Newsletters are just one of the many forms of email marketing that keep interested individuals and customers engaged with your business. You can provide information, delight readers, encourage them to take a certain action and so much more. Email newsletter writing does take time and effort, so you want to be sure that what you get out is worth what you put in. In this post we’ll go over some email newsletter tips to help you maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns and to get the results you want.
1. Be Dependable
Great content is nothing without reliable delivery. Being dependable in your email newsletters is important for maintaining your readership and building trust.
Set a Schedule
To be dependable in your email newsletters, create and stick to a set schedule for sending out your newsletter. This gives your readers a sense of predictability and anticipation for the next email. Readers can’t get excited about or look forward to something that they don’t know is going to happen. When readers have at least a ballpark idea of when they’ll get your email, they’ll be more likely to remember and look forward to it.
Maintain Consistency
Another way to show dependability is to be consistent with your voice and brand. Be sure to use the style and tone that resonates with your target audience, and to maintain that tone so they can familiarize themselves with and come to love your brand. People, in general, don’t really like change. Deviating from your brand voice can cause disappointment and confusion in your audience and take away from the impact of your email newsletters.
2. Keep Your Email Newsletters Simple
Oftentimes, less is more. Read on to understand how this tip relates to email newsletters.
Narrow Your Focus
The more information you give, the more people you can appeal to, right? Not necessarily. You don’t have to try to cater to everyone. In fact, you shouldn’t try to cater to everyone. Focus only on satisfying your target audience or even a niche within your audience—those most interested in your business, products, and services.
Don’t Dive Deep
iYou don’t have to spell out everything in painstaking detail. Doing so can actually be a bore or even overwhelm your audience. If you make it a habit to dish out more than your audience can chew, so to speak, you could stop them from reading your content altogether.
You can cover a lot of different topics in your newsletter, but go over them briefly and provide links for readers to learn more. This grants readers some control, and more of a “choose your own adventure” experience of presenting information they can pick and choose from according to their preferences.
Whatever your newsletter content consists of, keep it short and sweet. The key is to make it easy and enjoyable to read. Plus, sometimes it’s what you don’t say that encourages curious people to engage further with your business to learn more.
3. Encourage Action
You can’t get your curious readers to engage further if you don’t tell them how to do it, which leads to our next email newsletter tip.
Use Calls to Action
If you want to make the most of your time and effort spent on email newsletters, using calls to action cannot be stressed enough. Calls to action boost engagement, and more engagement means more emotional — and even tangible — attachment to your business.
Call to Action Phrases
Remember: calls to action don’t have to be fancy buttons. Of course visually appealing CTA buttons are effective, but calls to action take the form of phrases too. For example, if you are providing links to more details on the content in various topics, simple call to action phrases like “click here to learn more” or “RSVP here” will work just fine.
Drive More than Just Email Goals
Encouraging action may boost engagement and build your relationship with your target audience, but putting strategic calls to action in your email newsletters can also drive your other specific marketing goals, such as increasing traffic to your website or even getting more free consultations.
4. Measure and Modify
Like any marketing, email marketing should involve experimentation and metrics. You’re not going to get everyone to open, read, and engage with your email newsletters, and that is okay. You can’t control the behavior of your audience, but you can use their behavior to increase the performance and benefits of your marketing emails in the future. For example, you could divide your list into two and test out two different approaches or structures for your newsletter. Your next newsletter can then be adapted from the higher performing one.
Another strategy you might try is to send a follow up to your email newsletter. Create one email catered to those who didn’t open your last newsletter, and one catered to those who did. This way, you can potentially re-engage your dormant readers, while at the same time further engaging your interested readers.
5. Promote Your Newsletter
Sometimes the best way to get people to take an action is to simply ask them to. Often, businesses don’t think to promote their email newsletters in the same way they promote their business blog or other content.
You can’t assume that people know about and will automatically subscribe to your newsletter on their own. Include email signup calls to action on your website pages, through social media, and even at your physical location. Ideally, you can place the signup in context that conveys to the reader what they will get out of it if they subscribe.
These email newsletter tips seem simple, right? That’s because they are. To get the most from your newsletters you don’t need to do anything extra special or labor-intensive. The finished product doesn’t even have to be perfect…if there is such a thing. Just stick to the basics. Be a dependable and consistent source of information, focus on the interests and needs of your readers specifically, keep it simple, and give your readers the right amount of opportunities to engage Follow through and stick to the tried and true best practices above, and you’ll see that your readership, and your reputation will only grow stronger.
