{"id":73,"title":"Building engagement with email newsletters","description":"In this blog, we share all the lessons learned from marketing campaigns that have been successful, and also those that went badly wrong, so you can start a weekly newsletter rhythm that increases your chances of growth.","content":"<p>Imagine trying to build a house with disappearing bricks, where every time you lay a second brick, the first one you put down evaporates. The only way to get anywhere would be to lay bricks faster than they disappear. That's what it's like to try and build a brand without developing repeat customers, because growth is new customers, built on the foundations of existing ones that come back time and again. Investing in your customer base is choosing to build a boat instead of treading water, and a newsletter is an easy way to do that.<\/p><p><img src=\"https:\/\/images.teemill.com\/5d9727dd109c98.77920631.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&amp;h=auto\" alt=\"\" title=\"38709204\"><\/p><p><strong>This blog is also available as a podcast.<\/strong><\/p><div class=\"soundcloud\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/586319001&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><p>According to Harvard Business Review, it's 8 times easier to reactivate an existing customer than it is to activate a new one. And that is exactly why it's worth talking about how you are going to use it before you start sending content out. So let's invest 5 minutes in this blog to share all the lessons learned from marketing campaigns that have been successful, and also those that went badly wrong, so you can start a weekly newsletter rhythm that increases your chances of growth.<\/p><p><strong>Your newsletter should focus on engagement, not sales.<\/strong><\/p><p>This is literally most important thing with a newsletter. The fastest way to get the best sales is not to use your newsletter to sell stuff.<\/p><blockquote><p>The newsletters that get read are the ones that aren't directly trying to sell.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>What we mean by that is you need to build a relationship with your customers. Where they come back time and time again, they need to open your newsletters again and again. Nobody opens and reads newsletters that are full of sales promos. If you are worried about sending too many newsletters because your stuff is spammy, it's the content not the frequency that's the problem.<\/p><p><img src=\"https:\/\/images.teemill.com\/5d972e97bc6817.53443264.png.jpg?w=1140&amp;h=auto\" alt=\"\" title=\"38710277\"><\/p><p><strong>Build engagement with your newsletters by filling them with interesting, original and unique content.<\/strong><\/p><p>Remember the reason people came to your brand in the first place. It\u2019s probably because you offer something different to what your customer can find elsewhere on the internet. That\u2019s your biggest strength and your customers would almost certainly like it if your newsletter was the same.<\/p><p>As an example, we'll talk about the Innocent Smoothies newsletter.<\/p><p><img src=\"https:\/\/images.teemill.com\/5c9a3b0a05acf2.87092881.jpg.jpg?w=1140&amp;h=auto\" alt=\"null\" title=\"29080324\"><br><br>We all know innocent sell smoothies. But their newsletter actually contains almost nothing about them. It sounds like marketing suicide, to not talk about your product and offers. But think about what the innocent brand is made of. Kooky jokes, fun with words, and a playful, light look on life. The brand, innocent, is everything except the actual product. They use their newsletter to build the customer's relationship with the brand which will sell products long term, not just push sales which will probably will not sell any products now - and definitely will not long term.<\/p><p>And because it's fun stuff, people open it, read it and love it. That means next time they're in the supermarket juice aisle, there's only one choice. From time to time, say when a new flavour comes out, you might find product at the middle or bottom of an innocent newsletter, but the newsletter is something that is meant to be engaging, interesting, fun or useful to the reader.<\/p><p><img src=\"https:\/\/images.teemill.com\/5d4019a50dabe7.10287979.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&amp;h=auto\" alt=\"\" title=\"35300960\"><\/p><p>When you're planning the content to include in your newsletters, remember that it's all about engagement. You can make people laugh or help them out, or share beautiful photos or interesting stories - even stories from the news or the net - but selling them stuff should not be your first thought. It can be tempting to go for short term gains with promo but how many times do you really open that stuff? Instead imagine you are publishing a magazine or column.<\/p><p><em><img src=\"https:\/\/images.teemill.com\/5ca097d31c75f8.93880380.jpg.jpg?w=1140&amp;h=auto\" alt=\"cool mag.jpg\" title=\"29284947\"><\/em><\/p><p>To get started, all you need is to decide on a lead story - why are you sending out this newsletter? Give it a clickable subject line (but steer clear of full on click bait unless you wanna be junked), and then choose 3 - 5 great stories to populate your newsletter with.<\/p><blockquote><p>The best stories will have messaging, language and content that reflects your brand, and be original.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>Sure, repost interesting news articles and stories - but also get across your brand's take on the content you're sharing.<\/p><p><strong>Here's a checklist from the pros on how to build an engaging newsletter for your brand:<\/strong><\/p><p><img src=\"https:\/\/images.teemill.com\/5d974d18abf1e0.58256406.png.jpg?w=1140&amp;h=auto\" alt=\"\" title=\"38716359\"><\/p><p>If you're stuck for content ideas, try adding a regular feature like your brand's tune of the week to give you a recurring story to always use. Also, a mini goldmine that more and more brands are discovering is user generated content. Encourage your followers to share their photos with your brand's products and before you know it, you'll have a whole load of unique content that you can use.<\/p><blockquote><p>An easy way to generate content to put into your newsletters is by using your social posts.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>If you're in tune with succeeding on socials, then the content you're sharing is already going to be engaging and interesting, rather than a grid full of sales spam. It's unlikely your newsletter followers are going to have seen all your social posts, so by reusing your content, you're working smarter - not harder.<\/p><p><img src=\"https:\/\/images.teemill.com\/5ca23fc8c75597.98689892.jpg.jpg?w=1140&amp;h=auto\" alt=\"nicole-honeywill-568366-unsplash.jpg\" title=\"29333469\"><\/p><p>Once you've created the content for your newsletters, think about when to send them. Firstly, send less, and make them better. Weekly is a good rhythm. When you're scheduling, brands get the best results by sending newsletters at times people are likely to be chilling and browsing online - so you're likely to find that evenings and weekends usually get good results.<\/p><p>Once you've got into a routine with your newsletters, measure what works.<\/p><p><strong>The three metrics that matter to determine the success of a newsletter are open rate, click through rate and unsubscribe rate.<\/strong><\/p><p>Increase your open rate by making sure your subject line is engaging but not spammy, and if your click through rate is low, take a look at the content you're including and make sure it's quality. And if your unsubscribe rate is a bit high... perhaps ease off a bit.<img src=\"https:\/\/images.teemill.com\/5da832312deb93.00986054.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&amp;h=auto\" alt=\"\" title=\"39325027\"><\/p><p>Newsletters are a powerful way to build your brand, grow your database and retain customers after their first purchase. And remember, the most important thing is to focus on quality original stories. It's not about selling, it's story telling!<\/p>","urlTitle":"engaging-newsletters-emails","url":"\/blog\/engaging-newsletters-emails\/","editListUrl":"\/my-blogs","editUrl":"\/my-blogs\/edit\/engaging-newsletters-emails\/","fullUrl":"https:\/\/teemill.com\/blog\/engaging-newsletters-emails\/","featured":false,"published":true,"showOnSitemap":true,"hidden":false,"visibility":null,"createdAt":1553250160,"updatedAt":1680693650,"publishedAt":1641987644,"lastReadAt":null,"division":{"id":12,"name":"Teemill"},"tags":[{"id":30,"code":"marketing","name":"marketing","url":"\/blog\/tagged\/marketing\/"}],"metaImage":{"original":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5ca5d442764d21.65805807.jpg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5ca5d442764d21.65805807.jpg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5ca5d442764d21.65805807.jpg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"metaTitle":null,"metaDescription":"Engaging newsletter content leads to more click throughs and more traffic to your site. In this blog we show you how to use email marketing.","keyPhraseCampaignId":4291,"series":[],"similarReads":[{"id":40,"title":"Streetwear photography inspiration from Nocturnal Creature","url":"\/blog\/streetwear-photography-inspiration\/","urlTitle":"streetwear-photography-inspiration","division":12,"description":"Instantly recognisable by their unique and edgy style, Nocturnal Creature's photography is fresh, fun and real. 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