Imagine if you woke up tomorrow and the social media platform you use most to connect with your audience unexpectedly disappeared. In what ways would your business be changed? Would you have a means of connecting with your audience — an audience you had spent hours each day creating content for and years growing? What would you or could you fall back on? Today, we’re exploring why leveraging newsletter marketing and building a newsletter audience for your small business can be more beneficial than relying solely on social media marketing — and how your web design can play a key role in building your newsletter audience, too.

Beyond Likes: Leveraging Newsletter Marketing

Welcome to Episode 192 of The Brand It, Build It Podcast. I’m your host, Kelly Zugay, and today, I’m excited to share about why newsletter marketing is essential for small business growth and how to build your newsletter audience through purpose-driven web design.

What is newsletter marketing?

Newsletter marketing is the practice by which businesses send content in an emailed letter to subscribers — made up of prospective, current, and even past customers or clients. Online businesses, for example, often use newsletter marketing to reach their prospective clients and customers more personally, to keep their business top-of-mind, to demonstrate their expertise, and to foster community. Put simply, newsletter marketing equips small businesses to reach, connect with, and serve with their audience in personal and personalized ways simply unavailable via social media marketing or elsewhere.

Why does newsletter marketing matter?

According to Hubspot, there are 4 billion daily email users, and this number is expected to climb to 4.6 billion by the year 2025. 64% of small businesses use email marketing to reach customers, and 50% of people buy from marketing emails at least once per month. Email marketing equips small business owners to connect with their audience in a personalized way, provide details about their products and services in a conversion-driven way, and ultimately, grow their bottom line. In other words, your newsletter is a direct line of communication with your audience — a personal space where you can nurture relationships, provide value, and serve people who have excitedly decided to receive more communication from your business.

How do you grow your newsletter subscribers?

There are a variety of methods you can explore when it comes to growing your newsletter subscribers. However, a few quick ideas are:

• Strategically placing newsletter opt-ins in your web design. Whether you create a pop-up, place an opt-in in your blog’s sidebar, or house an opt-in in your website’s footer, placing newsletter opt-ins strategically within your web design can guide your website’s visitors toward becoming subscribers. This is something to discuss with your web designer, to determine how newsletter opt-ins can serve your visitors and equip you for success.
• Offering a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a valuable incentive for potential subscribers — such as a free resource or a free download. In Episode 016, we share 3 powerful lead magnet ideas worth exploring and experimenting with. Lead magnets can be showcased within your web design and help your visitors to excitedly become subscribers.
• Creating engaging blog content. Create engaging, evergreen blog content your visitors enjoy and find value in — and offer additional content or create even more value via your newsletter. Consider adding a newsletter opt-in at the end of every blog post. That way, if your blog happens to receive a great deal of traffic, your opt-in will be exposed to as many engaged visitors as possible.
• Partnering with complementary businesses. Perhaps you can partner with a fellow business owner to create value for your shared audience — or create value for one another’s audiences. By doing so, you can share your expertise and potentially grow your newsletter even further.
• Offer exclusive discounts or promotions. Offering discounts or promotions — like discount codes, special features, or exclusive access to certain products or services — can also motivate your website’s visitors to become subscribers.

Of course, these are just a handful of ways you can explore growing your newsletter subscribers. Your unique field, and your unique understanding of your audience, can also bring about new ways to do so!

How do you begin newsletter marketing?

Every small business is unique and can leverage newsletter marketing in unique ways. However, here are our recommendations:

1. First, we recommend using FloDesk. FloDesk is an extremely user-friendly, visually-stunning, engaging newsletter system to equip you to build and grow your newsletter audience. Their opt-ins and newsletter designs can be perfectly-tailored to align with your unique brand and business, creating a seamless and professional experience for your subscribers. Use our unique link in our show notes to receive 50% off your FloDesk subscription.
2. Next, we recommend having a goal for your newsletter marketing. One common error we find small business owners making is feeling as though they need to market to fellow business owners or provide education to fellow business owners. However, when getting started, we believe your newsletter marketing should be designed to connect with and serve your prospective clients or customers — solving problems your prospective clients or customers are experiencing, offering value, and fostering community. As with any decision in your small business, having a goal for your newsletter marketing is essential.
3. Create a lead magnet and subsequent workflow or funnel. What free resource could your particular audience benefit from having? Is there a quiz, download, or checklist they would benefit from receiving? Design your lead magnet with your prospective clients or customers in mind. Put another way, your lead magnet can be a smaller version of your service, or a trial of a product — something to eventually convert your audience members to become confidently paying customers or clients.
4. Market your lead magnet. Blog about your lead magnet, pin your lead magnet on Pinterest, include links to your lead magnet in blog posts, and include your lead magnet in your web design. Your lead magnet should be enticing enough to motivate your visitors to become subscribers, so the more diverse places you can share about and market your lead magnet, the better.
5. Decide how often you’ll send newsletters to your audience. As with any marketing plan, determine how often you’ll send newsletters to your audience — such as a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly newsletter.
6. Assess and analyze which newsletters have been most successful. What types of subject lines seem to work best? What happens when you use or don’t use emojis? What types of calls-to-action receive the most clicks? Are long-form or short-form emails most successful? When you assess and analyze your newsletters, you can do more of what is working well.

Today, we discussed what newsletter marketing is, how to leverage newsletter marketing, how to grow your subscribers, and a quick guide for getting started with purpose. I am so hopeful today’s episode equips you to begin or continue your newsletter marketing journey with purpose! Remember to use our unique link for 50% off your FloDesk subscription. Thanks for tuning in!

Brand It, Build It Podcast, Hosted by Kelly Zugay

Hosted by Kelly Zugay, co-founder of With Grace and Gold, The Brand It, Build It Podcast is the best small business marketing podcast for small business owners, creatives, and founders. Weekly, brief, actionable episodes will equip you to build a successful, sustainable small business. Since 2014, With Grace and Gold has provided award-winning custom brand and Showit web design and completely customizable Showit website templates for small businesses worldwide.