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Newsletters have been used to get organizations’ messages out into the world for centuries. While newsletters’ popularity may have waned since those early days, their power to reach and motivate target audiences in the digital age can be potent if brands take the right approach to ideating, creating and distributing this type of content.
By leveraging a well-conceived, well-crafted and appealing newsletter, a brand can enjoy a multitude of benefits that enable and empower a broader marketing strategy. From building trust with consumers to learning more about their buying preferences, the benefits members of Forbes Agency Council share below highlight the value a newsletter can help a brand deliver both to its current and prospective customers and clients as well as its own bottom line.
1. A Loyal Community
A brand’s newsletter can build a loyal community by offering exclusive content, such as behind-the-scenes insights, early access to products and special discounts. This approach makes subscribers feel valued and fosters brand advocacy. - Muhammad Eltiti, BOOST
2. More Opportunities To Personalize Content
Brands need to develop and socially engineer messaging that keeps their subscribers wanting more. Sometimes, that’s a progressive discount offer; other times, it is just a properly worded and segmented email that makes your subscribers feel like you really know them. To be successful with this, however, requires a clean, organized and segmented mailing list for deeper personalization. - Tyler Back, Mitosis
3. Top-Of-Mind Awareness With Consumers
A key benefit of a brand’s newsletter is keeping the brand top of mind for consumers. To effectively accomplish this, brands should establish a consistent schedule for their newsletter distribution, such as weekly or monthly. It’s important to balance frequency with value, providing content that is informative, engaging and reflective of the brand’s latest offerings or insights. - Durée Ross, Durée & Company, Inc.
4. The Establishment Of Your Own Audience
The most valuable thing a newsletter does is allow you to start building your own audience, rather than “renting” an audience from social media. My No. 1 tip would be to focus on consistency—get the newsletter out at the same time, on the same day, according to your agreed-upon level of frequency, be it weekly, biweekly or monthly. - Sam Hurley, NOVOS
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5. Brand Recognition
Recipients of a newsletter might not read it at all. However, regularly receiving the newsletter with the brand name attached to it and occasionally seeing a headline will help establish the brand as an expert in its area of expertise in their minds. This will help the brand stay top of mind when the time comes that a recipient wants to reach out about a specific topic. - Nhu Khue Ngo, OSK New York Inc.
6. Consistent Communication With Warm Prospects
Our goal as marketers is to constantly strive for top-of-mind positioning, and staying at the top of a prospect’s inbox is a great starting point. The easiest way to establish your newsletter process is to just start somewhere! Create an audience through your email service provider of choice, establish a process for compiling biweekly content, and assign a responsible person on your team to execute it. - Bobby Steinbach, MeanPug Digital
7. Increased Customer Engagement
A newsletter can significantly boost customer engagement. To achieve this, focus on providing exclusive, valuable content that resonates with your audience’s interests and needs. Regular, insightful updates combined with a personal touch can turn a simple newsletter into a powerful tool for maintaining and deepening customer relationships. - Mohamed Elhawary, BeUniqueness
8. Customer Loyalty
A brand’s newsletter can cultivate customer loyalty by delivering value. Provide relevant, insightful content, exclusive offers and personalized recommendations. Consistent communication that highlights the brand’s personality fosters a strong emotional connection. Encourage two-way communication—listen to subscribers’ feedback and preferences. This strengthens the brand-consumer relationship. - George Arabian, NVISION
9. Value-Added Self-Promotion
I’m a firm believer that you can promote yourself in a newsletter in ways that are actually useful to your subscribers. For example, if you’re a B2B company, your customers are looking to meet certain objectives—such as growing sales in a particular region—and they may be excited to find out that you offer geotargeted advertising. Let them know you have what they need by including an actionable case study. - Christine Olivas, Co Conspirators
10. Valuable Data To Analyze
Quantify your content by measuring engagement. An email newsletter is one of many digital marketing channels with analytics. This data provides valuable insights into what resonates with your audiences and helps you refine your messaging to optimize engagement and build your reputation. - Townsend Belisle, Haystack Needle LLC
11. Unique Value Proposition Reinforcement
A newsletter can reinforce the (ideally) unique value that you provide, so when your prospects are ready to buy, your brand will be top of mind. Focus the content on your audience’s needs, desires and interests. Use case studies and customer reviews to prove how you can solve problems. But respect your readers’ time by keeping it tight. Leave them wanting more of your insights. - Scott Greggory, MadAveGroup
12. A List Of People Who Like Your Company
Perhaps the most valuable thing you get from a newsletter is a list of customers who enjoy your products or services and want to hear more about them. Offer the people on your list custom deals, engage with them and get them talking on social media, sharing with others what they love about you. There are a number of things you can do with an entire list of people who like your company! - Jason Hall, FiveChannels Marketing
13. A Trusting, Engaged Subscriber Audience
By providing valuable, relevant content on a consistent schedule, brands can develop trust with readers over time. A tip is to identify niche topics of high interest that are within your expertise to attract subscribers, then focus on quality writing and an engaging format to keep readers opening new issues of your newsletter and grow the community. - David Einstein, Orange Line
14. Excellent Positioning Capabilities
A newsletter is an excellent way to position your company. The key to doing this well? Providing value. People are far too busy to read emails they get nothing out of. Give away free advice. Offer content that makes their lives easier. Share things that bring them joy. If they want to read your email, it’s a win. If it’s just one more thing they have to delete, they will eventually opt out. - Jacquelyn LaMar Berney, VI Marketing and Branding
15. Media Placement Amplification
A newsletter is a fantastic way to amplify media placements. Having thought leadership or expert commentary tied to a media brand that your prospects and customers respect provides instant credibility. Additionally, stakeholders may have missed the coverage in the media outlet, so the newsletter provides another opportunity to meet them where they are. - Jodi Amendola, Amendola Communications
