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The newsletter is one of the most widely used advertising methods in online marketing, and also one of the oldest. These are periodic digital publications that are sent via e-mail, with a frequency that may vary depending on what each entity establishes as appropriate, although a minimum monthly frequency is recommended. They include news and novelties about the issuing brand or business itself, or news relevant to the sector in which it operates, covering different topics of interest to the users who receive them.
It is one of the essential parts of a marketing strategy, since it is one of the most effective ways to contact our target audience, as well as to inform and make known in more depth what we are able to offer. Finally, newsletters also help to generate quality traffic to your website.
The reason why a newsletter prevails over other types of online advertising or promotion is because users who subscribe to our mailing list do so voluntarily, a fact that tells us in advance that they are really interested in our products, services or content, and wish to receive updated information about them. In addition, it is a type of online advertising that does not require a large outlay of resources, and can be afforded by any individual or association with a presence on the network: from small blogs or online stores, to large brands that operate internationally.
Emails can be checked as often as profiles on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network.
On the other hand, the medium used – e-mail – also has a considerable influence on its effectiveness. Unlike other types of media that we can use to approach our audience, we are certain that nowadays everyone has an e-mail address that they check on a regular basis. However, not everyone has a Twitter, Facebook or any other social network account and checks their timeline with the same assiduity.
One of the things to keep in mind when generating a newsletter is that if we are not able to add value to the user with the information we provide, there is no point in sending them.
Another very important point is that our newsletters should not be oriented to sales and conversion, or at least not only, although we always have this objective present in an indirect way.
First of all, we must give our users a reason to subscribe to our mailing list. If we offer the same content on the website as in the newsletter, why would they bother to trust us with their email address? So that:
- Send them news about your blog, online store or website that they might find interesting.
- Reward them with promotions and/or exclusive content for being subscribers.
- Similarly, offer them access to news of their interest before other users who are not subscribed.
- Interact with your user community and invite them to actively participate in your website through comments, opinions or other means.
- Offer them content of real value to them.
There are numerous tools that we can use to generate our own newsletter. Many are very easy to use and allow great customization possibilities. Some of them are:
- Mailchimp, a tool that has been offering this service for more than 15 years. Among its growing features we find the integration with the most popular content management systems and online store platforms, such as WordPress, Magento or Shopify. It also offers a free but limited version.
- Active Campaign, another very complete e-mail marketing tool, but it is a paid one. It offers a two-week free trial version.
- MailRelay also has a free plan, and is available in several languages, including Spanish. It allows integration with different content management systems and platforms such as Drupal, Prestashop or Joomla! through plugins.
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