Email marketing is known for its high ROI; on average, you can expect to make $36 for every $1 you spend. Newsletters can be especially effective as they provide a chance for you to connect with your audience on a deeper level than you can with one-off emails and social media. When newsletters are done well, they build brand loyalty. People actually look forward to receiving them. And people who subscribe to your newsletter are more likely to visit your website and spend more time there when they do. If you’re thinking of starting a newsletter this year, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Keep it legal. The first and most important thing you should do is follow all legal requirements of email marketing for your area. Typically, at a minimum, this means making it easy to unsubscribe and providing a physical address.
- Keep your list clean. Regularly delete email addresses that never open your emails (send a courtesy email first asking whether they still want to be subscribed). While it may seem counterintuitive to reduce the size of your subscriber list, it actually helps your deliverability. The more emails you send that don’t get opened, the more the email filters believe you are spam and the less your emails will be delivered at all.
- Set a consistent and regular schedule for publishing your newsletter. Analyze your audience and their needs as well as your capacity. A monthly newsletter might make sense for some people, while a weekly one works for others. Try to send each issue at the same time and on the same day (the third Tuesday of the month at midnight, for example). Bonus tip: people open emails the most on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the beginning of the day (7-9 AM) and end of the day (4-6 PM).
- Have a consistent style and design. Create a template and include the same sections or features in every issue. Keep the design uncluttered and the copy concise. Unless your newsletter is technical or written for a highly specialized field, shorter is usually better. Of course, everything depends on your specific audience, which brings me to…
- Make sure everything in every issue is written for your audience, not for yourself. Your focus should be on providing value to your readers. Solve their problems, educate them, entertain them, and talk to them on their level. Provide something truly new to them. If your newsletter is going to be the exact same thing they get in their inbox every day from ten other companies, there is really no point to opening yours. Consider your buyer’s journey and sales funnel. Where are the people reading your newsletter and what do they need to know to get them to the next level? Aim to have at least 85% of the content be freely given and solely for the benefit of the audience, with no more than 15% being promotional.
- Have a goal for every newsletter. Have one clear Call To Action. Remember that once someone clicks on something, they might not return to the newsletter, so be strategic about the placement of information, links, and buttons. You want it to be far enough in that they have read the most important information, but not so far in that some people will have stopped reading before then.
- Include a variety of content types (articles, videos, photos, etc.), but make sure your content is on-brand. Be consistent with the fonts and colors. It should be obvious to anyone who has seen your website, emails, and social media accounts that all of them belong to the same brand. Keep your brand’s voice consistent across all channels as well. A newsletter is a great place to go into even more depth and show your authentic self to your readers.
- Make your content as accessible as possible by providing alt text for all photos, sufficient contrast, and fonts that aren’t difficult to read.
- Keep your subject lines short and enticing, but make sure they don’t sound spammy. If your subject lines sound like you’re trying to make a sale, your newsletter may end up in the junk folder. Use A/B testing to figure out what kinds of subject lines work for your readers.
- Test the mobile version. More people will read your newsletter on their phone than on a computer, so optimize for mobile. If your newsletter looks like a beautiful magazine layout on a computer but is a mess on phone screens, you’re going to alienate your audience.
- Analyze the results of your campaigns and adjust accordingly.
Substance and Style 