Of all the digital marketing channels, your email list is your golden goose.

It’s the one where you get to speak to a captive audience of people who’ve either willingly given you their details, or already expressed an interest in what you do.

Unlike your website, which people have to find, and unlike your social media posts, which relies on your audience actually seeing them, email is your opportunity to deliver regular, tailored, value-packed content that keeps leads warm until you can convert them into clients.

If it’s not already part of your marketing machine, how can you get your newsletter wheels turning? There are three key things to think about…

1. What content will you put out?

First things first, you need a content strategy – a plan that details how your newsletter content will help you achieve your business goals.

But don’t start by thinking about the products or services you want to promote. Think about the problems your target audience might be having, and shape your content around all the potential solutions – one of which could be your consulting proposition.

The best newsletter campaigns are:

  • Relatable – where you focus on the industry, sector, topics and interests that matter to your target clients.
  • Interesting – where your email becomes unignorable because it’s so entertaining, or informative, or educational, or just like nothing else in people’s inbox.
  • Useful – where your email is a good investment of your target clients’ time, with takeaways that they can apply in the real world.

Content doesn’t always have to come from you either – or even be related to your firm. Including links to third-party content like external blogs, or social media posts from industry figures is a great way to align your brand with these experts.

2. Can you make the most of your client database?

If you’ve been using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system to capture all your lead data, you’ll have all the email addresses you need to start building an audience for your newsletter campaign.

Most major email marketing platforms integrate with CRMs, so your contacts will automatically transfer without you having to do anything.

If your newsletter content is more generic, you could send it to everyone on your list. Or, if you’d like to get a bit more personal with your content, you can segment your audience into groups, based on things like their job title or sector.

If you’re a consultancy who works across a range of industries, you might want to run a monthly newsletter for each one, so you can get ultra-specific with your insights and advice.

You should also keep your database refreshed, by regularly reviewing your bounce rates, unopen rates and tags to make sure your newsletters are going to the right people.

3. How will you test what’s working?

This is one of the most crucial parts of email marketing, but one that very few businesses actually do.

To increase your open and click-through rates as much as possible, you should be testing everything from your subject lines to button copy and even the time of day you send your email – which we’ve covered in this post.

Through testing, you’ll be able to identify what’s working best and what’s resonating with your target clients. Helping you to further tailor your content strategy and ultimately, achieve more return on investment from your marketing activity.


And that just about covers it. How to run a successful email newsletter campaign, tick.

If you’d like some help setting up your newsletter campaign, building out your content strategy, or any of the technical stuff, get in touch!