Newsletter Program for Your Online Store

A newsletter or e-zine is a great tool for an e-commerce business. Studies have shown that the primary reason customers will stop buying from you is a lack of communication. In order to keep the customers you currently have, you need to strengthen your relationship with them using a newsletter program as your main source of communication. As soon as you have a continuous relationship with your customers, it becomes a lot easier to continue selling to them over and over again.

There are several elements you need to include and different factors to keep in mind when building your own newsletter program. Here is a list of some key features a good e-commerce website newsletter should have:

• Feature announcement of brand new products


• Provide customers with special promotions or discounts


• Make sure the design of your newsletter matches that of your site, including header and tabs


• Keep it concise, the less content the better


• Have consistent delivery of your newsletter, avoid sending out too many or too little


• Include important information related to your products such as consumer reports or recent news


• Include multiple calls to action such as banners, text links and buttons that sends the subscriber directly to specific pages on your web site


• Include an 'Unsubscribe' link in the footer section of every newsletter and make sure a form is added on the unsubscribe page asking for feedback

There are several benefits of having a website newsletter to supplement your ecommerce store. The main reason for having a newsletter program is to build customer loyalty and achieve repeat business. Recent studies show that current customers on average spend 33% more than new customers and the ones that participate in customer loyalty programs typically spend 4x as much. Your website newsletter does a great job of constantly reminding people of your brand and getting new products in front of them. Unless you have a newsletter, most people would forget about your e-commerce store almost immediately after they make a purchase. You can't expect your customers to actively visit your website on an ongoing basis to find out about new product offerings or promotions. This is the reason why it is so important to have a newsletter program, it is one of the best communication tools that an e-commerce business can have. Your list of subscribers is the most targeted market available. They have bought from you once, they know and trust your business, they obviously like your products and they are more likely to buy from you over a new customer. Your subscribers will also appreciate the fact that they are among the first people to be informed about new products, promotions or discounts.

A good e-commerce solution should be able to provide basic features for setting up a website newsletter program for your online store. Here is a list of important things to look for:

• Have a built-in newsletter program in your store admin which lets you create and send newsletters directly from your web interface


• Gather names, emails and other information that you specify


• Be able to doublecheck whether or not email addresses are valid


• Have the ability to customize the layout of your newsletter


• Give subscribers the ability to unsubscribe at any time


• Have a special newsletter sign up feature built into the checkout area

Aside from having your website newsletter sign up box front and center on your homepage and included in the checkout, there are a number of other methods you can use to build your subscriber list. It is important for visitors to be able to see your newsletter subscription information on each page that they are on. This can be done by displaying either a sign up box, banner, image link or text link on the header, footer or sidebar of your ecommerce site. You can also include a 'Tell a Friend' page or have it appear after checkout to collect names and emails of your existing customers' friends. Other methods of building your website newsletter program mailing list include setting up contests where contestants have to enter their emails and the winner receives a prize from your online store. This is a marketing tactic used by a lot of big name online retailers and it can really help build your list quickly. You can market your contest on blogs, forums and other social media sites.



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Choosing the correct ecommerce solution with an available newsletter management software is crucial for opening up channels of communication with your existing customers. You need to have a solid newsletter feature to simplify the process of creating and sending it out to your subscribers.

Core Commerce is a full service all-in-one hosting, design, and marketing software made specifically for e-commerce businesses. You can set up your store in minutes, and with powerful tools to help with not only creating a website newsletter, but also SEO, product marketing and mobile commerce, it's no wonder why it has been rated one of the best e-commerce solutions. Click here to try it absolutely free for 15 days, no credit card required!