Effective communication and business success: the undeniable link
Wow Internet are working in collaboration with Ascent Writing to offer the very best solution to your communication needs.
The objectives for this e-newsletter are simple; to help you communicate better with your clients, enhance your reputation and ultimately, gain more business.
How many times have you heard; ‘I didn’t know you offered that product/service too’ or ‘I didn’t know you worked with that client’? Do you want to hear; ‘Now I understand your business/trust you, I’m going to be working with you further’ or ‘I have an excellent testimonial or referral for you’. Effective communication helps to make this happen!
Key Points:
- Do you want more people to open up your eNewsletter
- How to write an engaging newsletter that generates more business
Do you want more people to open up your eNewsletter
Follow this advice to maximise the effectiveness of your newsletter:
1. Ineffective subject line– Your newsletter recipient receives hundreds of e-mails a day; why should they open yours? The subject line is very important so take your time when thinking about it. Try testing out different lines with different segments of your target audience and see which one has the higher open rate.
2. Bad timing– Distributing your newsletter at the wrong day or time of day can be disastrous. If you’re promoting a weekend event, try sending on a Thursday.
3. Blocked images – Placing a line near the top of your emails, asking people to “add our email address to your address book.” You should also place this message on your opt-in confirmation screen. This helps get around the issue of blocked images that occur due to privacy settings, which decrease your open rate.
4. Poor list quality– If you’re using an old list, the recipient may have changed e-mail providers or jobs. Ensure your list is well-maintained. And if you’ve purchased or rented a list; beware. People could have little interest in your message.
5. Ineffective content– We are all being overloaded with e-mails, so if your content isn’t effective, the recipient will simply hit ‘delete’. See our ‘how to write an engaging newsletter’ article for tips.
6. Spam Filters – Ensure that spam filters don’t think of your newsletter as spam. Many e-newsletter platforms will check the content of your newsletter against spam filters, so ensure you utilise them.
A newsletter is a regular and consistent (weekly, monthly, fortnightly or quarterly) investment. It will help you achieve your objectives over the long-term. Remember to enhance your SEO efforts by linking the content of your newsletter to your website or blog. Monitor your click-through, open rates and cancellation rates too to help identify areas of improvement.
Ultimately, relevant and well-written content is the key to maximising your open rate. You could also try offering prizes and incentives to grab reader interest. Don’t forget to elicit feedback too, which will also assist you in continuously improving your e-newsletter.
How to write an engaging newsletter
Follow these top 5 tips and your newsletter is guaranteed to be successful:
1. Think of your newsletter as a bite sized piece of Marketing that represents the best your business has to offer – stick to the key points you want to communicate and keep your individual articles short, concise and punchy.
2. Your e-newsletter has to have content which is informative, topical, timely and of interest to your target audience. Only telling people about your special offers will make them switch off. Your newsletter must aim to engage and not sell. Once you have your prospects engaged, sales will follow.
3. Think about the tone of your newsletter – a friendly, professional, positive and sincere tone always works best. Remember, you are not communicating the features of your product or service. You need to be communicating the benefits.
4. Content works hand in hand with graphics and images – your newsletter needs to be a visual treat.
5. Never forget proof-reading – don’t waste your efforts by focusing on content and then letting yourself down by typos and other errors which reflect badly in regards to your professionalism as a business.
