsletter, there are a lot of companies out there that can help you and make the process easier. Do a search for “e-newsletters” or “email marketing” and you’ll come up with hundreds. Some better-known examples are Constant Contact (http://www.constantcontact.com), iContact (http://www.icontact.com), Vertical Response (http://www.verticalresponse.com), and Mail Chimp (http://www.mailchimp.com). Check each one out, find out what works for your budget (some are free!), look at their templates and examples, and make note of their features. Comparison shop!

Frequency – How often should you send out your newsletters? A local coffee shop or bakery may choose to send out weekly emails with deals and coupons; for those that make their own clothes or jewelry, maybe a monthly or quarterly newsletter announcing new lines might be more appropriate. Again, think of what YOU like to receive, and get opinions from friends and family. Whatever you choose, DO be upfront about how often people can expect to receive your email.

With many email marketing companies (or even if you do it on your own), you can set up multiple lists for different groups. Maybe you’d like to do a quarterly newsletter that’s longer and comes on the first of each month, and a shorter newsletter for special deals that comes more often. Some people want the deals because they shop a lot; some people don’t want to clutter their inboxes. Whichever you decide to do, be as clear as possible to your customers, give them the options, and abide by their wishes.

Have an unsubscribe option – This is standard on all email marketing accounts, and you’ll be prompted to provide your address, telephone number, and/or email address, because your subscribers need another way to contact you should the unsubscribe links not work. If you choose to not use an email marketing company, you must include an unsubscribe link/option in each newsletter you send; it’s part of the CAN-SPAM law. Don’t take it personally if someone unsubscribes; it’s bound to happen and isn’t necessarily a reflection on you.

Have a text-only version as well as an HTML version - Even though the majority of people are now accustomed to email newsletters and prefer an HTML version, you should ask at the time of sign-up which version people want to receive. Not everyone has the ability or wants to view HTML, so you should provide them with an alternative.<

Regardless of which, if any, email marketing company you use, Mail Chimp has a wealth of free information regarding newsletters and successful email marketing campaigns. You can visit their Resource Center by clicking here (http://www.mailchimp.com/resources/).

Contributed by:
Brandi Hussey
 www.catiesblue.com
 www.catiesblue.etsy.com