An email newsletter can benefit your business in a variety of ways, but did you know it can help boost your SEO efforts?
Although you may consider this internet marketing tool a relic from days past, that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, most of the world’s most successful businesses send out some version of a digital newsletter to their opt-in email list.
And email newsletters are extremely cost-effective, providing a high return on investment (ROI) when crafted correctly. Even better, you can use this simple digital marketing technique to improve your ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Social media is a powerful way to engage both prospects and customers. You can use your email newsletter to encourage recipients to like or follow your company across your social media platforms.
Provide links to your company’s Facebook page, Twitter feed, Instagram and Snapchat profiles, Pinterest boards and YouTube channel. If you’re posting engaging and fresh content, your followers will be more than happy to like and share your posts with their friends and followers.
To give social interaction an even bigger boost, offer exclusive social content only available to email recipients. Make sure it’s valuable, and your customers and prospects will be eager to interact and engage.
Do you have an informative blog on your website, or another type of content that would be potentially valuable to your prospects and customers?
Some content ideas include white papers, e-books, user guides, tips and tricks, FAQs, warranty information, how-to videos and podcasts. Or if it’s appropriate for your business model, you could even offer recipes, life hacks, humorous content or information about a charity or community outreach group you support.
Highlight these pages in your newsletter and provide direct links for convenience. On each page of content, include prominent widgets that allow visitors to link or share on their own social media feeds.
Because you’ll be sending your email newsletter only to those individuals who have opted in (agreed to receive emails from you), you likely (hopefully) have many of your past customers on the distribution list.
This is a perfect opportunity to ask your customers to provide a testimonial or leave you a review on Google or one of the other business review platforms.
One way to phrase your request is to ask recipients to take a brief survey or provide feedback about their experience with you. Structure your survey correctly and you can obtain a wealth of valuable feedback and — ideally — some positive comments you can use as testimonials.
Be sure to get permission from the survey-takers to use their quotes in your marketing and give them the option of having their name associated with the quotes.
User-generated content can provide a big SEO boost and help propel prospects down the path to purchase. Research shows that prospects are twice as likely to purchase from businesses if they can interact on your site with user-generated content.
If you doubt the effectiveness of putting this strategy to work for you, consider that some of the world’s most well-known brands are using user-generated content. The search engines love it too, as more than a quarter of the search results for the world’s 20 largest brands link directly to user-generated content.
Use your newsletter to invite recipients to create and share their photos, videos, stories and experiences. Better yet, hold a contest with a specific theme. Instagram is a great platform for this purpose, but you could also use Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook or provide a link to your website where users can upload their content.
Few strategies move prospects to act like a good opportunity.
Hold a webinar and invite your recipients to participate. Offer a free class related to your product or service. Host an open house or provide an exclusive discount code for a new product launch.
If you aren’t sure what types of offers or events your audience would find valuable, ask them. Talk to some of your regular customers and ask what promotions or offers they would be eager to take advantage of. Ask your staff too, especially the front-facing team members who interact most often with your customers. They likely have a strong grasp of what your prospects will find most intriguing.
Would you like to learn more about how an email newsletter can provide a highly cost-effective boost to your SEO and social engagement and — most important — help you improve the bottom line? Be Locally SEO provides expert internet marketing services for businesses in Utah and across the United States.
We can help you integrate email newsletters as a part of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, including SEO, AdWords PPC campaigns, content development and website design. Contact us today for more tips and tricks for using an email newsletter to boost your SEO.