Marketing Your Wedding Venue Series by VenueApp : Newsletters
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These 5 tips will help you leverage your email list with newsletters!
1. Start a Newsletter Campaign: There are a number of email marketing platforms out there, but we suggest MailChimp. Using MailChimp is super easy and free for up to 2,000 subscribers. Regardless of your wedding venue size or type, you need to communicate regularly with your customers and friends. Periodic bcc emails and printed holiday cards just don’t cut it. Every venue should work to cultivate an email list and communicate regularly with segments of the list via an email marketing platform.
2. Target Your Newsletters: Don't send fragmented newsletter topics to a single mass email list. Understand who you're emailing and why. Segment your contacts into two or more sub-lists. For example, a venue that hosts weekly summer music events in addition to destination weddings should develop an email list for each target customer base. You can do this with the same email service account by segmenting your contacts into separate, often overlapping, lists. Someone who attends a destination wedding at your venue will likely unsubscribe from a weekly newsletter about local events, but he or she may be inclined to read a seasonal newsletter about the venue. Segmenting your contacts by geographic location can be a quick way identify who lives near your venue and who lives are away. Also, consider a contact's interest(s) before you add the contact to your email lists, MailChimp let’s them specify interests upon signup.
3. Link to Your Content: Keep your readers on brand by linking your newsletters to content on your blog. If you intend to communicate something in your newsletter, first write a blog post about it and include some images. Then, include a snippet about the topic in your newsletter that encourages the readers to click through to your blog to read more. Linking newsletter content to your social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter is ok, but only if you’re incentivising readers to share your content. Avoid linking to websites outside of your brand domain. If you want to inform readers about something outside of your brand domain, write a quick blog post about it, and link the newsletter to the blog post.
4. Content is King: Regardless of how you use your email newsletter, offer your readers high quality content. If you want your audience to digest certain information about your venue, wrap the information in rich content. Brainstorm newsletter ideas with your staff and friends. Anything that speaks to your venue and the businesses, events and people connected to your business is fair game. Design is very important, but content is more important.
5. Analyze and Refine: Once you know who you’re writing the newsletter for, don’t just shovel information on them. Learn about what they want to read, and give it to them. Track the open rates and click through rates of newsletter topics and content. Ask readers about what they want to read and how often they want to hear from you.
Bonus Tip: Consistency (Again)
Just keep in mind, consistency is key. Like most things in life and business, you can only get as much as you consistently put in. Pick a day each month that your newsletter will go out and stick to it, your open rates will continue to go up with consistency and great content! Getting your venue into the email box of those that can recommend you on consistent basis will keep your brand top of mind for recommending to their friends who are getting engaged.
Good luck with your email newsletters. Feel free to add info@tidecreative.com to your venue’s email newsletter. We’d love to stay in touch and follow your progress.