Five Tips to a Better Email Newsletter

Email marketing is a great and inexpensive way to keep your firm in front of perspective clients. It is also a wonderful way to develop repeat business from previous clients. Email marketing should be a part of every firm’s marketing strategy. Tim Asimos of Circle S Studio https://www.circlesstudio.com/insights/  offers some great tips for getting started with email marketing.

A) Grow your contact list organically.

Start by generating emails of people who want to receive your newsletter. Potential leads, past clients, Industry Partners. Anyone you have developed a professional relationship with. Quality over Quantity. Other ways to grow your email list include:

1. Trade Shows   
2. Add a subscription form on your website.
3. Add subscription form for all your regular email.

B) Email Lists                                                                                                                                                                                                              One of the great tools on email platforms such as mailchimp is the ability to create segmented lists for different markets. For example I have an email contact list for Architects, one for Interior Designers, and a separate contact list for Hospitality. Rather than send one email to all your contacts you can create specific content for each market segment. This will make your message relevant in the crowded world of emails.

C) Great Design

Create an email newsletter that your readers will want to open, read, and share with colleges. Tim Asimos of Circle S Studio (https://www.circlesstudio.com/insights/) offers these worthy design tips for your newsletter.

1. Make sure your email is mobile friendly.
2. Create a compelling subject line
3. Stick to your brand standards
4. Keep your design clean, and simple.
5. Less is more.
6. Put key information on top.
7. Include a call to action
8. Proofread thoroughly

D) Contact Information

You have created great content, have a wonderfully designed newsletter, you have segmented your email lists. Everything is looking spectacular. However, I see it all the time in newsletters, websites, and emails, no contact information. DO Not FORGET to include your contact information. Contact info needed in every email newsletter.

1. Land line
2. Cell Phone
3. Company Address
4. Email address
5. Website URL
6. Social Media Links

E) Consistency

Sending out one email newsletter per year will not lead to the results you desire from your campaign. Mark R LaPage of EntreArchitect  (http://entrearchitect.com/blog/) writes “your newsletter will allow you to stay top of the mind and will encourage word of mouth conversations about your firm.” When you next client is ready to hire an Architect your firm will be first on the list. How often should you be sending out your email newsletter? It Depends. According to the Direct Marketing Association’s national client email report 35% of marketers send 2-3 emails per month, 9% send 6-8 per month and 19% send out 1 email blast per month. Start small with one email per month. If you keep blasting your market with emails, you will start to lose subscribers. 69 % of users unsubscribe due to “too many emails.”

The key factor for a successful email newsletter campaign is the Timing.

1. Let your clients decide how many emails they would like to receive by creating a poll.
2. Keep testing until you find the sweet spot.
3. See what your competition is doing.
4. Use templates for consistency.
5. Keep your newsletter relevant to your market.
6. Inform & educate.

The ultimate keys to success are Consistency, Repetition, Timing, Great Design, & organically grown email lists. Making sure you are informing, sharing information, and educating your email newsletter subscribers. In today’s marketplace a sales pitch for a newsletter will not work and will have subscribers reaching for the unsubscribe button.