In a market saturated and cluttered with information, it has become challenging for a brand to stay memorable or stand out of the crowd. For the past couple of years, digital marketers focused on social media and live streaming to get visibility for their brands. However, some brands are now realising that newsletters are an effective part of a public relations strategy.
In recent times, newsletters have made a quiet comeback into consumers’ lives. The increased focus is not only thanks to the rising popularity of newsletter services like Substack, Constant Contact, Rapid Mail etc. but also thanks to an increasing desire in consumers to connect with the things they’re passionate about in a more profound way. As PR strategists, we think this trend can be used by brands and businesses to build their own community of stakeholders who they develop a relationship with directly, based on mutual trust.
Here are five reasons why newsletters with value adding content are a powerful tool for any PR strategy.
- Position yourselves as an industry leader – As part of your PR outreach, when you regularly send out newsletters about trends in the industry, your leaders and your brand can position themselves as industry leaders and maximise their credibility. Newsletters are also an excellent space to highlight your CEOs as thought leaders. They offer great opportunities for them to talk about changes as well as ethical decisions taking place in the company.
- Increasing SEO efficacy – Newsletters help build a bridge between your website and search engine optimisation. By posting regular and relevant content on your newsletters, you can drive qualified visitors to your website and increase engagement. Newsletters are also great for sharing on social media and when they start earning backlinks, SEO efficacy increases significantly.
- Fostering relationships – Newsletters differ from blogs because they reach the inbox of your targeted audience directly, allowing you to tell your story, build your relationships, making it a powerful alternative to paid and earned media. This personalisation also creates a one-on-one private audience with your customers, where you can share insights and offer suggestions and solutions. From showcasing new perspectives, to alerting your audience about offers and deals, newsletters can also help in keeping them informed about business tips or important company news. Many organisations use newsletters to foster relationships with customers and thus strengthening the bond and creating a valuable community.
- Strengthen branding – Organizations can strengthen their branding by regularly sending out newsletters with updates about new services or products, thus helping increase brand awareness. Also, newsletters are free of social media algorithms which increasingly control what your audience sees. Once you’ve built an audience and start sharing useful and content-rich newsletters, your customers will certainly see your message, and want to be involved.
- Customer Insights – A newsletter can also be a great tool to understand and analyse what your customers need and how effective your content has been in converting or retaining them. From seeing how many customers opened the newsletter to the links within which they clicked, the newsletter can be a treasure trove of information to mining customer insights. Analysing newsletter data can help you understand your customers better so you can align your PR plan accordingly.
The Substack platform for example has largely been responsible for a widespread revival in newsletter culture in the past couple of years. While more journalists have started embracing it to connect with their readers directly, brands and startups are also using email platforms to build deeper relationships with their audiences. In today’s media-driven world, a newsletter can be an active PR tool and is the digital equivalent of a business card, be it in terms of branding, recognition or personalisation and it is just as valuable.