Hi, I'm Takeo Fujii.
Do you feel that email newsletters are already a dead marketing method?
LINE has more than 86 million users in Japan. On the other hand, there are fewer individuals who open emails every day. Honestly speaking, isn't LINE@ a better marketing method than email newsletters?
So, this article is a response to the "newsletter = wacky" theory.In fact, the newsletter may be the target.This is what I will talk about.
I continue to analyze email marketing in English-speaking countries and have clients running email newsletters for me. They continue to generate sales steadily. In some cases, email newsletters are generating more sales than LINE@ for some clients.
Let's get this straight.Do you know how to run an effective email newsletter?That's all there is to it.
Even in the field of overseas marketing, email marketing (email newsletters) is still more important than LINE or WhatsApp.
If you've ever wondered if email newsletters are out of fashion in today's smartphone society, please read this article. If you've ever wondered if email newsletters are a thing of the past, please read this article to the end.
What is a Mail Magazine?
What is a mail magazine?I will start with the basics.
Some entrepreneurs use email newsletters with the idea of "sending emails to sell products," but actually email newsletters are more than just a method of sending emails.
Email newsletters are not only for simple sales, but also as a tool to build relationships with potential customers. You can even turn a potential customer into a die-hard fan of your product brand by using a newsletter.
I will explain the proper way to operate a newsletter within this article. If you understand it, you can definitely achieve overwhelming results.
Advantages of using email newsletters
Let's take a look at the benefits of using email newsletters. There are three major benefits.
(1) Because the return on investment is extremely high
LINE@ marketing is all the rage in Japan. This is one of the reasons why email newsletters are already considered wacky. In fact, LINE@ is free for up to 1000 step delivery. In some cases, LINE@ is cheaper than doing a mail magazine.
It is true that the effectiveness of email newsletters has declined over the years. And I'm not just talking about email newsletters. In this industry, it is quite common that marketing methods that worked in the past are completely ineffective today. However, email newsletters are a marketing method that is still in use today.
It may not be as effective, but it's not wacky.
The reason for this is that the return on investment is extremely high.
Compared to other marketing methods, email newsletters clearly offer a high return on investment. In fact, it's been said overseas that if you spend $21 on a newsletter, you can expect to make $51 in profit.
If you think about it this way, I think you will understand that the return on investment is extremely high.
(2) Because it can be used for many things.
Also, the benefits of email newsletters are not limited to just selling products.
It also means that you can proactively communicate with potential customers. In many cases, marketing tends to be a one-step process.
It tends to be a form of appeal from you, and the other person receives it. This tends to be the format, but mail magazines allow for mutual exchange.
Please reply to my email if you are interested."
You can use the link in the email to submit your question.
This allows for two-way communication.
It also means that you can conduct surveys to gather opinions from the outside world and learn about their needs and wants.
A mail magazine can change your sales by double digits. It is such an easy to use and highly effective method.
3) Can be done at low cost
Some people have the misconception that marketing is something that requires huge amounts of money for advertising and expensive software and services.
Many business owners are actually pouring a lot of money into expensive advertising.
However, when it comes to e-mail newsletters, you can do it at a very low cost. For example, the mail magazine delivery system I use is Automizy. It costs only a few thousand yen per month.
In most cases, the cost of a mail magazine is about several thousand yen per month. Let's say you make a flyer and distribute it in front of the station. The cost of making the flyers, hiring people, etc., would be quite expensive, right?
Or if you try to advertise in the newspaper, it will cost you a lot of money with no visible effect. There is no way to measure how many people actually saw the ad in the newspaper.
There are many other methods of marketing. However, compared to them, email newsletters can be done at a much lower cost.
Therefore, if you are an entrepreneur or business owner with no financial resources, the newsletter is definitely the one you should get into. I recommend that you start with email newsletters before you try other advertising and marketing methods.
Three tips to get explosive results from a newsletter that is considered wacky.
I've been using email newsletters for five years now.
In the first month, I collected and analyzed the email newsletters of marketers from around the world, and in the second month, I started writing email newsletters that mimicked theirs.
Most of the emails were not as successful as I would have liked, but about 1 in 25 emails were able to get me more results than I could have imagined.
In my experience, sending emails about what you want to write is useless and will not lead to results. It goes without saying. I'll share three tips that directly lead to newsletter success in my experience.
One message and one goal
Basically, people are not interested in other people. They don't read mail from people who don't benefit them. Therefore, if you want to increase the open rate of your mail magazine, you can attach a 500 yen Amazon gift certificate to every mail magazine.
But you can't be that reckless, can you?
However, people are not interested in your newsletter to the extent that you have to go that far. This is because newsletter readers receive 10 to 50 emails a day.
An enormous amount of email, including spam, has filled up my inbox in just one day.
In other words, if an email is not worth reading, it goes straight to the trash.
What do you want to encourage with that one email?
Let me tell you something important. In email, there is one message and one goal.
In other words, if you want to write this and that in one email, the reader will panic and wonder, "What is the point of this email after all? Even if they read it, they won't understand it. The unsubscribe rate for such newsletters goes up significantly.
Therefore, the important point is to define one message and one goal per email.
Whether you want to sell something, close a deal on a service, make an inquiry, or fill out a survey, one email is one action to request.
Don't panic your readers with newsletters.
This way, the person who receives the email will not panic. They will be able to take the action you want them to take.
If you want to sell something, they will be more likely to buy it, and if you want them to fill out a survey, they will fill out the survey.
What do you want them to do or what do you want them to say per email? Decide what you want to encourage before you write your newsletter.
Stop sending clichéd sales pitches.
The reason why many companies are not getting much out of their email newsletters is because they are not using them correctly.
They keep sending emails with the sole intention of selling their products, and all they think about is increasing sales. That's the reality.
If you think about it from the standpoint of the person receiving the email, you would want to immediately unsubscribe from an email that is just a sales pitch.
But if you keep getting sales emails every second, third, and fourth day, you'll want to unsubscribe, right?
When that happens, your email unsubscribe rate will increase. If you keep doing that, you will see a ceiling on your sales. Of course, the more email lists you have, the more sales you will make.
However, if that happens, you will end up with a certain level of sales. In order to avoid this, you should not just send sales emails, but also include measures that will build a relationship with the recipient.
- Questionnaire
- coupon
- Events to interact with readers
- Email-only events
There are many things you can do, even if you can think of them.
Don't just sell your products and services, but also set up measures to actively engage with your readers.
I'll talk about the important points.
Two perspectives on how to get the most out of your email newsletter
First, in sending an email.
- To whom?
- What it is
You need to define what you are going to send. If you don't understand why you are sending the email in the first place, you will end up sending meaningless and ineffective emails. If you don't understand this yourself, you will end up sending meaningless and ineffective emails.
Do you want to increase the number of free consultations or sell products and services? Or did you want to build a relationship with a potential customer?
Determine what you are sending the email for, and who you are sending it to.
What you should be especially careful about is that if you send out emails only to sell products, you will surely lose email subscribers.
If you only send sales pitches to your readers, they will not feel any benefit. They will continue to unsubscribe from your emails.
Therefore, you need to think about who you are sending your newsletter to and what kind of email you are sending it to. It is important to think about the benefits to the recipient.
Repeat the PDCA cycle at full speed.
You are probably tired of seeing PDCA in business books. Please remember PDCA once again. PDCA is the key to effective execution of your email newsletter.
No matter how much time you spend writing a single email, it is not enough to just send it recklessly. It is important to understand whether that single email was effective or not.
You can't just write an email, send it, and be done with it.
Did you get the results you wanted from your email newsletter? Check and improve every step of the way so that you can get even more results from your newsletter.
Numbers (percentages) to look at in your newsletter
I'm going to talk about an important point here. In determining whether your newsletter was effective or not, please pay special attention to the following numbers.
- arrival rate
- number of items reached
- number of pages in a book
- seal ratio
- Number of clicks on the link
- Conversion rate
- Email unsubscribe rate
We need to take these numbers as the main source of data to see if it has been effective.
It's not difficult. You can see how many emails have been reached and opened on the email delivery system side.
There is no need to sign up for a special marketing analysis system at a high cost. You can easily check it on your email delivery system.
By consciously doing this PDCA cycle, you can achieve more than ever before with your email newsletter.
[Conclusion] Should you work on your newsletter?
The monthly running cost of mail magazines is 1,000 yen to 2,000 yen per month. It can be operated at a very low cost. However, it is still one of the most effective marketing methods for increasing sales.
It would be a shame to dismiss email newsletters as wacky. Email newsletters are still a mainstay in digital marketing around the world because of the ease of integration between SaaS.
I don't understand why some marketers compare LINE@ to LINE, but it's just a difference in means. LINE@ has a high open rate, but it also has a high block rate, and you will be blocked immediately.
Please don't dismiss email newsletters as wacky, but use them as a positive marketing tool. If you have any questions about email newsletters, please feel free to leave them in the comments. I'll see you soon.
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