The email newsletter is a powerful multifaceted marketing and communication tool that has survived and thrived for many years. Newsletter campaigns are flexible, creative, and have many useful functions. You can inform your subscribers about special discounts, company changes, new products and special services.

At the end of the day, your bottom line is to send relevant and well-written newsletter campaigns that will keep your brand name alive and in the forefront of your clients and prospects minds. Newsletters enable the marketer to create their own personal voice in what they say, and how they say it. Reaching out in a personal way continues to help build long and trusting relationships with all your subscribers.

If you are just getting started using email newsletter campaigns to promote your brand, then you have landed at the right place. Let us help you create the strategy you need, to enlarge and increase your ROI. Whether a novice or an experienced newsletter marketer, the learning curve never stops. Technology and innovation never sleeps.

Developing your email newsletters

If you are asking yourself how to create an email l newsletter campaign, several other questions must be answered, and different bases must be covered. Every campaign has a different message, voice, and purposes. Your target audience may change, as well. The one-size fits all is not a good strategy.

Design with a goal

Every email campaign has a message and every message has a goal. What are yours? Why are you sending the email and what are the results you want to achieve? Your newsletter page is not a website. Keep your graphics professional and limited. Do not trigger your recipient’s spam filters. Give your reader a choice between choosing HTML and plain text.

Who is your target audience?

Writers must know their target audience. How can you develop content without knowing the persona of who may be reading it? Every email newsletter campaign has one goal in common. We want our newsletters opened and read. Sending information that is not relevant, guarantees a trip to the Spam or Trash bin. Knowing the right questions is just as important as having the right answers.

A clear message

Is this a closeout or sale with a targeted date? Tell your recipients what they are getting and why they need to read this information. Are they getting a discount or a gift? Before asking your recipients to click on your call to action, let them know what they will receive. Identify and spell out the benefits of signing up. Give them a reason to take it to the next level.

Interesting and relevant content

Focus on Relevance: Sending valuable, relevant information to your subscribers is crucial. Again, having the right demographics and behavioral data will help you send the right message to the right audience. Is this information useful? What is in it for them?

Absolutely nothing takes the place of good content. Getting your newsletter delivered and having it opened is huge, but keeping their interest, is even better. Do not use long explanations and hype. Get to the point. The most important information should be in the first paragraph. Do not make your newsletter a mystery tour, or you may quickly lose a sale.

Make unsubscribing easy

Many times email newsletters hide disclaimers, terms, and conditions in tiny hard to read fonts, and underneath that, they put the unsubscribe link. It is as if they are hiding it. That automatically creates distrust as you are making it difficult to unsubscribe. Making it hard to unsubscribe can easily lead to complaints of spam and that will give anyone a bad impression. One complaint can easily spread to hundreds of people within minutes. Make your unsubscribe link clear and prominent, easy to find.

Always include an alternative plain text version

Either there are many people who do not prefer HTML in their email, or have the images and pictures turned off by default. Provide a plain text alternative, so that the reader’s own email program can choose which version to display.

Follow the law

Review the email regulations for your country. Go over the US CAN-SPAM laws. Using email newsletter software, helps insure that your graphics are optimized (image blocking) and in compliance with the Can-Spam laws automatically. Do not put yourself at risk. Make sure you are meeting all the legal requirements or you could risk the danger of being blacklisted on your server and closed down.

A few helpful suggestions on avoiding the email spam filters:

• Do not use images for headlines, links, and calls to action
• Ask your recipients to add you to their address book or white list
• Test your design with your images turned off before sending

ActiveTrail offers a wide variety of professionally designed online newsletter templates that are easy to modify, and are already in compliance with all the Can-Spam Laws.

Test your email newsletter campaign before sending

Words spoken aloud can never be taken back. Email newsletter campaigns can never be recalled. Stress and pressure should not be captains on your ship. Testing your email newsletter in different browsers gives you a “hands on” view on how your newsletter appears in your recipient’s email program. Get another pair of eyes with which to check your grammar, spelling, and message. Your email newsletter represents you. Don’t regret not taking the time needed to make it the best it can be.

Measuring the metrics of success

Successful campaigns are never the result of luck or prayers. They are marketing campaigns seriously researched, and their results, carefully measured. Clearly defined goals need to be weighed against each campaign’s previous results. Modifications can only be made, when you know what strategies did not work.

The right email newsletter software provides those very tools. Accurate analytics are crucial when developing demographics and behavioral stats. Email newsletter software will create reports, which include:

• Open rates: How many people received and opened your newsletter
• Click through rates: How many opened your newsletter and clicked a link
• Unsubscribe: How many people unsubscribed
• Subscribed: How many people subscribed
• Conversion rates: How many people clicked through to your website, bought a product, downloaded a trial, or some other trackable action.

The right company – the right software

ActiveTrail offers the most powerful and versatile email campaign software. With hundreds of beautifully designed templates from which to choose, you immediately start out with a professional design, knowing all text and graphics are in full compliance with all the Anti-Spam laws and codes.

ActiveTrail has recently integrated the full package of Google Analytics giving you metrics you need. With every email newsletter campaign, you will be able to accurately measure each and every aspect of your comparative reports. Statistics should not be hard to interpret. With ActiveTrail, reports are accurate and easy to understand, leaving you in charge of each and every campaign.

The ActiveTrail Team wants you to win and win big! Check out our new features.