Newsletters are a great way to show your customers or community that your company recognizes what’s important to them. Email newsletters can also be used to provide potential customers with the resources and information they need to recognize your products and services as solutions to their problems. Is your company following best practices to create a newsletter strategy that builds trusting relationships with your subscribers? Keep reading for the Dos and Don’ts of newsletters.
Don’t…
Always Focus on Sales
It may be difficult not to focus on selling or upselling to potential customers, but resisting this urge can foster a healthy email list. It’s important to remember that the purpose of a newsletter is to create a relationship with your subscribers. The more value you provide through content catered to your target demographic, the more they will feel comfortable following through with your call to action. Newsletters that consistently focus on selling products tend to have a larger unsubscribe rate because the emails emphasize content that serves the company, not the customer.
Overdo It
Newsletters should have a clear theme. If there is too much going on in the email, the main message of the newsletter will be lost in the clutter. Avoid jam-packing your newsletter by setting a clear objective and call to action. Be selective and choose content and designs to support your objective. Make sure that your message is concise and your email is not too long. This will also improve load time and click-through rate.
Do…
Balance Your Text
A newsletter shouldn’t be too wordy. It should be a low-effort experience that provides valuable content. Balancing text with images and white space can help a reader understand your message with ease. If you have a lot of information to convey, consider including infographics rather than relying solely on text.
Choose An Exciting Subject Line
The subject line is a potential make or break for anyone on your email list. Even if the content is something they would enjoy, the subject line has to get them to open the email first. Make sure your headline is clever, to the point, and relevant to what’s inside the newsletter.
Determine the Goal of Your Newsletter
The content of your newsletter is best determined by the goal you’re trying to achieve. Here are some common newsletter goals:
- Customer retention
- Gaining new customers
- Updating subscribers on products and services
- Promoting sales
Each newsletter can have a new goal and your content strategy should be adjusted accordingly.
Design With Mobile in Mind
Mobile accounts for 46 percent of all email opens. This number seems to be growing each year. Make sure your designs provide a good mobile experience in order to encourage clicks from mobile users.
9 out of every 10 marketers use email marketing to distribute content.
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