Email newsletters have become a standard marketing tool, and for good reason: compared to any sort of print marketing materials, an email newsletter is cheap to produce. Just how effective an email newsletter is can depend, but if you put together a newsletter that your readers (and clients) can look forward to, it can lead to significant sales. But without the right tools, it doesn’t matter how cheap or how effective your newsletters are. If you choose the wrong software, your newsletters will never even arrive.
The Dilemma of Spam
There are incredibly inexpensive newsletter software options available online, offering to send out your newsletters for only a few dollars each month. But it’s worth paying a little more, rather than going for the cheapest option out there: many of those inexpensive options have so many spam complaints against them that any newsletter they send out for you won’t reach your readers’ inboxes. Because those email marketing tools have a bad reputation with most email providers, they’ve effectively been blacklisted.
The price of those more expensive and more reliable newsletter tools won’t break the bank: Constant Contact offers plans starting at $15 per month, still far below what you might pay in postage alone if you were to send a print newsletter. Furthermore, higher quality email marketing tools make an effort to police newsletters and reduce spam, therefore reducing the chances that a reader might think your newsletter is spam. Other popular tools that fall into this category include MailChimp, Aweber and our partner, Constant Contact.
The Right Features
Different newsletter tools offer different features: depending on what your goals are with your newsletter — beyond simply making sales, of course — you may need specific features. Those might include any of the following:
- Integration with your CRM tools
- Newsletter design
- Reports on who has opened your newsletters
- Double opt-in registration
- Templates for different types of newsletters
It’s crucial to make sure that the software you choose to manage your newsletter has all the features you expect to need from the get go. Moving a mailing list from one tool to another is difficult, and you’ll often lose subscribers in the process, especially if you choose an email marketing tool that requires opt-in from your readers (a technique used to minimize spam complaints).
If you aren’t sure what option is best for you, it’s worth considering who will be doing most of the work on the newsletter. Working with a freelance writer or other professional who specializes in email newsletters can make sense and that approach lets you get the matter off your desk and out of your way. If you choose to outsource your newsletter, it may make sense to consult with your freelancer on what software she would recommend and would prefer to work with. If you’re going to handle the details of your newsletter yourself, it may be worthwhile to take the different tools out there for a test drive, so that you can see which is easiest for you to use. Most email marketing tools now offer a free trial that will allow you to do just that.
If you want to try a 60-day free trial of Constant Contact check out our Network Solutions-Constant Contact partnership.
Image by Stock.xchng user Arroba
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