What is a newsletter and how to use it
Pablo Díaz · 15 Dec, 2022 · Email Marketing · 3 min
A newsletter is an email with news. In other words, a publication that is sent periodically to subscribers to inform them of something. However, with the advent of the Internet, the old newsletter concept has changed. Not long ago, a newsletter was considered to be any publication sent to a list of subscribers. It was generally printed and reached the recipients through magazines, tri-fold or bi-fold brochures, or flyers. Newsletters can be sent to external subscribers, such as customers or partners, or to a company’s own employees.
With the advent of the Internet, newsletters started beingsent by email and have become a very powerful email marketing tool. Nowadays, newsletters are not only sent to keep our customers or partners informed. They are also used to communicate promotions, new product launches and for marketing purposes. On top of this is the fact that the Internet has democratised access to newsletters which has resulted incutting down costs. A few years ago, sending out a newsletter meant investing a lot of money in design, layout and copywriting. However, mostly in printing and mailing, since newsletters were physical documents that were sent to each individual user. Nowadays, anybody or company can design and send their own newsletter with no previous programming or design experience. There are incredible self-publishing tools to create newsletters , such as Acumbamail, which is not only intuitive and cheap, it is also 100% in Spanish. Find out about ourservices, integrations and rates. What’s more, be sure to take a look at all the video, infographic and written resources you can access to help you come up with your email campaigns.
In the age of the Internet and email marketing, newsletters are classified according to the communication objective. Gone are the days when a newsletter was only used to communicate corporate news. Nowadays, newsletters can be classified according to these typologies:
Invitation or capture
These are newsletters in which users are encouraged to perform some kind of action. Or we try to get them to subscribe to an event or service, such as a course, a workshop or a draw.
Promotion
These are newsletters used to announce a limited time promotion or a on-off offer.
Loyalty
Newsletters in which we offer our users a benefit aimed at boosting recurrence and long-term customer loyalty. For example, pre-sales or exclusive bonuses for VIP customers.
Newsletter pure and simple
The type of newsletter we use to communicate corporate and informational news. It is the one that most resembles newsletters of yesteryear.
Special campaigns
These are newsletters that we send at important times of year, such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and others. They may include a promotional offer or include gift guides. If you want to know more about each type of campaign and see some examples, don’t miss this post.
In the past, the effectiveness of newsletters was hard to calculate. It was done through surveys that only a very small percentage of the recipients answered. However, nowadays, technology provides us with a host of options that help us to evaluate the effectiveness of our email campaigns with data. In general, email marketing is much more effective than other actions because it allows the following:
It has a high segmentation capacity
It is possible to send very specific communications to very specific audiences. And even carry out one-to-one personalised communications.
It is cheap
The cost of creating, designing and sending newsletters is incomparably lower than the cost of any advertising campaign.
It can be much more personal
It is an almost face-to-face communication, which the user receives in their inbox. The message has a greater potential to reach and have an effect on the recipient.
Potential to reach quality audiences
Mailing list subscribers usually have a prior interest in the brand or company that sends them communications. In other words, they show a willingness to listen to what they have to be told. In particular if a double opt-in process has been performed before each person is added to the mailing list.
The lists belong to the brand, not to a third-party.
In email marketing, the community data (the files) belong 100% to the brand. This is not the case, for example, with Facebook, Twitter or Instagram fans and followers. Got the bug? Of course. You surely now know what a newsletter is and what its numerous advantages are. Now then, it’s time to find out what you have to do to start advertising by email.
