Getting started with e-mail newsletters
E-mail newsletters can be a powerful marketing opportunity for your business. Like a Web site, e-mail messages can link your customers directly to the products and information that they need. With e-mail messages, you can control when your customers receive the information that you want to share: during a big sale, after a new product is released, or immediately before an important event.
Although your Web site must appeal to customers who arrive from many sources (advertisements, searches, recommendations from other customers), an e-mail newsletter campaign can focus on a particular topic and target the needs of a specific group of customers. There are other benefits too: e-mail newsletters are much cheaper than paper newsletters, and they are better for the environment.
In this article
Plan your campaign
Choose your goal You know what you want: site traffic, product sales, or a well-attended event. But do you know what your customers want? E-mail newsletter campaigns that focus on meeting a specific customer need are the most likely to generate action. For example, many businesses find that telling customers about sales (site-wide or on specific products) gives those customers a reason to buy now instead of later.
A picture is worth a thousand clicks Images capture attention and communicate a lot of information. For example, if you are releasing a new product, include a picture of it in your campaign and a link for more information.
An engaging subject line is half the battle A message that has a dull subject line is unlikely to be opened. And if your subject is misleading —
for example, if it implies that the message includes a special discount when there is none —
customers might be angry that you tricked them. Choose a short, clear subject that tells the recipients what is in the message and why they want to read it.
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Manage your mailing list
Nobody likes to receive spam. Too many unprofessional businesses use the Internet to flood inboxes with unwanted messages that have dubious content. Make sure that your customers tell you that they want to receive e-mail from your business and that they set their e-mail program to accept messages from your address so that your campaigns are not accidentally classified as spam.
In Microsoft Office Live Small Business, you can use Contact Manager to create groups of customers who want to receive your newsletters, notices, or other communication.
For information about adding and managing contacts in Contact Manager, see Organize business contacts into groups.
You can also add a newsletter sign-up form to your Web site, which lets site visitors indicate that they want to subscribe to your newsletters. Customers who use your sign-up form to subscribe are added to the Newsletter Subscriber group in Contact Manager. For information about adding the sign-up form, see
Add, change, or delete a Contact Us module.
Notes
- You can only send e-mail newsletter campaigns to groups in Contact Manager. If a contact wants to receive a newsletter but is not in a group, you must add that person to a group before you send the campaign. The Newsletter Subscriber group has been created for you automatically; you can use this group or send campaigns to other groups.
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A powerful way to promote your business
E-mail newsletters can be a very effective way to inspire your customers to click a link, attend an event, or purchase a product. Office Live Small Business enables you to manage subscriber lists and customize your message so that your campaign can be specific and interesting to its recipients. After you send the campaign, you can track how effective it is at generating clicks and page views. Over time, you can evaluate the messages that are most effective in influencing your customers, and you can edit your messages to receive the best response. E-mail newsletters can help you bring your message to your customers quickly and powerfully.
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