If you are looking for another opportunity to market your business, branded customer newsletters are the way to go. They allow you to stay connected with your customers, which is critical to building and maintaining brand recognition. Additionally, they’re also proven to increase sales, boost traffic to your website, generate new leads and build your social media following.

Beyond those obvious reasons, they are cost-effective and simple to put together (It’s even a service we provide!), so it just makes good business sense to add a branded newsletter to your marketing plan. Check out the newsletter we design for the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce.  Follow this advice when adding a branded newsletter:

Share valuable content

Your newsletter cannot consist only of ads, promotions and marketing copy. You must provide tips, industry news, articles and information your customers will actually want to read and can use. Stop thinking about what you want to sell your customers, and focus, instead on educating them or benefiting them in some other way.

You’ll also want to include pertinent information, for example, in the footer or at the bottom of a sidebar, such as a link to your website, contact information and your social media buttons. You don’t want people to have to go hunting if they want to contact you in some way.

Plus, definitely include an ad for the product of the month or a special offer, but make sure you are providing more value than promotion.

Use consistent branding

You should use your logo, tagline and a similar color scheme as your website and other marketing materials. Additionally, you want to match the same tone and image you put forth elsewhere. For example, if you tend to be more conservative and serious in your marketing, stick to that in your newsletter, rather than trying to be lighthearted and funny. Otherwise, you’ll throw people off guard.

Ensure it is mobile friendly

Use a responsive web design so that your newsletter renders well on smartphones and other devices. Additionally, offer subscribers an opportunity to receive their message as HTML or plain text.

Finally, you want to make the newsletter—especially an email newsletter—easy to scan. Include headers, subheaders, bullets and bold font so people can quickly review the content and jump to the parts that most interest them.

Stick to a schedule

The frequency in which you send out your newsletter depends on you and how much time and resources you can devote to it. If you can send one weekly, great, but for most businesses a bi-weekly or monthly newsletter is more doable.

Do what you can manage. The last thing you want to do is start off sending it weekly and then cut back because of time constraints. It’s better to start off monthly and offer it more frequently later when time and resources allow.

Make it actionable

Even though you are focused on providing high quality content, you still want your readers to act on your newsletter. In each one, figure out what you would like them to do next. Perhaps you want them to find out more information, visit your website for a special promo code or download a freebie. Whatever it is, make it clear and make it easy for them to click a link and take that action.