How to Write the ‘Best Newsletter Ever!’
Every day consumers are bombarded with offers, sales and promotions via email. For your company to stand out from the crowd, you need to ensure that you have the best newsletter ever!
Customers should want to read it; they should feel that your company can add value to their lives and that they will miss out if they don’t read it.
To get customers to open your email, the content needs to be genuinely interesting and should add value to their lives.
Below are a few points on how to write and create the best newsletter ever!
1. Informative
Being relevant and informative is one of the key ingredients in creating a successful newsletter. If your newsletter isn’t full of valuable and interesting or educational content then individuals are likely to not open it and more than likely not going to read any of it. Actually, they might unsubscribe, as they are not getting any value from it.
2. Stop with the hard selling
Effective newsletters are not necessary sales- driven, they are more informational. We all like to be informed of sales and promotions, but selling shouldn’t be your main focus of an email newsletter. According to Vertical Response, you should ‘think of your newsletter as a trusted friend that your reader has let into their “home” (i.e., the inbox). If someone lets you into their home and you instantly transform into a pushy salesman, they’re going to think twice about opening the door for you again. Your newsletter is no different. If you want to plug a sale or a product in your newsletter, do so like a friend would: “Did you know we’re having a friends and family sale this Saturday? You can save 50%!” and leave it at that.
3. Keep it sweet and short
Keep your content ‘scannable, ‘user friendly and easy to read. Make use of brief blurbs, snapshots, bullet points, videos, images and strong call to actions. Apparently the average individual spends about 51s reading a newsletter… for you to increase this amount of time; your newsletter should look accessible and uncluttered. Satisfy the recipient with enough info, but leave them wanting more. Incorporate ‘read more / learn more’ buttons that will lead them to your blog, website or social media pages.
4. Consistent and reliable
Ensure that you follow through, if you tell them you’ll send out weekly newsletters, do it. Newsletters are all about building trust and the relationship… if you don’t follow through on your ‘promise,’ individuals will see you as unreliable and inconsistent, neither of which you want to be known for…
5. Subject line
First impressions last…
If your subject line isn’t interesting, intriguing, compelling, fun or thought provoking, individuals will probably not even bother opening it. Think about it… would you be excited to read an email with an extremely dull subject line? Would you actually bother opening it? Probably not. Where possible, personalise your subject line, this does have a positive impact on your amounts of opens.
6. Unsubscribe option
Unfortunately this is reality, even if you do ‘have the best newsletter’ some individuals might decide to unsubscribe, based on personal preferences, specific needs etc. Don’t take it personally, just ensure it is clear and you give them control of it. If you don’t, well, then they might just hit the spam button, which will lower future open rates, click through rates, impact your IP etc. etc.
When creating your newsletter, remember that you want to grab your reader’s attention. An organised, clean and uncluttered layout will make it easy for them to digest. The point of a newsletter is not to make a hard sale, it is to build a relationship with your audience, to inform them and educate them. After all, they chose to receive information from you; they are already interested in what you do and offer; now it is your job to keep them happy and up to speed with what is happening!
Your email newsletters are an effective way to communicate and market to your subscribers. If done correctly, you’ll see an increase in conversions.
Best Newsetter Reference:
