Sending an email newsletter? What is the best tool to use?
94% of executives surveyed report that they get their news from email newsletters. Marketing with email newsletters requires a sustained effort with a regular publishing schedule. But, creating and populating your newsletter with original content, relevant content and campaigns should not be a burden or a bottleneck for your marketing staff or your efforts will fall flat. The best email newsletter program will boost your marketing results without putting a strain on your time and resources.
Newsletter marketing is about more than a having pretty template or a mobile-friendly interface. To get meaningful results, you need a results-driven functional newsletter with the flexibility to tailor it to your needs. Look for a newsletter application that is more than the flashy graphical editors you may find in products like MailChimp and ConstantContact that follow a “paint-by-numbers” approach to building email campaigns. The right tool makes the job of creating and sending an email newsletter every month (or even every week) an easy extension of your marketing process.
In order to publish your newsletter on a consistent basis you can go it on your own using a collection of different tools and services — if you have the time and resources. Instead, you may want to seek out a suite of services with automation that will ensure you have the right content and to keep on schedule.
When you are evaluating the email newsletter process you should consider all the components that need to be addressed and seek a service that can help you actually generate leads. Use the following checklist to see if your newsletter program is doing its job:
Content: Are your content challenges being fully addressed?
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Does the program include a content plan and a content calendar that reflects the needs of your audience?
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Does the program meet your need to publish content on a consistent basis while easing your resource constraints?
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Is there a methodology for requesting custom articles?
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Are there managing editors who work with a pool of talented technology writers to deliver content in your voice??
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Can you easily select and post content related to your business from trusted sources?
Template Design: Do the templates do more than look pretty?
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Is it easy to select and place content into the layout, pre-formatted from external sources?
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Is the template mobile-friendly and responsive?
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Can the newsletter assemble itself automatically?
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Can you link your content and social media within your newsletter? Can you embed social comments directly in your newsletter?
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Does your newsletter allow individual content items and links to be shared?
Publishing: How is the newsletter amplified to a wide audience?
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Can the newsletter be easily distributed using the email marketing or CRM platform you are already using? (Constant Contact, MailChimp, Oracle Eloqua, Marketo, Exact Target, etc)
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Is the newsletter backed by a platform that enables automated posting of social media messages?
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Are hosted landing pages containing the full newsletter articles automatically generated for you?
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Are past newsletters automatically stored in an archive accessible from your website and in search results?
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Are call to action campaigns easy to add and track?
Analytics and Reporting: How does the newsletter inform on your audience and their interests?
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Are reports available to tell you what content and topics are most often clicked and by whom?
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Is there integration with Google Analytics?
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Can you incentivize and track sharing by providing rewards and/or a leaderboard?
Managed Services: Is there an option to have a newsletter created and sent on your behalf?
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Is there a fully managed or partially managed service to reduce your overhead?
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Can relevant content from trusted sources be preselected for you?
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Is it easy to review the newsletter and make your own edits when necessary?
A managed newsletter service ensures that you are fully maximizing your content to amplify your message. The process of creating content, curating content, and reviewing drafts becomes less burdensome. Managed newsletters are flexible so that you can set your newsletter up to run on its own or retain full control to edit and customize before you schedule it to send.
Yes, your email newsletters might be pretty, but they could be so much more.
ContentMX provides a full end-to-end content marketing program that places your newsletter at the center of your content strategy. We have developed a platform and process to create original content, curate relevant content, automate the content publishing, create content hubs and actively promote your content for the highest return on your content marketing investment. Whether you want to manage the process yourself or have us manage it for you — from a full-blown content marketing program to an automated newsletter — we have a program to fit your needs.