newsletters Archives - Mutant Communications

If you’ve clicked through to this blog, you’re probably a loss with your email newsletters and tearing your hair out wondering why no one is opening them and engaging with your content and brand.

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Email newsletters can be a very effective form of communication, but as with many things, they key is in the execution and quality.

Anyone can send an email with some words and poorly thought-out imagery in it (and trust us, plenty of people do) but to really spark engagement it takes time, trial and error, and some serious quality control.

Firstly, ask yourself why you are even sending a newsletter. What are your goals? Are you trying to drive sales, or is it more of a branding exercise? Whatever the reason, make sure it ties into your business goals and don’t send newsletters for the sake of it. If you’re starting out with no purpose, you shouldn’t expect grand results.

If you’ve been sending news and not getting results, here’s what you could be doing wrong:

1. You’re trying to say too much

When it comes to e-news, less is more. Your newsletter should provide a story snapshot and act as a teaser to promote a click-through to a landing page that’s hosting the information (i.e. your website). If your newsletter looks like an essay, no one will want to read it (or have the time to).

It’s also important to think about how it will look on a mobile screen. In a similar manner to having too much text, if you are trying to cram anything and everything into one newsletter, chances are your readers will lose focus and close their browser.

2. You forgot the call to action

This is such a common mistake. How do you create action from your newsletter if your readers have nothing to click through to? You need to set action points to help drive readers to your website or landing page.

3. Your ‘news’ is irrelevant

Are you giving your readers what they really want, or what you think they want? If your content doesn’t resonate with your audience, then what’s the point? Make sure you tie your subject line to the content within the newsletter. Be quirky and creative when it calls for it, but sometimes simple is better. Ensure your audience gets to read what they are expecting to! So, no clickbait!

4. You’re not personable enough

Remember you’re sending this to a real person, so speak to them like one and go for a slightly more conversational tone than your regular corporate voice. Don’t be afraid to inject some light humor and have fun with your content. If your database contains names, also consider adding in fields that will personalise each newsletter.

5. You’re not testing and measuring

Here’s where most people fail; you should always measure the success of each campaign you send. Perhaps you aren’t seeing much return from your newsletters because you are sending it at the wrong time, or maybe the day might not suit your readers. Everyone receives so much mail that it’s easy for incoming messages and newsletters to get lost in the noise. Test out a few different days and times, split-test your headlines and see where your audience is most responsive.

Making small tweaks to your newsletters doesn’t take up much time, but it can really make a difference.

Still stuck and need help? Get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg.

There are a multitude of large and small businesses that think they know best when it comes to content marketing. How hard can it be? A blog here, a social media post there and you’re done! Right?

I hate to break it to you, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Put simply, content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that relies on the regular creation and distribution of quality content to a specific audience. The aim is to ultimately turn prospects into customers. Read more about what content marketing means here.

An effective content marketing strategy takes time and commitment and everything needs to be written with purpose. It not only yields powerful results, but also becomes extremely cost effective.

There is no point in writing one blog, adding it to your website and then hoping it will automatically translate into sales. It sadly doesn’t work that way. How will people see your content?

With that being said, here are some early signs that should prompt you to consider using a content marketing agency to help you get organised and on track:

Lack of regular, quality content

Think about how often you produce content.
Is it once a month? Once a quarter? Or whenever you have a chance to?

Whilst it’s not necessary to create content every single day, a solid content strategy requires consistency and commitment. Creating regular content allows brands to build thought leadership in their area of expertise, create trust and promote engagement with their target audiences – which is more likely to lead to a sale.

No visible SEO results

Without relevant and regular content, your SEO efforts may be wasted. Google evaluates how often you update your website with fresh content. It also ranks the quality of the content as well as the length. You can read more about this here.

Another thing to consider is how well the content is tailored to your chosen keywords. Content creation isn’t just about putting some words on a page about a certain topic. You do need to write for your target audience but also for SEO. Fall too deep to one side and you will be penalised on the other, so it’s essential to strike a healthy balance between crafty and engaging content and writing for SEO.

Your conversions are suffering

Writing relevant content that addresses your target audience and their needs is so important. Identify and create a buyer persona that would need your product or service. Who is this person? (i.e Marketing Mary, 35 years old) What is their role? (ie Marketing Manager for an SME) What do they wish to achieve? (Brand awareness, sales etc.) Then look at identifying their pain points and how you can help solve them.

A content marketing agency can be useful to help structure your strategy and make suggestions about why your efforts have not been successful. They will create new ideas and avenues for you to explore.

Little to no engagement across your social media

Social media can be an amazing avenue to promote your content and directly engage with your target audience. Using social media helps drive traffic to your website as you are providing your followers with a preview of what they can expect to see if they click a specific link.

If you are doing this already and it’s not working, think about the quality and relevance of the content that you are producing and posting. Always remember that one size doesn’t fit all on social media. Each platform has a different audience, and therefore the language, tone and delivery needs to be tailored every time.

A content marketing agency will pull together a strategic content and social media strategy and create relevant and engaging content that can be used across multiple platforms.

Your brand lacks credibility

If you are a new business, it’s so critical early on to establish credibility in the market. A solid content marketing strategy enables your brand to educate prospects and instill their trust in your brand.

According to Hubspot’s 2015 State of Inbound Marketing report, the top two priorities for companies, regardless of size, are to a) increase the number of contacts/leads, and b) to convert contacts/leads to customers.

A successful content marketing strategy can help you achieve this.

Need help with your content? Drop a message to hello@mutant.com.sg

If you’d like to speak to us about effective content marketing for your business, feel free to get in touch at ola@mutant.com.sg.