Why Email Newsletters are Still Relevant for B2B Firms: Four Tips for Creating an Email Newsletter

"Are email newsletters still relevant?"

I had a client recently ask me this question. And it is a good one.

My answer? It depends.

First off, email marketing is alive and well. It is often deployed as part of an Account-Based Marketing or Lead Nurture Flow marketing effort. The topic I’d like to tackle here is around the email newsletter, or e-newsletter. This specific email tactic consists of several pieces of content – either written, audio, or video – often around a single theme, that is targeted to customers, partners, or other organizational stakeholders.

I will focus on B2B businesses and member organizations in this post.

Periodic e-newsletters can be a great fit for companies with an established customer base that want to maintain customer loyalty. Perhaps your product or platform is complex, requires ongoing customer support, or is in a particularly competitive market, possibly with new entrants that are grabbing share. A well-done e-newsletter is a great way to maintain visibility, demonstrate value, and promote loyalty with current customers. And, if a competitor has taken their eye off the ball due to operational challenges or an acquisition, an email newsletter can help to keep your customers from defecting, and maybe even attract switchers, if your recipients re-share your e-newsletter.

Non-profits and associations also can benefit from e-newsletters. By sharing info about new donors, members, or investments, an organization can demonstrate sustained momentum to keep donors or members renewing.

Some rules of the road:

1. Think carefully about frequency. How often do your customers want to receive an e-newsletter? For some organizations where customers are using their products every day, once a week might be appropriate. And for others, a quarterly cadence might be sufficient. You can always ask.

2. Curate your e-newsletter to meet customer interests. Avoid simply talking about the topics that your organization wants to talk about. A good place to start is how new offerings or features can help customers to get their work done faster, better, or more effectively. Thought leadership content, like how your business is tracking trends, rolling up customer data, or convening thinkers and innovators, also is valuable. Finally, major deal, investment, or R&D news can be valuable, but ensure that more newsworthy announcements don’t grow too stale.

3. Integrate video and audio content. With time being so precious for so many leaders, video and audio links in your e-newsletter allow customers to engage with your content on-the-go or without having to read.

4. Measure performance. For B2B organizations, look for an open rate of at least 30% for every e-newsletter, with 40%+ signaling strong engagement. Click-through-rates to linked content typically comes in around 5%, but “big” news will perform significantly higher.

All-in-all, a curated, value-added e-newsletter distributed on a regular cadence can be a powerful tool to retain and up-sell customers.