How to Write Effective Email Newsletters
To be effective in email marketing your Newsletters have to be capturing and creative.
Think about how much you enjoy opening your inbox on Monday morning! Most of us do not enjoy this too much, as in today’s age we are all spammed with hundreds of emails. To get us to read an email newsletter it has to be very “special”, otherwise it will be deleted very, very quickly!
To help you write some effective newsletters here are a couple of tips to get you started:
Subject Lines and Titles
The subject line is the most important 35 characters of your newsletter. FOCUS ON IT!
- The subject line of your email determines whether your email will be opened or not.
- Use four to six words in your subject. Absolute max: nine words.
- The “from” line tells the reader who it’s from, so don’t waste space saying it again.
- You only have two seconds to get the reader’s attention, so use action words that will grab their attention
Use a professional and relevant subject line – the more reader interest-specific, the better. Mention what is in the Newsletter, not something general!
What is my advice for email subject lines? This is going to sound very simple to a lot of people, but here it goes – Your subject line should: Describe the subject of your email. That’s it. When it comes to email marketing, the best subject lines tell what’s inside and the worst subject lines sells what’s inside.
Content is King
Content is king, but only if you know what works. Here are some points that work:
- Studies show that having fewer calls to action work better than multiple options. (That is fewer newsletters with better content, fewer content elements per newsletter but these of high quality…)
- Focus on your top call to action to increase the click rate.
- Bullets are heavily read. Use them.
- Offer tips and advice.
- Use the knowledge within your Company– controlers, legal advisors, technical staff, commercial partners, consultants, etc. – to develop these articles.
In general provide news that is interesting to your reader. Unless you’ve got a really hot new product to announce, your latest “Company news” is likely to make readers hit the DELETE key very fast.
Think about what your reader needs/wants, not what you want to sell him!
Keep it short. Keep the body of the newsletter short by providing headlines and excerpts linking to longer articles on your Website. This enables readers to scan the content quickly, and then link out to articles of interest.
Give your newsletter one owner. To maintain consistency in format, tone, and delivery frequency, there needs to be one person in charge of bringing the newsletter together, even if there are multiple writers. This person may have multiple responsibilities, but the newsletter has to be a high priority.
Making the sale
When you are sending out a newsletter to your customers you want them to do something! Usually buy something, attend an event or something else along these lines. In your newsletter it has to be clear what you want them to do and easy for them to do it!
Very simply put: If you want your costumer to buy an ice cream, don’t talk to them about cookies!
In abstract terms:
- You want ice cream because…
- Our ice cream is the best because…
- Buy your ice cream here!
Technical Tips for improvement
We all have to learn from our experiences, the same with newsletters. Your newsletter system should be able to supply you with comprehensive statistics, about how many people read which articles. This will allow you to modify future newsletters accordingly:
- Apply what you have learned from past newsletters
- Which type of articles/offers work well, which don’t
- Identify opportunities for new campaigns
- Terminate ineffective campaigns
A word about timing, studies show that Newsletters are not read on weekends, also Monday and Friday are bad days. Therefore try and arrange it so that your newsletter can be sent sometime between Tuesday and Thursday.
The Goal
In the long run your customers should want to be on your Newsletter list and look forward to your mails!
How can you achieve this?
You need to give them reasons to open and read our Emails by:
- Delivering compelling subject lines and messages
- Keeping the message targeted and relevant to yourcustomers
- Keep it brief – respect your customers time
- Offer links to enable quick access to further information
- Offer something of value to your customer!
- Bottom line: you need to merit the “open”
