Newsletter Marketing and What It Can Do For You

Posted: 18 Nov 2011 05:02 AM PST

Guest post by Ada Ivanova.

Running a newsletter is not only fashionable, it is also a good marketing strategy. You run a newsletter not because everybody else does but because this is a powerful tool that can make a lot for you and your business.

A Newsletter Attracts New Readers

One of the best things about a newsletter is that it helps you to attract new readers. Every site has a loyal bunch of recurring visitors and a large pool of one-timers who come to your site from a search engine, following a link on another site, or just by accident.

Why miss the chance to convert these one-time visitors to regular users? Of course, if they like your content really a lot, they can bookmark the site and come later. However, not many people will bother to do it. This is why you need an easy way to hook them.

One of the easiest ways is to offer them to subscribe for your site for free. When a new visitor comes, show a popup or another subscription form and if the visitor likes your site, he or she might subscribe. Later, when he or she receives your newsletter, this acts as a reminder to visit your site.

A Newsletter Helps to Retain Your Existing Readers

In addition to attracting new readers, a newsletter also helps to retain your existing ones. It makes no sense to attract new visitors if you can’t retain them, right? When your newsletter lands in the inboxes of your readers and the stuff in it is interesting, they will come to your site for more.

A small trick you can do is to put only the intros of articles in the newsletter rather than the complete article. If the title and the intro are catchy, many readers will be tempted to visit your site and read the complete article there. Needless to say, this increases the traffic to your site.

A Newsletter Is a Great Promotion Tool

In today’s overcrowded Web, your reputation is one of the factors for success or failure. Because of this, you shouldn’t underestimate the direct benefits a newsletter can bring you, such as boost your reputation. If the newsletter you provide is of good quality, this helps to establish you as a solid company or an expert in the field. This is free promotion you should take advantage of.

Newsletters Do Make Money

Finally, don’t forget that a newsletter can make you money. While this might not be your primary goal, unless you are an affiliate marketer, the earning potential of a good newsletter with a targeted audience is huge. Well, maybe you are unwilling to turn your newsletter into an ad board but with the proper monetization (which can be pretty unobtrusive at that), you can make money.

One of the monetization strategies that works best is to include special offers in your newsletter – i.e. offers that are unavailable on the site and that are a bargain for the reader. Some affiliate networks have many such offers you can include in your newsletter, so search a bit to see what is available for your niche.

Newsletters are a great tool any marketing person loves. They are a fast and easy way to reach a targeted audience and this is what made them a necessity. If you fear that it is rocket science to launch and run a newsletter, don’t worry – with the right WordPress plugin (if you are using WordPress platform) this task is very, very easy.