There is a common misconception among new marketers and people who are newly introduced to the world of email marketing. That Newsletters and Emails are one in the same. This is not true. There is a difference in intent behind both the things; Email Marketing is a campaign run in order to sell a product to a potential buyer, they might buy it now they might buy later. Newsletter is informative, providing information to the subscribers that they are looking forward to receive. However, A company can use Newsletters as a part of campaign strategy.
History of Newsletter
Newsletters in the olden times were something companies used to keep their image alive in the minds of their customers. This was done just so the public might not be offended by them trying to sell things every now and then.
The newsletters contained information regarding products, what is in trend, what has new arrivals. Then there were some extra things that used to fill up space through entertainment. This was a quite intuitive and entertaining way to engage people into their products and have them remember about the brand name when they visit the stores.
Evolution of Newsletter
As the times have changed the evolution of the old techniques have been incorporated into the new world. The print version has now become and Email Newsletter. The subscribers receive the email with all the information they need and the brands get all the exposure they require in a fraction of a cost. The cost of printing out magazines and newsletters is quite high. Even then there are some companies who prefer to still provide the print versions of their newsletter.
How to be Effective in Modern Newsletters
Modern times call for modern ways to provide information to the customers. There are some companies which keep their old school ways with them and send out bloated newsletters with fillers all around. As the world has become so fast paced people are becoming less patient and do not need bloated emails. They need precise information and to be done with it quicker.
Having fillers in the newsletter by email is actually a mistake one should avoid. Be precise and provide just the right amount of information. That is the way any reader will be more inclined to reading your newsletter the next time as well.
More and more of the audience is now becoming attached to the cell phones. That is why one should keep their newsletter designs mobile friendly so that they can reach the masses and avoid bothering people who are using mobile devices for their reading. Using Custom Email Marketing Software can be very effective in this matter:
Differentiation and Effectiveness of Email Marketing
As discussed above email marketing is in starch contrast with the newsletters as it has news in it with other information. The email marketing format should only stick to the information about products, their prices and special offers if any are being provided.
Keeping email marketing content precisely targeted to make a sale gives it a boost when there is a product being displayed with the features below it. To top it all off to get a sale out of it can be done by slapping on an offer which will be attractive none the less the subscriber.
But doing all the above does not mean putting up so many buttons up in the email that the buyer gets the impression of “please buy something, Anything!”. This mentality actually gets an adverse effect instead.
The best way to handle this would be a single call to action visible enough on the whole email to take the customer to a landing page which gives all the products they just saw and select what they want and buy it instantly. That will save time of the customer and actually will be intuitive enough to get a sale from it.
What if we do both?
The best way to keep you in the customers mind is to be running both the newsletter and email marketing. Newsletter will keep the customer engaged with the brand and have the information in mind every time they see a product or a feature published in the newsletter and later when there is an Email Marketing campaign run, there is a higher chance of customer making the purchase from it.
