Case: How do you use a newsletter?

Guest blog by Felina Tan

Sport-Natural is a health center located in Amsterdam-Noord. A year and a half after the opening there are around 1100 members and everything is going well. The management now wants to improve communication between members and the gym. Personal guidance is of paramount importance, but due to the high number of members there is less and less opportunity for this at the gym.

Newsletter for binding
As a solution, the management chose to use a newsletter. They want to send these to their members every month so that the company stays in contact with the members and the communication will improve.

Start with target group analysis
Before you get one newsletter commitment, further research is needed: who is the target group? What are the possibilities? This involved analyzing the target group of the company, researching the methods to respond to this target group and finding out what the best possibilities are for the company.

First of all you start with desk research. When that is done, it is time for the next step: research. It is advisable to interview experts in the field of email marketing and content marketing, in order to find out what opportunities the newsletter offers for personal contact.

Strategy: how do you use a newsletter?
A good newsletter must meet many criteria. What ultimately matters is that a connection is made with the target group. The personal contact in the gym is limited, since only a certain number of contacts can be made in the time there is. This makes the newsletter an extension thereof.

Responding to personal needs
The newsletter must meet the personal needs at different levels. Knowledge (what do people want to know), do they need something (a certain image in mind), is there something they should do or something that would be good for them to do. In short, there are different levels to which you can respond. A successful newsletter is personalized. It is better to use 'Dear Sir de Vries' as a salutation and not 'Dear Sir / Madam'. It is also wise to tune the content to the recipient. One is interested in yoga and likes to get information about it, while another may not like yoga.

Build a relationship
In addition, it is important to have one relationship to build with the customer. As a result, the customer knows what he / she can expect and that it is an effective means of communication. As a company it is useful to use a good name as the sender for the newsletter. This means that you use the company name and company mail. Everyone therefore knows who the e-mail belongs to, because when you use 'Nick on behalf of Sport-Natural' as a sender, perhaps half do not know who Nick is and when Nick is no longer working at Sport-Natural, it is of little use to you .

It is also important to create openness. This way you involve readers more and there is more interaction and involvement. In particular involvement is important, because as a company you want that when a customer receives a newsletter you think: "Ah, how nice a newsletter!" instead of "Oh no, what do they want now?"

What is a good subject line?
Opinions differ on this subject. However, a standard subject line is still advocated. This means that a standard sentence is better such as: "September Sport-Natural Newsletter" and not "10 tips to lose weight." The reason for this is that when people do not like the subject, they immediately throw away the e-mail while it also contains other subjects.

Imagery
When placing images, it is advisable not to use stock photos. If you use it, then you have to sort it out properly. What would be even better is to ask someone with a good camera to take some pictures in the gym so that you have that standard. (or view this tips for finding free images)

A (large) photo for each subject and up to three lines. Short sentences with a 'read more'. When creating a newsletter format, first give a preface, explain why it should be read, below it a large subject, beautiful photo and nice text underneath, and below that split the newsletter into two columns.

Content of your newsletter
The number of topics in a newsletter depends not only on the needs of the readers but also on the age. After all, young people are more visually oriented; so you use more images there. Older people more often like to read more than images. They therefore click less quickly on an icon, but rather on a word link.

Posting a table of contents is relevant from five or six topics. This is also possible via introduction. The focus must be on the receiver.

If someone is interested in strength, there may be tips for exercises that he / she can do at home. This way you help the person and strengthen the bond with the result that the person comes more often. He has a better feeling. It is important that the members must stay busy with the subject and the gym without being in the gym. In other words, someone who does not go to Sport-Natural, but who would like to receive the newsletter. Find topics with which you help the customer, offer valuable content, attract you, so that they come to the gym more often.

In terms of video placement in the newsletter, it also depends on the target group what they want. When placing video screenshot of video with play icon so that people know they have to click on it. It is also important to state how long the film lasts. No less than 1 or 2 minutes.

At what time do you send your newsletter?
With regard to a fixed time to send the newsletter, you must take the following into account. The point is that you know the background. So who are you? target audience and what they find interesting. For housemothers, Wednesday afternoon is a perfect day to send a newsletter.

Your newsletter is a lens
The newsletter is actually a kind of lens that you put on your own website. It is important to regularly replace the content on your website and the newsletter is used to bring this to the attention. Finally, it is also important to refer to something you put on Facebook or does Twitter.