The newsletter is one of the most valuable email marketing tools. It is highly flexible and allows the sender to build a dialogue with the recipient in a non-intrusive manner. Therefore it is usually the format used in the "awareness" phase of email marketing communication, to inform prospects about a particular product or service. Each newsletter can subsequently be used to glean more information on the recipient's personal preferences, allowing the sender to segment and generate increasingly personalized, relevant content.
According to the "Email Newsletter Usability" 2011 survey carried out by the Nielsen Norman Group*, more than 40% of users viewed the following as the most valuable newsletter content:
- Informs of work-related news or company actions (mentioned by two-thirds of users)
- Reports prices/sales
- Informs about personal interests/hobbies
- Informs about events/deadlines/important dates
The newsletter is a great place to start for newcomers to email marketing; however it is important to be aware of the best practice and carefully think through each aspect.
Below you will see some good examples of the best practices you should look to employ.
