Newsletter: 5 steps to success

A newsletter is a powerful and generally inexpensive online marketing tool. This applies to both internal and external use.

You will be successful if you pursue a clear goal and deal with strategic and conceptual issues first. We recommend a five-step approach:

Conception: Mailing strategy and selection of the newsletter solution

First of all, define which marketing objectives your newsletter project must fulfill. Will the newsletter be used for sales promotion, image advertising or internal marketing, i.e. employee information? When defining objectives, it is best to use the SMART rule (objectives should be precise, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-related). This helps you to measure the achievement of objectives and analyze your success.

Operational questions also need to be answered: How often should the newsletter appear? Who will take care of the content and distribution? Do you need external support from an experienced advertising agency?

You also have to decide on one of the countless newsletter solutions. There is no single "best solution". The freemium software "MailChimp", which is also used to create the Rocket newsletter, is very user-friendly and popular.

Control question: What and who do I want to reach with the newsletter?

Design: Create newsletter template

Now it's time to design: Your mailing should be appealing and at the same time conform to the corporate design. The conceptual specifications and planned content are also important here. In the field of online marketing, "design follows function".

The graphic specifications, i.e. the screen design, are further processed as a newsletter template. Proper programming work is important and takes half a day to two days, depending on the complexity of the template and the selected newsletter solution.

Control question: Was the newsletter template designed and implemented in line with the CD?

Contents: Create target group-oriented mailing content

Now turn your attention to the content. Make sure you have a varied, target group-oriented mix of topics, appropriate images and short, crisp texts. Also encourage your readers to take action - to order, download or reserve something.

If you want to address different target groups, it often makes sense to serve them with a separate newsletter. It may be sufficient to exchange individual topics. For example, a bookstore sends out a themed newsletter for fiction, non-fiction and travel guides. Sub-variants and combinations are of course also possible.

Control question: Is the content appropriate for the target group, stimulating and interesting?

Dispatch: Create opt-in procedure and dispatch list

Create or import a list of email recipients for the newsletter mailing. Do not annoy potential customers with unwanted emails. Information that you consider important is quickly perceived as SPAM by your recipients. Therefore, only existing customers and interested parties who have signed up for your newsletter should be on the mailing list.

Now you are almost there. However, before you press the "Send newsletter to 500 recipients" button, you need to test it. Send a test e-mail to yourself and your colleagues. You are guaranteed to discover any last spelling or content errors.

Control question: Does the newsletter appear correctly in the test e-mail?

Success control: Analysis with the help of e-mail software

It only gets really exciting after the mailing - you measure the success of your campaign. How many people opened the newsletter? Which articles were read the most? And which conversions (e.g. incoming orders) were you able to achieve?

Thanks to the precise success control, your marketing ROI, i.e. your return on the advertising francs invested, can be calculated depending on the content of the newsletter.

Control question: Have you achieved your goals and what will you improve in the next mailing?