The Comprehensive Guide to Newsletter Marketing

Who doesn't know them? Newsletters. Countless newsletters are sent out every day - according to Statista, in 2019 around 34% of Germans received more than ten newsletters per week. Of these, 19% are already registered with more than 20 newsletters (Statista source). You will have to let these numbers melt in your mouth. The myth that newsletter marketing is dead is therefore probably refuted. Therefore, in this article we will take a closer look at what newsletter marketing is all about.

Newsletter Marketing Definition

What is newsletter marketing? Newsletter marketing can be classified in the field of online marketing and inbound marketing. Emails are sent to the newsletter subscribers - this can happen at regular or irregular intervals. Often new products are advertised, special offers are pointed out or the latest blog posts or company news are presented.

Newsletter vs. Email Marketing

Newsletter marketing and email marketing are often used as synonyms for each other. But is that really correct? The answer is: if you want to be exact, then not. But why is that? What is the difference between newsletter marketing and email marketing?

Email marketing is a generic term, where newsletter marketing can be subordinated. Plus, you've just learned that newsletters are sent out at regular or irregular intervals to all newsletter subscribers. So there is no personalization here. It's different with email marketing. There, everything revolves around individual communication with the different newsletter readers. Using so-called tags, the subscribers of the email list are divided into different groups. These groups have different interests and needs. And their current position in the customer journey is also not the same for all newsletter subscribers, which strongly influences both the approach and the email content.

So you can remember that newsletters (simply put) are often pure information emails. In contrast, emails in email marketing are personalized and individualized emails that are primarily intended to strengthen the exchange and connection with the readers. With the aim of turning the readers into loyal and valuable customers.

If you want to learn more about email marketing, the three pillars of email marketing or email marketing trends 2022 we have the right articles for you here. However, we recommend our OMR Reviews Briefing on Email Marketing to those who want to delve deeper into the email marketing topic.

Why Newsletter Marketing

Newsletter marketing offers an easier entry than email marketing. After all, here you don't have to plan and set up elaborate email automations and email funnels. To start with, it's enough to integrate a newsletter subscription with double opt-in on the website, attract new newsletter subscribers via this and send a regular newsletter.

With the regular newsletters you address your target group and can send them important information and offers. In addition, newsletter marketing helps you to build a community with the active newsletter readers over time. This is a very important point for your business. After all, active readers are often the ones who ultimately buy your products, offers or services and in the best case even recommend them.

Advantages of Newsletter Marketing

As you may have already noticed, sending such newsletters has several advantages for you as an entrepreneur or self-employed person. We would like to briefly list what these are and then go into a little more detail.

Newsletter Marketing Advantages:

• Little time required
• Flexible design
• Cost-effective
• Focus on target group
• Measurable

Time Required

Compared to other (online) marketing strategies, a newsletter is easier and above all quicker to implement. If you compare the effort of a newsletter, for example, with the effort of creating and implementing print media, social media posts, YouTube videos or even blog posts, you will soon notice a serious difference. Tools like GetResponse

(Kostenlos ausprobieren)

Another plus point, which pays into the time advantage, is that you can plan your newsletters relaxed in advance. What does that mean? With the help of an editorial plan you think about topics for the future newsletters. As soon as you have brainstormed and entered these in the editorial plan, you start creating the newsletter contents and deposit them in the newsletter tool of your choice. There you also set the date and time for the individual newsletters when the newsletters should be sent automatically. This way you tackle the newsletter creation in a bundled way and can then put this to-do aside for several weeks and devote yourself to other topics.

Flexible

The content and also timing design is flexible in newsletter marketing and therefore easy to adjust. Do you have a spontaneous topic that definitely needs to be addressed in the next newsletter? No problem. You simply change or extend the planned newsletter content. Do you have a time-critical emergency and you can't send your newsletter as planned? No problem - just adjust your sending time in the newsletter tool.

Small hint: in general, it is recommended to always send your own newsletter on the same day and at the same time? Because then your target group gets used to it and expects your newsletter very eagerly at this time.

Cost-effective

Compared to various marketing measures such as advertising, print media or even blog posts (if these are written externally), newsletters are significantly cheaper. Why? For the setup and implementation of newsletter marketing you basically only need a newsletter marketing tool, like GetResponse

(Kostenlos ausprobieren)

Focus on target group

Since you generate your newsletter subscribers on your website, they already have interest in you or your offer or content. You therefore have hardly any scatter losses. This is all the more valuable as you need up to seven contacts until a potential customer is interested in your offer or ready to decide to purchase (or book) from you. For this reason, with your newsletter marketing you reach your target group and thus your potential customers.

Measurable
Another advantage of newsletter marketing is the measurability of the newsletter performance. The newsletter tools usually give you an insight into various analysis data. These include, for example, newsletter key figures such as opening rate or link clicks. Based on these key figures, you can analyze your newsletter performance and derive recommendations for action.

Disadvantages of Newsletter Marketing

Of course, newsletter marketing not only has advantages, but also a few disadvantages:

• As with any other marketing strategy or measure, some time also has to be spent on newsletter marketing. After all, the newsletters do not plan and create themselves. Nevertheless, the time effort here is significantly less than with other marketing measures.
• Until you have found the best time to send your newsletter, it can take a while. This requires a lot of testing and evaluation.
• Newsletters quickly have a bad opening rate if either the time or the subject (or both) are poorly chosen. Here, too, the rule is to test, test, test.
• Your newsletter subscribers sometimes unsubscribe faster from the newsletter than you would like. Namely, when your newsletter content is not good enough in quality. That is often the case when your newsletter does not meet the needs and challenges of your target group, but you write the newsletter content past them.
• A newsletter list can organically grow quite slowly; this depends on your general website traffic size. So it can certainly be useful to promote your newsletter (by creating a freebie for the newsletter registration and promoting it, for example).

Types of Newsletter Marketing

Newsletter marketing is very diverse and can therefore occur in different areas of online marketing or be integrated. We'll show you what different types and applications of newsletter marketing there are.

B2B Newsletter Marketing

B2B newsletter marketing is about sending newsletters to a business target group. This means that a newsletter sent from an online shop to private customers is a B2C newsletter. Whereas if an entrepreneur sends the newsletter to the newsletter list - consisting of potential business clients such as employees, entrepreneurs, freelancers or the self-employed - then this is a B2B newsletter.

The challenge of B2B newsletter marketing is to create relevant content and send it to the right people. In medium to large companies, it is often not the decision-makers who subscribe to the newsletter, but the corresponding employees. It can also happen that the newsletter is sent to dead email addresses due to staff changes.

We therefore recommend that you regularly clean up your newsletter contacts and ask your newsletter subscribers about their interests and needs. This way you can better ensure that your B2B newsletters are sent out in a targeted manner.

Content Marketing Newsletter

Surely you already know that content marketing is an essential part of your online marketing, if you want to attract the right customers with your website. This works best when you combine content marketing and SEO (search engine optimization) and use their synergies.

However, there are also some challenges in content marketing. One of them is that often content is produced and published for your own website, then nothing else happens. The content is therefore lying on the website and as long as SEO has been applied and appealing SEO texts have been written, some Google rankings will be created in the next weeks or months. But do you really want to make your success purely dependent on that?

No, of course not. This is why you want to promote the content you have worked so hard to create. And here your newsletter comes in. With your newsletter marketing you can spread your content outside your website and thus create more reach.

This has the advantage for your newsletter subscribers that they receive a newsletter with added value on a regular basis. Don't forget that not every newsletter subscriber also knows your website or regularly follows and reads your blog articles. In your newsletter you tease your website or blog content and link to the respective page. The readers who want to find out more get there with one click.

So using your newsletter as a content marketing newsletter is a smart thing to do. It also gives you the advantage that you already have a topic for your newsletter. Making up new ideas for your own newsletter marketing all the time takes a lot of energy and time.

Social Media Marketing Newsletter

Similarly to the content marketing newsletter, a social media marketing newsletter can be used to strengthen both channels. On the one hand, you gain new social media followers and on the other hand, you create more reach for your newsletter and additionally generate further newsletter subscribers.

Here's how to combine your newsletter and your social media:

1. Profile links in the newsletter: Integrate your social media profile links in the header or footer of your newsletter
2. Share links in the newsletter: Use share links in the newsletter, via which your readers can share the newsletter content on their own social media channels (so-called SWYN links).
3. Newsletter post on social media: Post a post about your newsletter on social media and thereby draw attention to your newsletter and arouse the interest of your social media followers.

WhatsApp Newsletter Marketing

Until the end of 2019 many companies used the WhatsApp messenger as a newsletter tool. Interested parties could sign up for the WhatsApp newsletter by providing their mobile number and companies then sent their newsletters with product news and discounts via WhatsApp. This was very popular with both companies and users. The only problem: WhatsApp was never intended for mass mailing of messages - which was also stated in their terms and conditions. Accordingly, many companies used the messenger tool inappropriately. So it happened that WhatsApp completely banned the use of WhatsApp for commercial newsletters in December 2019.

Meanwhile, however, WhatsApp has created a few possibilities for companies: the WhatsApp Business App and the WhatsApp Business API.

• The WhatsApp Business App is aimed at small businesses that want to get into direct and fast exchange with their customers. In addition, they can use the WhatsApp Business App to present their offers and create a product or service catalog.
• The WhatsApp Business API is aimed at medium and large companies that want to offer customer support and send commercial messages. This is possible, subject to certain rules and fees.

Accordingly, there is no such thing as a WhatsApp newsletter, but entrepreneurs are again in a position to communicate with their customers via WhatsApp and inform them about offers.

Affiliate Marketing Newsletter

Applying affiliate marketing in the newsletter is another option. When else do you have the chance to reach any number of potential customers in such a simple way and earn money from it? After all, in your newsletter distribution list you have specific readers who are interested in your subject. There the probability that someone will also buy from a good affiliate is significantly higher than if the readers were widely scattered in your newsletter.

If you then go one step further and set up appropriate automations for different scenarios in email marketing, your affiliate newsletters will be sent out without you actively having to do anything. And at the same time you make your money from it. That's genius, isn't it?

But be careful, this is not as easy as it might sound. Behind the building of your newsletter list, the setup of different email automations and the creation of click-strong and sales-strong mails is a lot of work. This is not done from one day to the next.

Nevertheless, affiliate marketing newsletter can be a lucrative online marketing strategy for you. If you are still unsure whether to start with affiliate marketing, we have compiled the advantages and disadvantages of affiliate marketing for you. Feel free to take a look and inform yourself whether affiliate newsletter marketing makes sense for you.

If you decide on an affiliate marketing newsletter, there are three important points to consider in the design of the newsletter:

1. The subject line decides whether the readers open the newsletter or not. So get creative here and make curious. Stir up especially the need of the reader.
2. In the salutation there are two possibilities: personalized or not personalized. Try out what works best for you. Of course, the prerequisite for a personalized salutation is that you ask for the name when you register for the newsletter.
3. Your newsletter subscribers will only buy via your newsletter if it is interesting, worthwhile or useful in content. With boring texts and empty words, your affiliate will not succeed. Therefore, think about how you can sensibly bring your affiliate links into the newsletter content. Possible contents could be offers, sales, news from your subject area, practical tips or your personal experiences.

One more small hint: Affiliate newsletter marketing does not mean that you incorporate affiliate links in every one of your newsletters. Perhaps even to lucrative products that have nothing to do with your area of subject. Quite the contrary. Use your affiliate links specifically and selectively, as you neither want to appear spammy nor risk or lose trust with your newsletter subscribers.

In 6 steps to the newsletter marketing strategy

Now you have already learned a lot about newsletters and newsletter marketing. But before you now start writing your first newsletter, you should think about your newsletter marketing strategy. Because running headlessly is rarely a good idea. What needs to be considered in a newsletter marketing strategy? First and foremost, your target group and your goals play an elementary role, because the three further steps of your newsletter marketing strategy are based on this.

Knowing who you are writing the newsletter for makes it easier for you to find topics as well as the right approach to the emails.

Therefore, answer the following questions about your target group:

• How old is your target group?
• What demographic characteristics does your target group have?
• What interests does your target group have?
• What values are important to your target group?
• Are you addressing B2C or B2B subscribers?
• What jobs / positions does your target group have?
• What questions, wishes, needs and challenges does your target group have?
• What does your target group need?
• Where is your target group now and where do they want to go?

The goals defined by you point you in the right direction. Because it makes a difference whether you want to win new customers with your newsletter, for example, or reactivate sleepy newsletter subscribers. Write down which goals you want to pursue with your newsletter.

Possibly it is several goals - depending on the respective target group. Managing this with a simple newsletter is difficult. But with email marketing, this is no problem. Segmentations and automations support you in reaching your various goals.

Another important factor of a good newsletter marketing strategy are the relevant newsletter marketing key figures. These go hand in hand with your goals and should be defined before you start sending emails. If you don't do this, you won't have any meaningful newsletter marketing key figures on the basis of which you can measure the success of your newsletter campaigns. Because even though newsletters are "just" digital text messages in the form of emails, they still belong to performance marketing and want to be analyzed. Otherwise, you can't improve your newsletters and increase the added value for your subscribers. You can find out which KPIs might be interesting for your newsletter marketing further on in the article.

Now that you have defined your target group, your goals and your KPIs, you can start planning, designing and sending your newsletters. It is best to create a newsletter editorial plan. In it you keep track of your topics that you want to address in the newsletter and you note when which newsletter is to be sent. In addition, you can also indicate the responsibilities in the editorial office (unless you are not a one-man-show or one-woman-show).

After you have created the newsletter contents and sent the newsletters to your subscribers, you wait for a certain test period. During this time, you do not judge your newsletter performance but just watch how it develops. However, once the test phase has expired, you investigate your previously defined newsletter marketing key figures.

Once you have several newsletter analysis results, you can compare the values with each other and get a trend of what worked well and what not so well. Based on this, you derive action recommendations for you in order to design future newsletters better.

This means that you need 6 steps for your newsletter marketing strategy:

1. Define target group of your newsletter
2. Define goals of the newsletter
3. Identify relevant newsletter metrics
4. Plan, create and send newsletter contents
5. Analyze newsletter performance
6. Derive action recommendations for future newsletters

Relevance of marketing automation newsletter

A marketing automation in the newsletter is really something fine. This way you can greet your new newsletter subscribers by sending them a multi-day email series. In it you can, for example, welcome the new readers, tell them something personal about yourself (e.g. your business story) and show them what to expect in your newsletter.

Of course, with email automations and the right marketing automation tools you can do much more, but this already belongs to the topic of email marketing. We're staying in this article with the "simple" newsletter that you send regularly to your subscribers.

Basically, even the time planning of the dispatch in your newsletter tool is an automation. After all, you specify the date and the time and the tool automatically sends your newsletter at the specified time.

It's important with such newsletter automations that you also check their deliverability. There would be nothing worse than if you set up your newsletter marketing automation in the tool and sent these emails unchecked to your subscribers. Because not infrequently small technical errors occur, which is why the newsletter automations do not run smoothly from the beginning.

10 relevant KPIs in newsletter marketing

In the section on newsletter marketing strategy, we already briefly touched on the topic of "newsletter analysis". So that you can analyze your newsletters, you need certain KPIs. With these, you determine the performance of your newsletter marketing, which not only gives you a mere feeling for your newsletter strategy - no, you have it in black and white how your newsletters work.

We would like to present here the 10 most relevant newsletter marketing key figures, so that you can quickly start with your newsletter marketing.

Bounce Rate

The bounce rate indicates how many newsletter recipients your newsletter did not reach. It can happen that some mail servers negatively classify the newsletter contents or some newsletter subscribers delete their own email address over time. If this is the case, of course your newsletter cannot be delivered.

Formula for the bounce rate: (number of bounces / number of newsletters sent) * 100 = bounce rate in % 

Delivery Rate

The delivery rate determines the share of your newsletters that actually reach the newsletter recipients. Thus, the delivery rate is the opposite of the bounce rate.

Formula for the delivery rate: [(number of sent newsletters – number of bounces) / number of sent newsletters] * 100 = delivery rate in %

Opening Rate

The opening rate indicates how many newsletter subscribers have opened the newsletter. A good average value for the opening rate is 25-30 %. If you have a significantly lower value, this is an indication that the subject line of your newsletter is not appealing enough. In this case, you should try something new for the next newsletter.

Formula for the opening rate: [number of newsletter opens / (number of sent newsletters – bounces)] * 100 = opening rate in %

Click Rate

The click rate - also known as CTR or Click-Through-Rate - indicates the number of performed links within a newsletter. Here, the delivered newsletters are used as a basis. A high click rate suggests that the content is of high quality and makes you want more (otherwise the readers wouldn't click).

Formula for the click rate: [number of performed clicks / (number of sent newsletters – bounces)] * 100 = click rate in %

Click-to-Open Rate

The Click-to-Open rate describes the click rate in relation to the openings (compared to the CTR, where the click rate is calculated in relation to delivered newsletters). This is therefore the effective click rate, because this newsletter marketing key figure refers the performed clicks to the actually opened newsletters.

Formula for the Click-to-Open Rate: (number of performed clicks / number of newsletter opens) / * 100 = click-to-open rate in %

Unsubscribe Rate

The unsubscribe rate indicates how many newsletter subscribers have unsubscribed from your newsletter again. Possible reasons for a newsletter unsubscribe are, for example, qualitatively / content-wise poor newsletters or too frequently sent newsletters.

Formula for the bounce rate: [number of newsletter unsubscribe / (number of sent newsletters – bounces)] * 100 = bounce rate in %

Mobile Opening Rate

The mobile opening rate indicates how many subscribers open the newsletter on mobile devices such as the smartphone or tablet. This newsletter marketing KPI is important because the design of newsletters for mobile devices is a bit more specific, as the design has to be responsive. This means that the newsletter content has to adapt even to smaller screens, so that the content remains readable for the readers. The mobile opening rate, however, is not offered by every newsletter tool.

Formula for the mobile opening rate: (number of mobile newsletter openings / number of newsletter openings) * 100 = mobile opening rate in %

Conversion Rate

If you set a measurable conversion (e.g. the purchase of a product) for your newsletter, the conversion rate indicates how many conversions have taken place based on the clicks made in the newsletter.

Formula for the conversion rate: (number of conversions / number of clicks) * 100 = conversion rate in %

Double Opt-In Rate

In order to send your newsletter in compliance with data protection regulations, a double opt-in is necessary during newsletter registration. Double opt-in means that users have to confirm the newsletter subscription twice: once by entering their email address in the registration form and then by activating the newsletter via a confirmation email sent to them. The double opt-in rate indicates how many interested parties actually complete the newsletter registration. The more users do not complete the registration process, the sooner you should change something in the registration process.

Formula for the double opt-in rate: (number of missing newsletter confirmations / number of requested newsletter registrations) * 100 = double opt-in rate in %

Social Sharing Rate

As already mentioned in the section "Social Media Marketing Newsletter", there is the possibility to integrate so-called SWYN links in the newsletter. SWYN stands for "Share With Your Network". The aim of such SWYN links is to have the newsletter readers share the newsletter content on their social media channels. This is why the social sharing rate is an interesting newsletter marketing key figure. It indicates how often the newsletter contents have been shared.

Formula for the social sharing rate: (number of social sharings / number of newsletter openings) * 100 = social sharing rate in %

15 Newsletter Marketing Tips

Successful newsletter marketing is based on many different factors. So that you can quickly and easily start with your newsletter, we have collected 15 tips on newsletter marketing for you.

1. Use a suitable newsletter tool
2. Use double opt-in
3. Link to imprint and privacy policy in the newsletter footer
4. Send a welcome gift (e.g. a discount code or a freebie)
5. Send newsletters regularly
6. Snappy and curious subject line
7. Address the needs of the subscribers
8. Provide added value in the newsletter content
9. Create proximity in the newsletter content
10. Pay attention to responsive design
11. Find out the ideal sending time
12. Use call-to-action
13. Carry out segmentations (if possible)
14. Set up newsletter automations
15. Analyze newsletter marketing KPIs

If you want to have more tips for successful newsletter marketing, then read our matching article.

Newsletter Marketing Templates

With the weekly flood of emails that your target group receives, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out with your own newsletter and not sink. You want to remain in the mind of your subscribers with your newsletter and create a recognition value. This is where the newsletter design comes into play. A design that suits your branding and your personality stands out and attracts attention. Exactly what we want.

Since not all of us are graphic designers and can think up and create beautiful and appealing email designs, we need help. And we find this in newsletter design templates. Some newsletter tools offer their customers a small selection of newsletter templates. Here, however, you should make sure that they are also responsive. If this is not the case, the design can mess up your newsletter on mobile devices.

If you don't like the newsletter templates of your software provider or if they don't have responsive newsletter designs, you can also look for other providers. We have compiled a list for you of providers that offer you free marketing newsletter templates. Feel free to take a look and bring your newsletter to life.

Recommended Newsletter Marketing Tools

Newsletter marketing is a really comprehensive, complex topic and closely related to email marketing. There are some strategic and technical aspects to consider and on the other side newsletter marketing offers you numerous opportunities. If you are now quite enthused by newsletter marketing and would like to start right away, we have a few recommendations for newsletter marketing tools for you.

rapidmail
rapidmail is a German, GDPR-compliant newsletter tool provider with server location in Germany. The provider describes itself as simple software for successful newsletters, for which neither expert knowledge nor intensive familiarization is necessary. This makes it ideal for beginners in newsletter marketing.

Mailchimp

The newsletter marketing software Mailchimp can do much more than just send newsletters by now. With Mailchimp you have an all-rounder, with which you can create advertisements for social media and landing pages in addition to emails. In addition, Mailchimp offers various creative tools and analysis tools.

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

The newsletter marketing tool Brevo (ehemals Sendinblue) targets mainly small and medium businesses. As a European market leader with a German server location, they want to offer their customers all the necessary functions to align their marketing and sales for growth. With 300,000 active customers in 160 countries, the popularity of Brevo (ehemals Sendinblue)shows.

GetResponse
GetResponse targets entrepreneurs, medium and large businesses, as well as marketing managers and online marketers. With its wide range of functions, GetResponse can do more than "just" send emails. It is therefore not only a marketing tool for newsletters, but a tool for email marketing, website builder, marketing automation and conversion funnels. GetResponse offers you a free plan in addition to the paid subscription models, which does not expire after the 30-day trial period. Of course, the range of functions is lower here, but it is still a suitable offer for newsletter beginners.

CleverReach

The GDPR-compliant newsletter marketing software CleverReach specializes in target group-oriented marketing campaigns. To make it easier for the customers, CleverReach has integrated a visual campaign builder for newsletter automations. Thus, the setup of an email automation is intuitive and easy to understand - programming knowledge is not necessary.

ActiveCampaign

The newsletter marketing tool ActiveCampaign offers its customers not only email marketing and marketing automation but also a CRM tool including sales automations. ActiveCampaign describes itself as the number one automation platform and is convinced that you can create first-class customer experiences with them. ActiveCampaign's target group are B2C companies, B2B companies as well as e-commerce. The range of functions of the email marketing tool is enormous and leaves almost nothing to be desired.

If you want to have more info about the tools, their functions and prices in our article about the best newsletter marketing tools you can get. If that's not enough, you'll find more newsletter marketing software on OMR Reviews in the email marketing category. In addition, you will also find there experience reports and tool evaluations by real customers. Get an impression of how other users deal with the tools.

If you still have difficulties finding a suitable newsletter marketing tool, then definitely read our article. In it we give you tips on what you should definitely pay attention to when choosing a newsletter marketing tool.

Newsletter Marketing Check List

Finally, we want to give you a newsletter marketing check-list on this very detailed article. This consists of all the essential points mentioned here, which you can orientate yourself on when implementing your newsletter marketing.

Check list for your newsletter marketing:

• Make it clear who your target group is exactly.
• Clarify your intentions and goals before you start with newsletter marketing.
• Research different newsletter marketing tools and choose one.
• Integrate the newsletter subscription form on your website and create a welcome sequence for new newsletter subscribers once.
• Think about which kind of newsletter marketing fits you and your target group.
• Define newsletter KPIs for yourself that also match your goals.
• Think about newsletter topics and plan them in an editorial calendar.
• Create (if necessary) a branded newsletter design or get a newsletter template whose design you can still adapt.
• Write your newsletters and schedule them in your newsletter marketing tool - pay attention to a snappy subject line and a call-to-action in the newsletter.
• Analyze your newsletters after the same test period each time.
• Derive from the analysis data corresponding recommendations for action and implement them.

In addition, here again is a list of the mentioned articles in relation to newsletter marketing or email marketing:

• 3 email marketing pillars
• Email automation
• Guide for marketing automation tools
• Tips for newsletter email marketing
• Newsletter templates
• Finding and selecting email marketing tools for newsletters
• Email marketing trends 2022