Newsletter: Definition, Benefits, Examples & How to Make It

What is A Newsletter?

A newsletter is an email that contains regular and periodic updates for a specific group. In general, companies send this type of email marketing to the addresses of customers who have subscribed to them.

In the business world, email newsletters are important in maintaining interaction, engagement, and building relationships with your customers. 

Furthermore, it is also considered an effective marketing strategy to promote new products or services, provide details about events, maximize brand awareness, and enhance customer retention.

This marketing strategy also aids customers in obtaining concise and useful information, so that they can eliminate the need to spend a long time reading lengthy content.

Beyond the business context, this strategy has been commonly employed by non-profit organizations to disseminate information about their mission, programs, and activities.

Learn more about what is a newsletter, its benefits, and tips on how to make an engaging one in the below discussion.

Benefits of Newsletters for Businesses and Companies

According to Statista, global email marketing revenue is predicted to reach 11 billion by the end of 2023 and is expected to increase to 17.9 billion by 2027.

If you are still uncertain about using this marketing strategy, here are some benefits that you can consider:

1. New Lead Opportunities

Newsletter is one of the most promising marketing strategies for attracting new prospects or leads. 

Through engaging email messages, businesses can invite customers to participate in campaigns by providing their contact information, such as phone numbers or social media accounts. 

This action can create opportunities for new leads to be directed toward the next stage—conversion into purchases.

2. Build Customer Relationships

Successful businesses focus not only on selling products but also on retaining and treating their customer well. 

In this regard, the newsletter can help businesses establish emotional and mutually beneficial relationships with potential customers. 

Additionally, it can also serve as a reminder, especially for customers who may have forgotten to complete their purchases.

3. Facilitating Customer Profile Segmentation

Businesses can conduct simple surveys through email to understand customer segmentation based on preferences, behaviors, or demographics. 

By understanding the unique characteristics of each customer segment, businesses can present relevant content and enhance the overall effectiveness of digital campaigns.

4. Increasing Conversions and Sales

By delivering compelling content through newsletters, businesses can consistently build awareness in customers’ minds. 

The more familiar customers are with a brand, the higher the chances that they will think about the products or services and decide to make a purchase.

5. Promoting Website Content

Such an email strategy is also suitable for directing readers to the latest content on your website. By including direct links to articles, blogs, or product pages, organic website traffic can also increase.

6. Reaching a Broader Target Audience

In addition, this strategy can help companies reach potential customers in various geographical locations. 

With newsletters, businesses have the opportunity to build relationships with customers in markets that may not have been explored before.

Newsletter Types

Overall, the final goal of this strategy is indeed to increase engagement with customers. However, if it was categorized based on its function and content form, newsletters can be divided into several different types, such as:  

1. Educational 

This newsletter type focuses on delivering educational information to readers. Its content tends to provide added value in the form of knowledge, tips, or guidance relevant to a specific industry or niche topic.

2. News 

This type is frequently used to convey the latest and relevant information to readers. Its content helps readers stay up-to-date with current news and trends.

It should be noted that these newsletter examples should discuss topics relevant to branding. 

For example, if your subscribers are interested in the world of SEO, then news about Google Core Updates or SEO Trends 2024 would be much more appealing.

3. Promotional 

This type of newsletter is specifically designed to promote products, services, or special offers to customers.

Therefore, the content usually includes discounts, exclusive offers, or announcements of new product launches.

The main goal is to encourage readers to take specific actions, such as making a purchase or subscribing to a service.

4. Community

This type of email is aimed at building and maintaining a community. Therefore, the content may include user stories, reviews, or customer experiences.

As one of the most popular newsletter types, it helps create a sense of engagement among community members and build a closer relationship with the brand.

5. Event 

This type is focused on promoting and providing information about specific events or activities. The content includes event details, invitations, schedules, and various additional information that can capture the reader's interest to participate.

6. Seasonal 

This email is usually tailored to seasonal celebrations or specific events, such as holidays, festivals, or certain seasons.

The content inside can include special offers, gifts, or other benefits that can create an emotional connection with readers in a specific time context.

7. Blog/Article 

This is one of the newsletter types that you may encounter most frequently. Some websites implement this email marketing to update subscribers that interesting new blog content has just been published.

It helps direct readers straight to the website content, thus helping to increase website traffic and engagement rates.

How to Make A Newsletter for Business

It should be noted that the success of this strategy heavily depends on the quality of the email content produced.

In addition to being relevant to subscribers, the content should also consist of supporting aspects such as visually appealing elements, unique copywriting, and more.

Here are the steps on how to make a newsletter for businesses of all sizes. 

1. Define the Main Goal

Before starting to create it, you first need to define the main goal of implementing this email marketing strategy.

Determine what your business is trying to achieve, such as sales, brand awareness, authority, branding, or other goals.

If the business already has a clear and directed goal, the creation process will then become easier.

The choice of topics, language style, call-to-action (CTA), and visual design can also be made more specific to align with these goals.

2. Ensure The Responsiveness

To reach a wider audience with this email marketing strategy, you need to ensure that the display is responsive on all devices

Make sure that the design can adapt to various screen sizes, including smartphones, PCs, and tablets automatically

Besides being positive in terms of user experience (UX), responsiveness also ensures that the message is clear and effective without losing its visual appeal.

3. Create Diverse Content

Essentially, the communication established should not be boring. It needs to contain diverse content but still remain relevant to the business niche.

Customers will tend to ignore the messages or even consider them spam if the same type of content is provided continuously.

To address this, you can try adding content variations by scheduling them on specific days.

4. Craft Strong Copywriting

Generally, customers will receive pop-up notifications when you send a new newsletter. Therefore, you need strong and unique copywriting that invites urgency for customers to take specific actions.

5. Provide Appealing Visual Elements

In addition to writing, ensure that visual elements are also equally appealing. You can maximize the use of visual elements in the heading section.

However, at the same time, remember not to overuse these visual elements. You need to make sure that the images or graphics used support the email message without compromising readability or a professional impression.

6. Create a Call-to-Action (CTA)

CTA is one of the most important elements that encourages subscribers to take action after reading the content

Fr businesses, it is important to design clear, persuasive CTAs that align with the marketing campaign's goals.

In an email letter, the CTA can be a button with text that invites readers to take a specific action.

In addition, the color and position of the CTA button should be easily found. The use of urgent or value-added text is believed to be more effective in increasing the CTA's effectiveness.

Newsletter Examples

To help you better understand the concept of this email marketing strategy, here are examples that you can learn from:

The above image is an email letter example aimed at a community interested in the field of SEO. Because it is intended for a community, the visual elements are also designed to be relevant to the content type.
 

On the other hand, the image above is an example of an educational type that provides a summary of information to help users understand a topic.

However, if users want to know more about the topic, the CTA inside will direct readers to an e-book page with more detailed discussions.