Newsletters and opt-in email go together like bread and well almost anything. However, all too often people mistake the purpose of their newsletter and lose all or part of this valuable tool’s power. The newsletter is a sales tool but it is one that must be handled delicately to work. The law requires newsletters be sent on an opt-in basis, that means the person must sign up for the newsletter. The law also requires that an opt-out link be clearly displayed so that the individual can easily leave the list and quit receiving the newsletter.

Now that seems fair, it reduces spam to the consumer and leaves the list only with people who want to receive the mails. However, this means that the marketer and business must work to ensure the emails all hold value for the customer and give those reasons to remain on the list. A newsletter with no subscribers is not going to do much good for the business.  Likewise, a newsletter where everyone opts out before the subscriber sees more than one or two issues, obviously is not doing its job right.

Most successful marketers can tell you chapter and verse what to do to make a newsletter sticky and to make the consumer feel like it has value to them. Again, it’s easy in theory but in practice, it takes a delicate hand. Let’s take a real business example to make the concept clearer.

Joe Blow sells trendy designer diaper bags, cute clothes, and cool baby clothes and Joe Blow has a mailing list with a bi-weekly newsletter. Now if Joe were doing it wrong, he would send out this newsletter with nothing but advertisements for new items in his store. Why might that be doing it wrong? Because Joe Blow’s email list would be receiving nothing they could not get by dropping by his store or by shopping anywhere else.

Let’s change it up a little and say Joe Blow sends out his newsletter with hints for the most durable diaper bags and how to use a designer diaper bag as a beach tote after the baby is out of diapers. The next issue maybe Joe’s newsletter features articles on how to purchase cool baby clothes that last for more than a season, what if Joe Blow offered cute clothes discounts available only to his newsletter subscribers?

If you guessed that Joe was harnessing the sales power of his newsletter, you would be right. His subscribers are obviously interested in what Joe has for sale, and belonging to his newsletter earns them special discounts no one else gets and hints and tips on products they like and they find interesting. In other words, reading the newsletter is cool and profits them.

The longer the average consumer stays with the newsletter the higher the chances are they will buy again or for the first time. In other words, Joe’s newsletter is doing the job it was made for, to increase his bottom line while engaging his older and new customers giving them reasons to return month after month.

Tags: email marketing, newsletters, online business, online marketing