In my previous post, I made the business case for enewsletters, which can be a highly effective marketing tool for accountants and other service-based businesses. For little cost, you can market your services to prospects, current and former customers.
But what are the key legal considerations and what steps should you take if you want to your enewsletter to succeed?
1 Build and segment your enewsletter contact list…
Obviously, you’ll have email addresses for existing clients. And although you may have them for former clients and prospects, if you haven’t gained their informed consent, email them all to tell them about your new enewsletter, including a link to your website’s enewsletter subscription page.
Gather your signed-up email addresses into one enewsletter contact database. Segmenting this into different types of customers and targeting each with variations of your enewsletter can greatly increase your success. Separating private individuals from businesses is an obvious place to start, but you could segment your database into leads, customers and previous customers.
Top tip >> Segment your business customers by age, size or sector, so that you can better serve their specific information needs.
2 Get more subscribers to sign up
Enabling visitors to easily subscribe via your home page and others is a must. Give links good visibility, but avoid invasive pop-ups and anything else that could annoy.
Don’t ask for too much information at first. You just need a name, some basic details and an email address. On your sign-up web page, tell subscribers how you’ll use their email address. If you plan to send other marketing emails, allow them to opt out. Include enewsletter sign-up links in your email footers and social media posts and profile pages. Publicise your enewsletter offline, too.
Top tip >> Don’t waste money buying email lists, because the quality can be poor. Instead, always seek to grow your subscription list.
3 Draw up an enewsletter content plan
Create this for the next 12 months. Plan in content when it will be most relevant and useful to recipients. As an obvious example, if you are an accountant, you include a piece on Self-Assessment in your November or December enewsletter ahead of the 31 January tax return online filing deadline.
Also align content with your marketing aims. For example, you may want to try to sell a particular service at a certain time, so you include related content in the preceding month’s enewsletter.
You should also plan content around topical, seasonal, national or international events. Provide an engaging mix of topics and content format in each newsletter. Be original. About three items of content per newsletter is a good target – think quality not quantity. This content should live on your website. Create an archive page, so visitors can read your previous enewsletters.
Top tip >> Your content should be rich in value. Tell recipients something new. Solve their problems. Help them to succeed. Save them time and money. Also showcase your expertise.
4 Choose the right enewsletter solution
There are many enewsletter management platforms/apps. They include MailChimp, Mailjet, GetResponse, MailUp, MailerLite, Emma, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, MailUp, AWeber, Benchmark, Sendloop, SendinBlue and ConvertKit.
Some offer a free service, with limited features/benefits, but these can still work well if you have a relatively short mailing list. The more you pay, basically, the more you get, and monthly deals are available from about £10-£15 – a relatively low investment.
So, how does they work? You import your database, create an enewsletter design or use/customise a responsive template (so your email looks good on all devices) and schedule your distribution. Most paid solutions enable you to segment, A/B test, custom brand your enewsletters and gain advanced audience insights, so you can improve your success rate.
Top tip >> Make it easy to share your newsletters via email links or social media sharing buttons. It can help to grow your subscription list.
5 Preview, send and analyse
After all of your content has been written – and proofed – most enewsletter platforms/apps allow you send test versions to yourself, to check it looks good on desktop and mobile device, and won’t be deemed junk mail. If all is OK, you can send or schedule your enewsletter for distribution.
You can never be totally sure how your enewsletter will perform, but most enewsletter platforms/apps provide analytics, so you can see what worked and what didn’t. Key metrics include open rate, click-through rate and unsubscribe rates.
Top tip >> Always analyse performance data. Learn lessons and make improvements. Don’t give up if results aren’t great straight away. Success takes time and effort.
Some important legal requirements
Your must comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements when it comes to personal data.
Recipients should also have given their explicit consent to receiving your enewsletter. Individuals and organisations must opt-in to receive your email. Get verifiable consent via an affirmative action.
Recipients must be able to unsubscribe easily.
Each enewsletter must clearly state your business name, registration number if a limited company, your postal and email addresses. You can’t conceal your identity.
Anti-spam laws restrict the sending of “spam” (unsolicited marketing emails) to subscribers.
Never send unsolicited enewsletters. Most of us hate them – don’t we?
• Written by Mark Williams, founder and content director of Dead Good Content. Copyright 2020 © Dead Good Content.
