Creating Your Own Content Marketing Newsletter

Despite the flood (or maybe tidal wave) of emails people receive in their inboxes, content marketing newsletter creation is among the most effective types of content marketing.

About 75 percent of companies that use it rate email marketing as having a good to excellent return on investment.

You might look at your current content marketing efforts and ask yourself if you need to add a newsletter. The answer is yes – but with a few caveats. You must first understand how to put together an engaging newsletter, and what the benefits of doing so are.

What is Content Marketing Newsletter Creation?

Content marketing newsletter creation is the drafting of a type of email marketing that lets you share your brand’s content with an audience. The goal of a newsletter is to share information with your audience and solve any issues they’re having. You shouldn’t explicitly promote your brand or push sales on your audience with a newsletter.

HubSpot argues that a newsletter should be 90 percent informational. The remaining 10 percent can be promotional. For example, a clothing retailer might send out a newsletter that contains articles or links to blog posts that offer styling tips and ideas. At the bottom of the newsletter might be a couple of links to styles the company offers that relate to the styling advice and tips found in the newsletter.

Why Should Your Brand Go About Content Marketing Newsletter Creation?

As of 2018, Instagram has around 1 billion active users, and Facebook has nearly 2.3 billion active users. Seeing these statistics may make it difficult to imagine that content marketing can happen outside of social media. However, considering there are 3.8 billion email users worldwide, it really isn’t that hard to believe.

Here are a few reasons why content marketing newsletter creation is beneficial:

Lets you shine the spotlight on your content.

A newsletter can be a way to promote newly published content, or to shine a light on older, relevant content. For example, when Halloween is approaching, you can include a link to a blog post you published the year before with costume ideas or other Halloween-friendly tips.

Directly reaches an audience.

Although people tend to groan about their email, or at least about the volume of emails they receive daily, many do like getting newsletters, especially if the newsletters come from brands or people they like or trust. Email newsletters that are directly tailored to their audiences are more likely to be opened. This gives a brand the chance to speak directly to the audience they want to reach the most.

Helps build trust and authority.

One benefit of content marketing is that it helps brands develop trust with their audiences. It also builds authority for a brand. When a company produces content that shows that it “gets” what an audience needs, and content that solves problems, people are more likely to look to that brand as an authority figure.

Lets you track response.

A final benefit to content marketing newsletter creation is that it gives you the ability to check how many people open the newsletter, when they open it, and what they do when they open it. If you include a link to your website in your newsletter, you can follow up with people who interact with your website but don’t complete what they started to do (ie. make a purchase or send a donation.)

What Your Content Marketing Newsletter Needs.

Content is key. But there’s more to a newsletter than sending out a boring list of blog posts your company has published in the past. Here’s what separates an attention-grabbing, must-read content marketing newsletter from one that gets deleted or ignored.

A compelling subject line or headline.

Remember that the subject line and headline of your newsletter is your only chance to make a first impression. Pick something that reveals what the newsletter is about, and, most importantly, makes people want to open it.

Personalized content.

It can be worthwhile to craft the content of your newsletter around your audience. That can mean having multiple newsletters for different audiences. The content doesn’t have to come exclusively from your brand, either. Curate content from around the web to let your audience know you’re thinking of them, and have an idea of what they need and want.

Personality.

Let your personality shine through when introducing the content in your newsletter, especially if you’re curating some content. Don’t just include a link to someone else’s blog post, or a link to a song or playlist. Explain why you’re including it and how it resonated with you.

A layout that’s easy on the eyes.

A newsletter should be easy to scan and parse. Don’t crowd it with too many links, or make the text and links so small that people have to squint to read them. Remember that many people will be looking at the newsletter on a mobile device. Make sure it’s optimized for mobile use and desktop devices.

Steps to Adding a Newsletter to Your Content Marketing Strategy.

If you’re going to start using a content marketing newsletter, it should be incorporated into your overall content marketing strategy, rather than something that stands alone.

Consider your goals.

Ideally, the goals you set for a content marketing newsletter will match your overall content marketing goals. It should boost website traffic, increase social media shares/followers and/or increase overall sales.

Examine your content and plan for the future.

Take a look at the content you’ve already produced and published. Now decide which, if any, you’d like to promote in your newsletter. You might want to give already-popular pieces a push, or dig up a piece that didn’t get the traction or attention you thought it deserved and give it a second chance. Looking at the content you plan on sharing in your newsletter can help you fill any gaps in your content calendar with new blog posts or other types of content.

Choose a publication frequency.

Will you send your newsletter monthly or weekly? You don’t want to flood people’s inboxes, but you also don’t want to send your newsletter so infrequently that they forget about you.

Track your results.

Just as you track the performance of any other type of content, measure how your newsletter performs. Are people opening it and clicking through or not? If not, you might consider changing when you send it. For example, 11 am on a Tuesday seems to be an effective time. If people are consistently not opening your newsletter, you might want to reach out. You could give them a nudge and ask if they are still interested or not. A smaller, engaged audience is better than a big audience that ignores your messages.

With a content marketing newsletter, you can help your brand stand out from the crowd, and can build up trust and relationships with your audience. Although putting together a newsletter does mean additional work for you and your team, it can be the icing on the cake when it comes to helping you reach your content marketing goals.