How to craft a newsletter to build your brand

Newsletters are created for a variety of different reasons – for example, to share your most recent company news or to direct people to your services – but they should always be designed to provide useful information in a way that encourages readers to engage with your brand.

So, how can you do this?

Set a clearly defined goal. Before starting to build your mailing list and sending out a newsletter, you need to determine what your specific goal is, other than merely securing opens or clicks. This may be generating leads or sales, or directing traffic to your website/other online content – whatever it may be, make this clear before commencing.

Engage don’t broadcast. You need to really connect with your audience, not just feed them information in a dull, generic way. It may seem time-consuming, but carefully plan out your content, which may be a combination of images, graphics, news, offers, competitions, or social media activity – think about how you are displaying the information just as much as the words used.

Consider design. The look and feel of your newsletter should reflect your brand – colours, lettering, tone, and layout. You will have no doubt worked hard to establish and create your brand, so this should be reflected in everything that your audience will read.

Establish a frequency schedule. Getting the balance for how often to schedule your emails is crucial. You certainly don’t want to overdo it, but also can’t afford for the audience to lose interest or forget about you. Some of the people on your mailing list may need contacting multiple times a week, whereas for others weekly or monthly emails would suffice – once the frequency is set, delivery should remain consistent.

Create your content. Prewritten messages are often dull and boring, so try producing content for each newsletter individually, and don’t compose it too far in advance to ensure it is as fresh and current as possible. Every ‘issue’ should provide recipients with information of value to them, and include links where appropriate to generate engagement.

Proofread your newsletter. This is the final and most important task to undertake before your mailing list receives the finished article. Nobody will take your brand seriously if there are grammatical or spelling mistakes and typos throughout. This is also the ideal opportunity to check that content is styled in a way that is easy to read and digest.

The purpose of building a brand in the first place – whether it be in a newsletter or elsewhere – is to help your company to grow. In order to know whether you have been successful or not you should always attempt to measure the results.

Newsletters are a great interactive way to create an online presence for your brand, which can result in tangible, positive improvements to your bottom line – so it’s important you get it right!