Benefits of Email Newsletters: Grow Your Business

Email newsletters represent an enticing return on investment. They can be simple and easy to set up and maintain, yet they are remarkably effective at building customer loyalty and keeping your audience engaged.

Nearly 70% of companies still rely on email marketing, and for a good reason. In this article, we’ll discuss everything you need to know to get started building a newsletter.

What are Email Newsletters?

Email newsletters are the most common type of email marketing. Think of them as a tool you can use to engage with your customers by sharing news, updates, and more. If you strike the right balance of information and frequency, your newsletter has the potential to build customer loyalty and, ultimately, help your business grow and thrive.

Why are Email Newsletters Important?

Email newsletters can benefit your business in a number of ways. Using email as a means of communication is practically a no-brainer: 3.8 billion people – roughly half the world’s population – use email to communicate. Collectively, we send and receive 281 billion emails every day.

While this popularity can result in ignored emails, oversaturated inboxes and over-filled spam folders, email remains a core aspect of effective marketing. When implemented properly, email marketing can offer a potential 4000% return on investment.

What Can Email Newsletters Be Used For?

When it comes to deciding what to include in your newsletter, you’ll want to consider features that bring value to your customers. The basics are things like shopping lists, surveys, and customer reviews.

As the name suggests, the bulk of your newsletter should be about, well, news. Engage with your community by keeping them informed about upcoming promotions and special events. Here are just a few examples:

• Launching a new menu or service item
• Welcoming a new employee
• Opening up another location
• Achieving a new milestone or fundraising goal

Do you have a website or blog you want to promote? Your newsletter can include links to interesting recipes or blog posts you wish to share with your customers. You can also use a website to host content created specifically for the newsletter.

Perhaps the biggest draw, however, is the opportunity for subscriber-exclusive benefits and deals that will call your readers to action. These are the sorts of things that will help convince your customers to go through the effort of subscribing to your email newsletter.

This can be as simple as a coupon or discount offered only to your most loyal customers. But you can also offer educational events like in-person or online cooking classes, fundraising or charity events, and even tangible items like an eCookBook.

What Content Should Email Newsletters Include?

There are obviously many potential benefits to an email newsletter, but that means you have to be intentional when you create yours. You need to set goals and objectives, then make a plan on how to reach them. Ask yourself: what do you want your readers to gain from your newsletter?

These goals should be in line with your vision and values as a business owner. If you aren’t sure where to start, look to see what other restaurants are including. Decode what works for your competition, then use that knowledge to put out something even better for your own business.

Having said that, there are some steadfast rules that you should always adhere to. One of the most important is to personalize your content as much as possible. Even if this just means addressing your followers by name, a little personalization can go a long way toward getting your audience to actually read your newsletter.

Speaking of reading, short and to the point is almost always the best approach. Life is short, and people don’t want to read paragraphs of information. Minimize or eliminate fluff in your emails, and you’ll have much more success.

Timing is the last piece of the puzzle. Our research shows that the best window to send an email newsletter is roughly 7 PM to 9 PM. The good news is that it’s easy to schedule emails like this in advance: it’s not like you have to sit around every evening waiting to hit “send.”

How to Design Your Email Newsletter

Beyond the content itself, a successful business owner should put thought into the structure of each email. Start by constructing a simple newsletter template: it should be eye-catching and easy to digest.

It may seem like a small detail, but it’s important to maintain the same template as much as possible. When it comes to building a successful newsletter, repetitiveness isn’t a negative. On the contrary: repetition leads to familiarity, which in turn helps build relationships with your customers.

By the way, all of these details also apply to mobile platforms. 46% of emails are opened from mobile devices, so set yourself up for success by ensuring your newsletter is mobile-friendly. Compatibility with multiple devices is vital to ensuring your emails are actually read and not simply ignored.

Finally, put some thought into your word choice throughout the newsletter. The subject line is the first thing your customers will see, so make it a good one. An email with a catchy heading – whether creative, intriguing, or just plain funny – is much more likely to be opened.

After the subject line, your CTAs (or Calls To Action) are extremely important. Phrases like “Get Discount,” “Make an Order,” or “Learn More!” may seem simplistic, but they are proven to be effective conversion devices. Pepper them in with hyperlinks throughout your newsletters.

How Fisherman Helps Customers with Email Newsletters

As you’ve probably guessed, Fisherman is an ideal resource for constructing your email newsletter. Here’s some insight into the many tools you’ll have at your disposal with Fisherman:

Fisherman’s Customer Information Collection Tool makes it easy to gather, organize, and implement data from your customers. Fisherman websites include a “Contact” tab, which gives visitors the opportunity to input their Name and Email as well as a Message. You can also manually add any new customer’s information by tapping the blue “Add Customer” button.

In addition to collecting data, this feature serves as a powerful tool to help you keep track of your customers’ information. You can access it at any time via the “Customers” tab on your dashboard.

You’ll also find a “Download Report” button, which makes it easy to collect all of your customers’ emails for sending out your newspaper. The report is a comprehensive CSV file with contact information for everyone on your mailing list.

If you’d like to see a full breakdown of how best to utilize Fisherman’s data collection tools, navigate to the Help Center from your dashboard and click on “Customers.” You can also get this information in video form on Fisherman’s YouTube page.

Members of Fisherman’s Professional tier (and higher) have access to some more advanced features as well. Among these is the option to add a “Join Our Mailing List” pop-up to your restaurant’s home page. This can entice more customers to join your list, helping your business grow even faster.

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