The Pros & Cons of Email Newsletters

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You’ve got mail! Email newsletters are one of the most tried and true methods of marketing, and they’ve been in the business for far longer than you might think. Did you know the first email newsletter was sent out in 1977?! E-newsletters have constantly evolved over the decades of technological advancements, but that doesn’t mean they’re perfect. Not sure if email newsletters would work for spreading the good word about your company? Check out our handy list of pros and cons below and see for yourself.

Pros

Personalized content
After subscribing to your newsletter, excited new clients get content that they care about sent right to their inbox! Whether your content is about marketing, fashion, engineering, you name it– there’ll be happy clients out there waiting to get the latest news on their lifestyle sent their way.

Time-saving
Emails are clever in how they reach multiple clients all at once; you can send one properly-formatted email out to your entire email list with the push of a button! After researching the content and writing out your email, all it takes is adding emails to your list and pushing “send”. It’s much faster than hand-written letters.

Low-cost
With high returns and little strain on your wallet, emails are by far one of the most cost-effective marketing tools. If you send out your newsletters via a marketing agency, there may be a monthly fee to pay for their help, but it shouldn’t be breaking your bank to do so. (Did you know that we are one of these marketing agencies that can do this for you?)

Builds brand awareness
The more the client reads about your business, by your business, the more confident they’ll be to engage with your products and/or services. Email newsletters engage with way more clients as they’re so easy to send out, and you can keep in touch with your existing clients while also greeting your new ones! There’s lots of email-formatting softwares out there that can help you create your perfect newsletter. With their name in the subject line, clients will stay loyal to you through your personalized content.

Cons

Spamming
There’s a big difference between bringing your clients good content and bombarding them with notifications. Lots of email newsletters get unsubscribed from because the emails are too frequent for most clients, so make sure yours is frequent, but not too frequent that you come across as clingy.

Subscription issues
Some email newsletters require a subscription fee to stay subscribed, which can instantly turn away customers who don’t want to pay or cannot pay it. Free newsletters are much more attractive, but don’t bring as much money to the business itself as a result.

Long content
Clients may not have the time or interest to read long emails full of content. If your newsletter is too long, all your viewers will do is scroll straight to the bottom to unsubscribe. While it’s important to deliver good content to your subscribers, make sure not to give them information overload by accident.

Researching
In order to give the most updated, accurate, and important research, you need to put some time into doing research. While this isn’t the most arduous task to accomplish, it takes a lot of time out of your busy day to research and write your content. Hiring a copywriter would kill two birds with one stone, but if you don’t have the resources to do so, then you have to research, write, edit, and send the newsletter yourself.

High expectations
Loyal customers will expect your content to be top-tier, and if you don’t deliver then they’ll unsubscribe for (gasp!) someone better. You may be the best at what you do, but you have to show your subscribers exactly why you are, and that includes your email newsletters along with everything else.

Email newsletters can be super useful in your marketing if you know how to use them right. Successful but not too spammy, detailed but not too long– there’s a few different tightropes you need to balance to send out your best content, but hey, we know you’re gonna rock it regardless. Speaking of top-tier newsletters, you can always sign up for ours for a good example. (Just scroll down to the bottom of our website to find the sign-up info!)

Andrew Brockenbush

Andrew Brockenbush

CEO of Beefy Marketing & Host of the Business Growth Hacks Podcast

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