The Smart Lab: How To Plan An Effective E-Newsletter Strategy

Email newsletters are one of the most cost-effective ways to build an audience and grow your jewelry sales. 

It’s been proven that even with the rise of social media, most people still check their email at least once a day; for many, it’s more frequently than that.
 
Having an email newsletter is an absolute must-have for every jeweler. Here’s how to do it right.

What You Should Include in an Email Newsletter
To ensure your email newsletter gets opened and read regularly, you need to have content that’s of value to your readers. 

Think about who your audience is and what they would like to see. Interesting content such as new jewelry collections, engagement ring proposal stories, custom pieces, and sales and promotions are all great things to include. 

With email marketing your goal is to build your audience, always staying in front of them to remind them of your jewelry store. When the time is right and they’re ready to buy, they’ll remember you. 

An email newsletter is one of the best types of relationship marketing you can do.

Why You Need an Email Newsletter Strategy
Writing and creating an email newsletter on a weekly or monthly basis is no easy task. It’s not something you can produce quickly. To be effective, you need to commit time and resources to it.  

Quality content over quantity should be your mantra. 

Customers know the difference and if your content isn’t relevant to them, they’ll quickly unsubscribe.

The main benefits of having an email newsletter are as follows.

•  It allows you to capture a prospect and grow a mailing list.

•  It helps build name recognition and brand awareness for your jewelry store.

•  It drives traffic to your website.

•  It gives you a reason to stay in touch with your audience.

•  It’s an easy way for your audience to reply back to you and ask questions.

•  It provides an opportunity for you to run sales promotions and marketing campaigns.

•  It helps to promote in-store events and special occasions.

•  It’s one of the least expensive digital marketing channels.

•  It’s proven to generate sales and shows a positive return on investment (ROI). 

According to a recent survey by Statista, there currently are more than 3.9 billion daily email users and this number is expected to grow to 4.3 billion users by 2023.  

The world is truly hooked on email and you need to make it part of your digital marketing plan.

Here are seven tips for planning an effective e-newsletter strategy.

1. Identify Your Goals
The first step is to know what your goals are.

What do you hope to gain from your email newsletter? Do you want to drive sales and foot traffic into your store? Or, do you want to build a relationship with your audience and not go for the hard sell? 

There’s no reason why you can’t do both, but you should clearly articulate what you want to get out of your email marketing. This will help you to justify the investment in your business. It will take time and resources.

2. Know What Your KPIs Are
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a way for you to measure the success of your email newsletter. 

Figures to review and report on regularly are open and click rates, deliverability, number of new subscribers, click-through rates to your website, bounce and spam rates, and the number of sales you make through your email newsletter. 

All of these numbers are critical to analyzing your campaigns and understanding where your success comes from.

3. Segment and Analyze Your Email List
The easiest way to improve your email newsletter’s results are to analyze and segment your list. 

If you are able to split your list by male or female, that is a good start. You may also be able to segment by buyer interest, either bridal or fashion, which are two different types of buyers. 

Segmentation can be done when someone signs up to your list by gathering additional information through a quick user survey and using the data to create your audience segments. 

4. Don’t Forget About Mobile
Mobile is now more important than ever and not just for your jewelry store’s website. 

You’ll want to ensure your email templates are mobile-friendly and look good on screens of different sizes. Just like with websites, your email newsletter should be mobile responsive.

5. Make Every Subject Line Count
The subject line in your email is your first impression. It’s what gets people to open and read your email newsletter. 

Having a bad subject line can sink your open rates. All the hard work and effort put into creating and editing your content is wasted if no one reads your email.
 
For an effective subject line, you’ll want to test several variations and measure each one.

A good exercise to aid in writing subject lines is to look through your own inbox and see which emails you clicked on from other companies. That tells you what works.

Typically, short and punchy subject lines under 50 characters are best. Consider what your main message is and boil it down to fit within these guidelines. 

6. Remember to Cross-Promote
An easy way to grow your email list is to cross-promote your newsletter on other marketing channels such as social media and within your blog. 

You’ll also want to  place email opt-in boxes within strategic areas of your website like the header and footer as well as on your catalog and product pages. 

Also, always be sure to capture visitors’ emails during the checkout process. This allows you to add them to your mailing list and follow up with an abandoned cart email reminder about their purchase if necessary. 

Your objective is to grow your email list as large as possible, which gives you a base of customers to market to.

7. Encourage Your Customers To Share
Don’t be afraid to ask your customers to pass your email newsletter along to others. Including a strong call-to-action within your newsletter encourages people to forward it to anyone they know who might be interested.  

When you have quality content, it’s easy for people to share. Your email subscribers are one of the best sources for new referrals to your jewelry business.

In summary, email newsletters are a powerful yet often underutilized marketing channel. 

Think about it. 

You spend a fortune every month to attract visitors to your website. Doesn’t it make sense to try and capture this traffic so you can follow up with them later?  

Most people don’t buy on the first visit because they’re still doing their research. Adding an email newsletter to your marketing mix allows you to create relationships and cultivate these buyers.  

Remember, when you have the right content at the right time that’s directed to the right audience, you have the magic formula in email marketing to create customers for life.