Blogs, webinars, and various social media platforms all compete with e-newsletters for the time and attention of your audience. However, e-newsletters can still be very effective in promoting your expertise, nurturing relationships, and keeping your readers informed. Here are a few ways to make sure you’re using them to best effect.
Choose the right topics. E-newsletters should offer something of value. Choose topics that speak to the needs and concerns of the insurance agents you work with—and offer them information they need. Information such as tips on submitting to a new market or expanding their sales efforts to a new area of coverage, for instance.
Coordinate your efforts. Use your e-newsletter to draw attention to your other initiatives—such as the launch of a new webinar, the publication of a new white paper, or other promotional events. Be sure your webinar connects to your social media platforms and your website. Ensure your branding is consistent across all your platforms and in your e-newsletter.
Choose subject lines that catch attention. Everyone has too much email and too little time, and many people delete a large percentage of the e-newsletters they sign up for. If you’ve been strategic about choosing topics your agents want to read about, use the most compelling topic headline as your subject line. If not, craft one that speaks to what readers will get out of reading.
Choose the right length and frequency. If you send your newsletter out frequently, it should be short. If it’s daily, keep it to under a page. If it goes out weekly, a couple of pages should be the longest it gets. Be sure you have enough relevant info to fill that number of messages, however—always err on the shorter side.
Make it easy to navigate. Include a hyperlinked table of contents at the top. That way your readers can skip to relevant info in the body of the newsletter without having to scan for it. Let them know exactly what will be in the publication.
Keep your tone accessible. Insurance agents are busy, and they won’t stick around to wade through impenetrable text. Most readers respond to a casual, direct tone—whether that tone is more fun and humorous, or more down-to-earth and straightforward. Try to keep your writing simple and break up long blocks of text into paragraphs.
Make it easy to share. Provide links at the bottom of each article in your e-newsletter allowing the reader to share them with a friend or colleague. Offer links to share the articles on social media accounts as well. The easier these links are to find, the more likely your readers will spread the word about your content. Even leaving a note at the bottom asking readers to forward the e-newsletter will boost your circulation.
There are plenty of publications and formats these days that compete with e-newsletters. But if you make it highly relevant, your e-newsletter could become an important part of your outreach to insurance agents. Address topics they care about, make your writing accessible, and be sure it’s easy to share, and your e-newsletter could become an important part of your regular marketing routine.
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