Want to make sure your e-newsletter actually gets read? Here’s how you can create a better e-newsletter and make sure your customers aren’t deleting them.
Are you constantly looking at ways you can get more revenue?
When was the last time you sent out an e-newsletter to your email list?
For some companies, they don’t remember when they last emailed their subscribers. That’s a huge missed opportunity. You might be asking yourself whether people still open emails or if they get sent to the junk mail folder.
They still open emails.
The difference is the ones that are opened have a lot to offer their customers — not just discounts. But there’s a connection that makes people say, “I want to read this.”
Do you want to know how you can create amazing e-newsletters that get read?
Keep reading to find out.
1. Easy-To-Read on All Devices
The first rule is to put yourself in your reader’s shoes.
You want to understand what they’re doing when they’re reading your emails.
In the case of many of your subscribers, they’ll be on their phones. You want to make sure that everything you do with your email, from the design to the content, is geared for mobile devices.
Your emails should be easy to read. By keeping them as one column, your audience doesn’t have to scroll from side-to-side to read your e-newsletter. You can also keep the content brief and the font large enough to read on mobile devices.
When you send out your e-newsletter using an email marketing tool like Constant Contact, they allow you to preview the email in mobile mode before sending it out.
2. Have a Purpose
Do you know why you’re emailing your list?
Maybe you haven’t reached out in a while or you’re emailing because you feel that you’re supposed to do so.
Your e-newsletter needs to have a purpose. You want to know why you’re sending the e-newsletter, what you want the audience to get out of it.
A good way to do this is to plan out several e-newsletters at a time. That will allow you to tie your newsletters together. You can then turn your newsletters into a story arc over several emails.
3. The Subject Line Counts
Advertising guru David Ogilvy says, “When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”
That applies to the subject line of your e-newsletter. That’s how important it is.
You want to keep your subject line short, between 40-60 characters.
You also want to make it compelling. Using a person’s name in the subject is one way to increase open rates.
4. Make the Preview Text Compelling
When a reader looks at their inbox, they see a wall of unopened emails.
They’ll scan the subject line, who it’s from, and the preview of the email.
The preview text is often the first few lines of your email content. In some email marketing software, you can control what’s in the preview text. That allows you to create a summary that says why someone needs to open your email.
5. Be Consistent
Your e-newsletters have to be consistent in two ways.
The first is that they need to be sent out on a consistent basis. You want to show your audience that you’re reliable and dependable.
If you send out an email every week on Fridays, make sure you stick with that schedule. Your audience will expect it.
The second way is that your branding needs to be consistent. You want to make sure that the branding in your e-newsletter is the same as your company letterhead, t-shirts, banners, and everything else.
That level of consistency across platforms can increase your company’s revenue by as much as 23%.
6. Make Images Count
You can also add an image or color to the design of your email.
You can add a logo, which will make your branding consistent. You can add a photo that’s relevant to the content of the email.
Remember, people are opening up emails on their phones. Too many images will cause the email to load slowly. Your audience will close up and move on to the next email if it takes to long to load.
7. Look at the Results
The reason why software like Constant Contact is useful is that you can get reporting of your emails.
You can also have an easy way to manage your list. If people want to opt-out, they have an easy way to do so.
You want to look at the reporting of your email. You want to check the open rates and see the click-through rate. That will tell you if your subject line and content were effective.
8. Test for Success
Don’t be afraid to try things out in your e-newsletter.
Testing is a great way to improve your open rates. You can test subject lines against each other to see what your readers respond to most.
You can also do things like test images or offers to see which ones get a better response rate. The more you test, the more you learn about your audience.
9. Educational vs. Promotional
You may have the best service in town and you want to let everyone know about it.
That being said, if you’re constantly trying to sell your services in your emails, readers will be turned off.
You want to offer value to your customers. A landscaper might give tips to get the yard ready for spring, while an HVAC company can give readers insights to maintain an HVAC unit over the summer.
The more you go out of your way to help your readers, the more likely they are to trust you and work with you.
10. Always Have a Call-to-Action
Do you want to take your emails to another level?
Add a CTA in them. A call-to-action simply tells a reader what the next step is after they read your email.
Depending on the purpose of your email, it may be to schedule a free estimate or to read a specific blog post on your site. You want to make sure you give your readers a specific action to do once they read your e-newsletter.
Make Your E-Newsletter Amazing!
If you want to consistently stay in front of your customers and remind them about your company, an e-newsletter is a great way to do it.
You have to make sure that you’re giving yourself the best chance to have a successful e-newsletter campaign.
Start by understanding your audience and making sure that your emails have a purpose. You have to give people value to get them to open not just one email, but every email from your company.
Do you want to know more about building a consistent brand for your business?
Contact us today to find out more about our marketing and design services.