How to create an e-mail newsletter that works.

Hello friends and readers,
As I don't blog that often any more I was thinking whether I should create an e-mail newsletter in order to reach out to all of you from time to time or on a regular basis.
That way you would get my news as well as links to various places I visited, crafts I made, books I read etc.
As I have no idea on how to do this I looked around on the web to find info and advice on how to create a proper e-mail newsletter and found some great pieces of info and advice on myemma.
Although the article I found concerns businesses and how to create an e-mail newsletter to build brand loyalty I am sure we can use lots of the info for personal blog newsletters as well.
You can find the whole article here.
But I thought I could give you the main points here too.
The first and most important thing is that one has to realise that newsletters are written by and for real human beings and not by computer programmes.
People don't like receiving emails that seem impersonal, and are only to promote sales. They want more meaningful content in them.
Want to read more? Ready to jump in and start generating a top-notch newsletter? Awesome! Here are a few tips that will keep you on the right track.
So I hope this gives you some ideas of how to create successfully a newsletter to attract readers to your blog or business.

1. Stay relevant.

You already know your readers want and need value, but you also have to provide material that's both relevant to them and to your brand.

2. Make it shareable.

The perfect way to get extra impact for your marketing effort is to design a great newsletter with relevant content, and then encourage sharing.

Youcan do this using a simple ask in your call-to-action (CTA) and being sure to make it clickable, or you can put prominent social media sharing buttons where subscribers can find them.

3. Make it simple.

A simple, uncrowded format works best for readers who are in skimming mode. 

4. Make it personal.

Personalizing your newsletter will help ensure it’s opened and read.

In fact, personalized emails get opened 29.3%more often than emails that aren’t personalized, so it’s worth the effort to add this touch to your email newsletter.

Plus, you can boostyour revenue 5.7 times through personalization, and that’s definitely a good reason to try this technique out on your next email newsletter campaign.

 As it was mentioned, creating an email newsletter can help you build serious loyalty with your customers and readers.

Newsletters build personal relationships and allow brands to offer customers value-added content that creates repeat customers.

Here are afew of the ways email newsletters accomplish this level of loyalty:

·         Providing important reminders and updates for new products, services, and events to email subscribers only.

·         Offering free gifts and giveaways to subscribers only. Offering these will sporadically allow your customers to feel your email newsletter has recurring value.

·         Giving discounted offers and email-exclusive coupons. These can include early access to sales or email-only sales that will foster exclusivity among your customers and encourage repeat business.

·         Providing relevant, useful content. Need we say more? Content is critical! You can even take it a step further and offer exclusive content that’s only available to subscribers.

·         Using participation bonuses to reward engagement. This can include contests or competitions for customers to write testimonials, post comments, or forward emails.

·         Offering bonuses for social media engagement. Using the same concept as with general participation bonuses, this can include contests for the most social media sharing of your content or even the most mentions of your brand on social media.

You can use one, or all, of these strategies to take your email newsletter to the next level, offering valued customers everything they need to continue to be your biggest fans.

This blog post is a collaboration post. I expressed my own thoughts and used resources on how to create a newsletter for your blog taken from  myemma resources.