What are email newsletters?
As the name suggests, email newsletters are informational emails sent to members of an email list. They typically contain news and updates about topics the target recipients might be interested in.
If you want a more in-depth understanding of this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: What is the difference between marketing emails and email newsletters?
The main difference between marketing emails and email newsletters is the intent.
Marketing emails, as the name suggests, are used specifically for promotion. They are perfect if you are looking to get your recipients to subscribe to something, book a seat at an event, support an idea or cause, or make a purchase—provided these recipients are already primed for conversion. Otherwise, you risk coming across as a pushy salesperson who is too eager to make a sale.
In contrast, email newsletters, as we have seen in the previous section, are used exclusively to inform. They are perfect if you are talking to leads who are not yet primed for conversion or existing customers you want to keep engaged between purchases.
But is one better than the other? Not at all! You need both if you want to successfully monetise your email list.
Again, unless your target recipients are already primed for conversion, there is no way you can get them to take action even if you craft the best marketing email ever. You will need to build a relationship with your leads first—and then nurture it—using email newsletters.
Of course, since these are not designed to sell, you will need something else to close the deal once you have successfully primed your email list for conversion—and this is where marketing emails come in.
Question #2: What is it used for?
There are a lot of things you can use email newsletters for, including:
- Valuable free content
- Progress reports
- Recaps
- Updates
Let us take a look at each one in more detail:
First, you can use it to send valuable free content to members of your email list. It can be a new blog post, a how-to video, a report, or anything else that your target recipients might find helpful and/or useful.
Second, if you sell online courses, you can use email newsletters to periodically update your students regarding their progress and encourage them to keep going.
Third, you can also use it to provide your customers with periodic recaps about things such as their purchase/usage history and other similar stats that they might find useful.
Finally, you can also use to update your email list about things such as:
- Product/service updates
- Booking changes
- Price updates
- Policy changes
Question #3: How often should I send out email newsletters?
There is no magic number when it comes to the frequency at which you should send out email newsletters. It all depends on the type of newsletter you are sending out and the intended recipients.
The best way to find out, however, is to just ask the members of your email list. But you can also just give them the option to adjust the frequency themselves based on their preference, which some email marketing platforms allow you to do.
Here’s another helpful article from Campaign Monitor you can check with.
Question #4: How long should it be?
Just like with the frequency at which you should email your list, there is also no magic length you should aim for when it comes to email newsletters. As a general rule, though, you should only make it as long as necessary. If you can say what you have to say in a single sentence, then that is how long your email newsletter should be.
Keep in mind that there is a big chance that your recipients are busy and will not appreciate being emailed a novel to read.