A recent case study shows how a company used social media to build an online presence and then used a newsletter to convert this interest into sales.

On their FaceBook site they included a sign up form for their newsletter. They attracted subscription by offering exclusive-to-the-newsletter competitions and discounts. They have found that 80% of the growth in the mailing list is thru social media outlets.

The newsletter then is used to promote their products and to drive customers to their website to purchase.

The email newsletter has proven to be central to increased sales. Using social media and email combined, the opens and clicks have been far above industry average. They are consistently in the 60-70% range for opens and 40% for clicks from opens. But most importantly significant sales have been generated directly from each mailing.

“Email and social media have proven to complement each other very well. Social networks are fantastic for building a fan base; but the money is definitely in our email mailing list”, says their company spokesman.

Building a subscriber base, designing a template, building a database, ensuring delivery and reviewing statistics and conversions are all an important part of running a successful email newsletter. In the end, though, it is the content that will make or break your success.

Content is what keeps your readers engaged, interactive and opening again and again. Good content will also help you accomplish your sales goals - whether it is customer retention, new sales, up sales or branding.

Some content ideas:

• News Roundups - If you are establishing yourself as an industry leader, consider offering a “Round up of Industry News” feature, which includes snippets of news, trends & statistics specific to your sector. This adds value for business readers because it saves them the time and effort of finding quality industry news themselves.
  
  
• Useful Links - Include a recurring Useful Links section in the side column in your newsletter. Consider embedding direct links that your readers would regularly need, such as the client Log-in section, the helpful resource section of your website, or to past issues of your newsletter.
  
  
• About Us – A typical database of subscribers will have readers at various points in their relationship with your company. Therefore you should never assume that every recipient or reader of your newsletter is clear about what products and services your company offers.
  
  
• Ask The Expert - Address typical problems that your customers would run into regarding your products and services.
  
  
• Events – Highlight your own upcoming events, including the ability to register for them, or alert readers to important industry wide events your company endorses or recommends.
  
  
• Downloads – Provide readers with ‘further reading’ such as white papers, podcasts and research documents.
  
  
• Case studies - These are always very popular with business readers.
  
  
• Other content - Think about offering your podcasts, webinars and presentations as content in your newsletter.

MarketingSherpa has put out some new information about what B2B Marketers are finding to be effective marketing tactics:

House Lists offer best results

Emailing to house lists is by far the most commonly used email marketing tactic, as nearly ALL of the B2B organisations participating in this year’s study indicated that they currently practice it. Past surveys have indicated that marketing to house lists get the best results.

Communicating with those who want to hear from you puts you way ahead of the 'hope they are interested' types of mailings to rented lists, etc. No surprise to find that the LEAST effective methods in this survey are "emailing to third-party lists" and "including offers in third-party email newsletters".

Testing Subject lines most effective, easiest to implement tactic

Only 50% of B2B organisations participating in this year’s study indicated that they were currently testing subject lines. This is a misssed opportunity because testing subject lines can increase results dramatically - and it is easy to do, with very little (if any) additional costs. If you're not testing you're missing out on this: It has been rated by B2B email marketers in previous surveys as a top effective email marketing tactic.