How can you increase your ROI through better newsletter performance?
One common problem companies face is poor ROI on their marketing funds. Many companies run newsletters which are sent to their contact list every month. The resources for this process include content creation, copywriting, design, and email automation. However, if the newsletter shows poor performance, the newsletter budget may not be justified and many companies consider cutting their newsletter budget to focus on other communication channels, such as social media.
Before throwing in the towel, start by revisiting your customer research. Do you know your target audience’s habits inside out? Make sure you understand what they like, what they enjoy reading, what topics genuinely interest them, on what day and at what time they typically check their social platforms. Mastering this crucial step is a continuous process as habits change quickly.
For example, in Hong Kong, customers subscribe to newsletters if it adds value or offers a great deal. Ensuring that newsletter is mobile friendly is also highly important.
On the other hand, in Mainland China, customers prefer to receive content via other channels, on apps such as QQ, WeChat, or Weibo. Chinese audiences are not as accustomed as Westerners are to checking their personal emails regularly (although they do tend to check their work emails often). One reason for this is that a lot of spam is sent through email, whereas on popular social apps like QQ, there are strict rules on what can or cannot be sent: this is why it is so important for companies to send valuable content that adds value. For B2B purposes, we recommend asking for their work emails. Alternatively, you can invest in delivering your messages through apps.
After understanding your customers, you are ready to try these three solutions to improve your ROI through your newsletters:
- Proper tracking;
- Auditing;
- Implementing effective improvements.
1. Listen to the right metrics
With a bit of digging, you will see that behind your metrics are clues about what your customers are saying to you. Are you focusing on the right metrics in understanding them?
Too many companies only focus on broad and general metrics. These include the open rates, click-through rates, and subscription rates. Some companies collect too much data for the sake of collecting data and this practice should be avoided. Gathering irrelevant information will not help you understand your customers’ messages or implement future improvements.
Instead, the metrics you should be focusing on depends on the primary intention of your newsletter. The success of your newsletters will depend on the main goal you set.
You should determine your goal. Are you looking to:
- Generate more website traffic?
- Increase customer loyalty?
- Grow brand awareness?
- Redirect traffic to another platform?
- Drive sales?
Whatever your goal may be, you should adopt a unique strategy and focus on specific metrics that feed into that goal. Newsletters that attempt to achieve them all at once tend not to be successful, as they often include too much information, too many links, or too many paths for customers to take.
2. Determine your industry standards
After identifying the correct metrics for your newsletter, you should research the relevant industry standards that you can use to benchmark your performance against other relevant companies.
Each metric can tell you a large amount of important customer insights. Auditing the following indicators to learn the following information:
Bounce rate audit:
- Did people opt-in to your newsletter? Why?
- Are you refreshing and cleaning up your lists regularly?
Spam and blacklisting audit:
- Are you sending emails at the right frequency and at the right time?
- Is your content relevant to your audience?
- Is your unsubscribe button clearly visible?
- Do you regularly clean your lists?
- Are you using “spam words” in your subject lines that will get flagged? For example: earn money, make money, collect, percent off, etc.
Unsubscription audit:
Note: be careful with this metric because the number of unsubscribes not always a reliable indicator of the health of your email list. This is because many people who don’t want to read your email may not unsubscribe and just delete it instead. To get insights from this metric, use it to compare your open rate or list growth. This also applies to the open rate audit.
- Are your titles catchy? Are they appealing but not too “clickbaity” and is your content truly relevant?
- Are you sending too many emails?
Open rate audit:
- Are you using too many catchy titles instead of adding valuable content?
- Is your content relevant to your audience?
- Are you sending your email at a relevant time of the day?
- Does your newsletter fit the mobile format? Does it also display well on desktops?
- Are you sending too many or too few newsletters?
Subscription rate audit:
- Do people know you have a newsletter?
- Is your subscription button visible?
- Is your subscription button too intrusive (for example harassing pop-ups)?
- Can people easily share your newsletter?
Click-through rate audit:
- Are your hyperlinks visible?
- Are all your links reliable?
- Is your content worth reading and does it entice people to read more?
- Are you attracting people to read more with great primary content?
3. Effectively execute data-centred changes
Once you have determined your suitable metrics and industry standards, you are ready to regularly implement improvements. No decision should be taken without thoroughly assessing your results.
A/B testing is a great way to find out what your audience prefers – whether it’s evaluating the effectiveness of subject lines, or finding out what content or design layout resonates better for higher engagement.
Want to learn more? Speak with our digital marketing gurus today – contact Acuity here.
