The most important thing about email marketing is that you have the consent of the recipient that he or she wants to receive information about a certain product or service.

Why sending newsletters ?!  

So let’s get serious. You want to start sending a newsletter, because most companies send newsletters or you see the value of getting new customers through this channel. Opinions about the effect of sending a newsletter are still very divided in online marketing circles. But the marketers who believe in it and approach it professionally make use of advanced newsletter software.

But there is one thing everyone agrees on. If you decide to send a newsletter, it is important that your newsletter looks attractive, contains interesting topics and / or appropriate offers for the reader.

As long as you know why a subscriber signed up for your list, it is not difficult to offer your reader suitable content. So find out what your customers expect when they join your newsletter. 

“Email has an ability many channels don’t have: creating valuable, personal touches – at scale.”

– David Newman –

9 reasons why sending newsletters 

Here are 9 reasons to add email marketing in your online marketing strategy.

1. It’s cheap
2. You can quickly respond to current events.
3. You have an easy way of connecting with your target group.
4. You can get more information about your customer base.
5. A newsletter provides traffic to your website.
6. It forces you to write new content for your website that you can refer to in your newsletters, which search engines love!
7. Extra service to your target group.
8. Increases brand loyalty and brand awareness.
9. By using automation you can offer a sequence of newsletters, in which you for example offer 10 free lessons.

Convinced? Now we’re going to help you by listing the most important things to consider with useful tips for starting to send your very own newsletters.

What is marketing automation?

First we like to explain marketing automation. Because this is the most powerful function of email marketing. Marketing automation refers to the use of software to create workflows made up of predefined conditions, that trigger the automated completion of certain marketing tasks. The triggers usually correspond to actions that your users take on your site or in your emails. And the tasks that can be automated include the sending of emails and sms, the segmentation of contacts into different lists, or updating information in your contact database (e.g. lead score, interest level, etc.).

Marketing automation benefits

There are countless ways that you can use marketing automation to save time, improve your marketing strategy and customer relationships — the only limit is your imagination! Any marketer looking to increase the number and lifetime value of their customer relationships can simplify the process of achieving this goal with the help of automation. However, automation can also help mature businesses with a clear vision of their conversion funnel become more profitable.

Which provider fits best

So which software package best fits your business management or marketing objectives? Some providers have great automation features while others have the option to track your complete sales funnel. So which one should you pick? Choose wisely, because it’s a real pain in the ass to switch providers.

We started off with MailChimp and later switched to Spotler. Honestly, what attracted us first in MailChimp is that you can use a free account up to 2,000 subscribers. If you get more subscribers or want to use more functions (such as the autoresponder) you have to upgrade to a paid account. You are also required to place their logo (the monkey) in the footer with a free account, which is not always desirable. But it is a great way to get acquainted with MailChimp, without costs.

A lot of providers have similar features, but in the end we picked Spotler because they offer the full package. They are not they cheapest option but they simply offer everything we need to provide our customers with the the best service.

Other providers to consider:

• Aweber
• MailerLite
• Hubspot
• Active Campaign

How to create a good newsletter?

The process

Creating an effective and efficient newsletter depends on all kinds of factors. The newsletter must appeal to your target group. It is therefore important that you convey the right message. This increases the opening rate, click rate and actual actions. In addition to the message, attention must also be paid to the images, the content and the length of the newsletter. In the following steps we’ll talk about the “filling in” of an existing e-mail template: from defining the theme and goal, to the split test and moment of actual sending it out.

1. Determine theme and goal

Determine in advance what your message is. What do you want to communicate to your target group? Our experience is that a consistent theme often works better than all kinds of different topics in one newsletter. For example, the theme “Social media” or “Customer retention” or the release of a new product. Set goals in advance to determine when the newsletter is successful. How many opens do you want? How many click-throughs? And how many contact requests do you want to generate? So you can see exactly (based on the results) whether your hard work has been rewarded. If necessary you can adjust your goals for the next newsletter.

2. Newsletter planning

In order to steer the development in the right direction, it is wise to make a plan. Think of deadlines to deliver a message, gather content, creating content, have images ready, fill your template, have the newsletter tested and finally send it. Look at your planning like a checklist. Mark deadlines as completed and keep the schedule at hand to make sure you don’t forget anything.

3. Collecting and writing content

Always write as short and to the point as possible. This ensures that people are triggered to continue reading and to take action. It is wise to first collect all content in a document. So you have everything in one place and you always have the most recent version at hand. When you work in different documents, the chance of overlooking errors is considerably higher. Always work in one document.

4. Filling newsletter template

Once you have all the required content and images, you can start filling the e-mail template. Work from top to bottom, per content block, so that you do not forget anything. First the image, then the text. Then you ensure that the correct links are in the text and work properly. When this is all well and good, you can activate the social share options. This way you know for sure that the correct text + link is linked to your content block.

5. Testing the newsletter

When you are writing your newsletter, there is always a chance that you’ll miss things when reviewing your work. That is why it is a good idea that several people (with different backgrounds) extensively test the newsletter. Try to test at least two working days before sending. To ensure there is sufficient time to implement the adjustments and if necessary to do a test round. When all feedback is processed and everything works properly, the newsletter is ready to send out.

6. Split testing and Sending

To find out what best suits your target group, it makes sense to do an A / B test. For example, think of two different subject lines. Which subject line provides the most opens? Make sure that your content matches your subject line, because it leads to an increased conversion. Suppose you have a list of 10,000 recipients. You send your newsletter with one subject line to 1,000 recipients and the same newsletter with a different subject line to a new group of 1,000 recipients. After a short period, at least 2 hours, you compare the results. The winning newsletter is then sent to the other 8,000 recipients.

Mission accomplished?

Sending a newsletter can be quite a job. But if you look back and see what you have made, you’ll be proud as a peacock. Especially if the results are good. So check whether you have reached the set goals one to two weeks after sending. You started with a simple text document and ended up with a cool newsletter and hopefully successful results. Do not start haphazardly, but think carefully in advance what you want to achieve and why. Because the better you prepare, the better your work. The result is an effective and efficient newsletter that continues to trigger your recipients.

The newsletter checklist

Looking for a checklist to see whether your newsletter is complete and ready for sending? Just use our ultimate newsletter checklist. Super convenient! Want to outsource your newsletter and marketing automation? Let’s talk and see what we can do for you!

How to make your content more SEO friendly
Copywriting is often done by yourself, while it still requires special expertise. Writing a promotional web text is often underestimated.

SEO friendly copywriting  

Promotional copy is important for online advertising and a success factor for your website. Bad copy certainly does not contribute to achieving your goals. The following questions are important here:

1. What is the purpose of the page?
2. For whom do I write it?
3. What do I hope the reader does afterwards?
4. And if he or she does not, what is plan b?

That is why we have compiled a list with useful tips for writing promotional and valuable copy for your website. We also mention a few pitfalls that copywriters should avoid.

“We always look for the right way to get the message across”

Writing for search engines

In addition to the content and structure of your copy, it is important that they are optimized for the keywords you want to be found with. In addition, the structure must meet the requirements of search engines for good copy.

We edit existing and new copy for you, so that they meet the above requirements. We also provide completely new texts based on a specific subject. Provided that the copy can be written without specific professional knowledge of your products, services and industry.

Do’s & don’ts for web copy

8 to do and don’ts for copywriting:

Get to the point

Don’t beat around the bush. What do you have to offer? The sooner the visitor knows this, the greater the chance that the main message lingers. The intro of the copy is a good place for this, but of course it may also be in the title.

Active writing

Unnecessarily long sentences do not work. Write “the man buys the newspaper” instead of “the newspaper is bought by the man”. Avoid passive language use, because potential customers must be tempted to take action within your website. 

Increase readability

Copy on the internet quickly becomes unreadable when using the wrong fonts, text size or colors. Sans serif fonts (without cross stripes, for example Verdana and Arial) always work well on websites. Do not vary with the size of the text and avoid capital letters as much as possible. The text must contrast sufficiently with the background, otherwise it becomes unreadable. 

Writing is deleting

This is not the case only with journalists and novelists. Delete all unnecessary information. The potential customer will get distracted and it only raises noise and questions. 

A personal approach

Give the visitor the feeling that they are being taken seriously. A personal and direct approach helps. The visitor stays on your website longer and is more inclined to take action. A common mistake: commercial copy that talks too much about the company itself instead of the benefits of their products and service. 

Call to action

Always have a clear call to action button or link on the page, leading to an order or contact page. So always try to convert interest into action. Do not use ‘click here’ references instead use something like “Yes I want this!” 

Invest in preparation

You do not write a good promotional text in a few minutes. Review your copy a number of times and adjust it with the previous points where necessary. 

Write in benefits

Do not try to describe your product properties or services, but translate them into the benefits for the customer.

Smart websites

Lefhart does not only create websites that are search engines friendly, but we also provide a website that ranks and attracts visitors. In other words we provide you with a website that produces results.

More and more companies are discovering the power of social media for their brand. Not only is it indispensable in the communication with (potential) customers, but it is also becoming increasingly important for the find-ability of your business.

Money down the drain

Unfortunately, most companies lack the time and knowledge to use this effectively. In this case outsourcing social media activities is a great solution. In my career within our social media field I have often seen it: a lot of money is spent on a social media strategy and additional training. After the strategy presentation and training sessions, the strategy disappears at the bottom of a desk drawer and we continue with the day-to-day work without implementing social media in a good way.

And it’s understandable. The priority is not with social media but with the business and little comes from the carefully devised strategy. And with a bit of bad luck the whole organization then comes to the conclusion that social media does not yield anything. Because we have a strategy and invested in training but it yields nothing. Sound familiar?

Outsource social media

In order to make your social media efforts truly successful, and to prevent investments being made in strategy and training that are not subsequently applied, we have started offering social media subscriptions.

For a fixed amount per month we take full responsibility for the management of social media. Based on the strategy drawn up in consultation, our community managers represent your organization on social media. We use advanced social data technology to grow the community and ensure that it really delivers something for our customers.

The alternative: to do it yourself

People opposed to outsourcing say it’s best do social media yourself, because you know your organization the best. Completely correct, but then you have to have the time, knowledge and resources available to do that.

If you do not have that, or do not yet have enough potential to justify an FTE, then please consider outsourcing to ensure that you have a good start and a solid foundation made a professional. We also help you free of charge to take the wheel yourself as soon as you’re ready.

Or we make a combination in which our team provides a good foundation and you take care of follow-up of reactions or recent daily messages. However you want it, we provide a suitable solution! This way your investment in social media really delivers something.

How not to do it: The intern…

Unfortunately, we still see a lot of vacancies for “Social Media Intership”. A low-cost employee for organizations that still do not see the value of social media and expect that a trainee will “just do it”. Often things go wrong because this student communicates on behalf of your organization while the work experience is lacking to be able to do this correctly.

If it does go well after in the beginning, it almost always collapses as soon as the internship period is over. After all, there is no one who can take over. Also a little sad and ungrateful work for your trainee: his or her blood, sweat and tears were for nothing.

What we also see a lot is that social media is just handed over to an employee who only needs to “do something with it”. Often in the lost hours.

The solution: outsource!

So entrepreneur, do you want to make social media successful for your organization? Outsource it and ensure that you are professionally represented online. This way your business makes a good start and we monitor and report the results. With proven success you can take it (partly) into your own hands and it is clear which ROI it delivers for your organization. A solid investment that immediately creates more visibility and positive reactions!

You don’t do your bookkeeping, printing and marketing all by yourself right?

Our team of professional community managers is active online all day for various organizations and would also like to work for you!

Every company has an image or a corporate identity. Your corporate identity affects the image of the organization and also the way your target audience perceives your brand.

The importance of a good corporate identity  

The identity of your company is expressed through design, communication and behavior. The visual expressions of the company must give a good impression of the company philosophy. These must connect seamlessly. The importance of a good corporate identity for a company is therefore huge.

A corporate identity consists of the following elements:

• Logo, consisting of a word mark with possibly an image
• Colors
• Typography (font and layout)
• Shape elements (grid, surfaces, shapes and other graphic elements)
• Image style (photography or illustration style)
• Tone / Language

Visual communication tools 

These components together form the corporate identity. The components comply with certain guidelines and are used for creating visual communication tools. Think for example of business cards, brochures, flyers, vehicle lettering, corporate clothing, a website and much more. 

So why is a good corporate identity so important?

• It is very important that your company distinguishes itself from the competition. By standing out and differentiating yourself from others, it’s easier to attract the attention of new potential customers. 

• By implementing the corporate identity consistently, the identification with the company is enhanced by stakeholders, potential customers and staff. 

• A corporate identity allows you to build a good and professional corporate image among all target groups. Because a recognizable style creates expectations, it takes less effort to transfer a message to your target group. 

• A professional corporate identity inspires customer confidence in your brand, services and the products you offer.

In short, a good corporate identity does not only represent the identity of the company, but also strengthens it.

Does your company need a professional corporate identity or a makeover? Please contact us for some free advice.