Monday, January 26, 2015

Survey Says…Business Executives Love Email Newsletters

By Laura Powers

At Furia Rubel, we spend a fair amount of time creating monthly and bimonthly email newsletters for our clients. We were intrigued by a recent survey performed by digital news outlet, Quartz, confirming that newsletters can be one of the most effective tools to maintain client relationships or keep colleagues informed. If done right, your newsletters could develop an engaging subscriber foundation, and potentially cultivate suitable leads and customers.

Email newsletters as a primary news source

Quartz’s survey states that 60 percent of business executives interviewed say email newsletters are one of the first three news sources they read in the morning. For keeping up on the latest industry news, 56 percent of executives said an email newsletter is their primary source of information. 75 percent of executives surveyed said they spend at least 30 minutes a day consuming the news. Why not spend a few of those minutes looking at business newsletters?

Sharing newsletter content among peers

The survey documented the changing ways, people ranging from managing directors to c-level executives, consume and share content – despite the widespread use of mobile devices. Content sharing of relevant news items that allow the original distributor access to and ease of sharing is important. So important – that 91 percent of business executives surveyed say they would share work-related news with others.

Understanding your audience is the key to relevant content

One of the biggest problems with email newsletters is that they are often disorganized and nonspecific because they are featuring news from every aspect of your business. PR stories or blog posts could be going next to random upcoming events – what a mess! Find a strategic solution for content placement by brainstorming ways to balance the content of your newsletter to be 90 percent informative and at least 10 percent promotional.

People are on a tight schedule; meaning everything they see has to be concise with such limited time on their hands. While they may want to hear from you, there is only so much information they’ll want to read before tuning out. Unless you actually have interesting news about your product, service, or company, leave out as much as you can of the self-promotional aspects and instead:

  • Offer something different from those of your competitors
  • Provide high quality content relevant to your audience
  • Include positive events in which the company participates 
  • Reflect on recent happenings in your industry

Where to promote a company newsletter 

Not sure where to advertise your email newsletter? Below are a few placement hacks we recommend:

  • During client communication 
  • Announce the arrival of the next newsletter on your website
  • At trade / industry events
  • Introduce the newsletter to new business contacts
  • Position a link to the most recent newsletter in your email signature

Please feel free to share your thoughts on email newsletters with us in the comments section below. Does your company use them? What do you feel is valuable to include in company newsletters?

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