Much has been written about the decline of print and a shift towards digital mediums, and one familiar format which has done rather well with this evolution is the good old newsletter. In a world dominated by social media, you’d be forgiven for thinking direct email marketing has lost a bit of its lustre, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Once thought of as low-tech and unfashionable, post-pandemic digital newsletters are coming into their own and proving increasingly valuable to brands and businesses looking to build strong direct relationships with their audiences.
It’s no coincidence that this has happened at a time when a huge number of brands are leaning into the D2C model, as e-newsletters neatly lends themselves to migrating shoppers across to your website or booking platform. One report suggests as many as 66% of online consumers have made a purchase as a result of receiving a newsletter.
There are obvious benefits to a format that takes you straight into the inbox of an existing or potential customer and that step closer to gaining some of their valuable attention. However, as ever in the world of marketing, it all comes down to how it’s executed. What you really don’t want is for your lovingly created e-newsletter to be cast aside as spam. You need to play your cards right, delivering stand out content with added value, with a regularity that hits the sweet spot between too often and too infrequent. A good e-newsletter should keep you top of mind with customers for all the right reasons and, done right, email marketing can help build habit and loyalty with customers – both important in their own right and particularly so for brands with subscription or membership business models.
The other big benefit of e-newsletters is that it’s easier to gauge their success than with other forms of marketing. Since viewers can’t generally directly interact with a TV or print PR placement or advert, the metrics to measure the impact are sadly lacking. Meanwhile, with newsletters the metrics at your disposal include open rates and click-through rates, which allow a really granular analysis of the content that resonates with your audience and inspires action.
If you’re interested to learn more, drop us a line at hello@stormcom.co.uk.
