Newsletters are an essential part of any company’s marketing plan. Not only do newsletters serve as an important means of communication within a company, but they also build relationships with future and existing customers.
There are many different types of newsletters. Each one addresses particular audiences, serves unique purposes, and can be published in a variety of mediums—online or in print.
Here, we’ll neatly break down newsletters for you based on three broad functions: increasing authority, improving trust, and growing sales.
1. Authority-Building Newsletters
Authority-building newsletters help you increase sales by establishing your company as a reliable and credible source of information within your industry.
These newsletters come in many forms, such as:
- Expert advice columns
- User resources
- Product tutorials
- Case studies
- Helpful tips
- Industry updates
Companies often use bi-monthly or quarterly digests to summarize company news and highlights. Many businesses also use success stories, backgrounders, and even mini courses to inform customers about industry trends, current research, and latest product or service developments.
Whatever your content, publication frequency, and audience, authority-building newsletters are meant to inform and provide value to readers. This way, you build up a solid reputation that stabilizes and elevates your business in your industry.
2. Trust-Building Newsletters
It’s one thing to attract new buyers by growing your reputation, but keeping customers over the long term requires trust. Trust-building newsletters help you build meaningful relationships with your customers, increasing brand loyalty and consumer retention.
Examples of trust-building newsletters include:
- Testimonials
- Helpful FAQ’s
- Case studies of learning from failures or mistakes
- Customer reviews and feedback
- Personalized birthday and holiday messages
- Exclusive promotions and sales
- Reminders of location or service hour changes
Customer feedback is valuable—many companies offer discounts, rewards, or similar incentives to connect with customers and solicit feedback. With it, you can showcase positive reviews to build trust in your brand, respond to and learn from negative feedback, and build customer relations by directly interacting with your consumers. Once you establish a relationship and start building trust, customers will more likely stay with your business and even recommend your products and services to others.
3. Sales Newsletters
Whether you’re reaching out to new audiences or communicating with customers that already consider your company a trustworthy authority, targeted sales newsletters are meant to directly generate revenue with compelling calls to action.
Examples of sales newsletters include:
- Advertisements
- Product launch announcements
- Special discounts/offers
- Holiday sales
- Event notifications
Sales newsletters compel audiences to buy your products and services, and warm customers up to any upcoming launches. The best sales newsletters use simple but catchy product descriptions to highlight important features and benefits before linking to sales pages that have convenient ordering options. Oftentimes, sales newsletters also incorporate aspects of authority-building and trust-building newsletters, such as positive customer reviews.
When writing newsletters, be sure to follow best practices. Also note that segmented emails get higher click rates than generic mass newsletter campaigns, so it’s worth analyzing your email list and creating groups based on purchase history and customer information.
Conclusion
When crafted well, newsletters help you grow your reputation as an expert, build relationships with your customers, and increase sales. A content strategy that combines the different types of newsletters will ensure that you provide value to your customers and attract new prospects to grow your business.
This article was written by Compose.ly writer Vanessa Chapman.