Many companies find value in sending out regular email newsletters. And rightfully so. Email newsletters are a great way to consistently communicate meaningful information to customers, grow customer loyalty and promote new products and services. This post will give you a high-level review of what you need to get your email newsletter going.
The Quick & Dirty Guide To Email Newsletters
1. Consider Your Reader. Give them brief, relevant content.
Let’s face it, people are busy these days. Email inboxes are full and readers are more selective than ever about what they give their precious time and attention to. So make your email short, sweet and to the point. If there’s guesswork involved you lose. Figure out what your consumers value and capitalize on information that is important to them, not just you.
2. Get Permission.
Just because you think your new product, gizmo or service is fantastic, doesn’t mean everyone you’ve ever encountered wants to know about it. That’s just the truth, however, there are people who do care and want to know. The key is finding these people and getting their permission. Many email service solutions have rules about the kind of opt-in permission they require in order to send your emails, so get up to speed on your email marketing service provider. Learning How To Build an Effective Email Marketing List organically is the key.
3. Set Goals For Your Email Newsletter
Approach the design of your email newsletter with your goals in mind. Know what your desired outcome from the email is and make it clear to the reader. If it’s not obvious within seconds of viewing you need to reassess the design and communications of the email newsletter.
4. Let People Go – Allow Them To Unsubscribe
This may seem counter intuitive to your email marketing efforts, but let’s face it, if someone really doesn’t want to receive your communications, why make them? It’s much better to enable them to unsubscribe from your email marketing than it is for them to mark your email as spam. Nobody wants disgruntled former fans. No, you’d rather have happy former fans that still visit your site from time to time. In short, don’t hide the “unsubscribe” button in a paragraph at the bottom; make it easy for people who are looking to find.
5. Include a Plain Text Version of Your Email Newsletter
HTML isn’t for everyone. Some systems block HTML emails and some people have images disabled in their emails and some people just don’t like HTML emails. Regardless of the reason HTML gets blocked, it’s crucial for you to have a plain text version of your email so that your message doesn’t show up blank! The most important things to convey in your plain text email are the main message and call to action. You will also want to check that the formatting is readable and not jumbled.
6. Obey the Email Marketing Laws: CAN-SPAM
Before sending out your emails you may want to take a gander at the US CAN-SPAM laws to make sure you aren’t inadvertently breaking them! And if you email internationally, you will want to check the relevant commercial email regulations for those countries.
7. Test, Test & Test Again
You only get one shot! Once your email leaves you can’t get it back. It’s important to review and test your email with multiple users and email providers. Send some to Gmail, yahoo, outlook, hotmail, etc. to be sure your email isn’t hitting a spam filter. You also want to use the test emails to check all of your images and links work. If your newsletter is personalized be sure to make sure the personalization cooperates accordingly. Finally, ask for feedback to a few selected testers to triple check your work! Then press send with ease!
Follow these seven steps when creating your next email newsletter and you will be well on your way to an email newsletter home run! Also, check out Email Marketing Tips to Increase Newsletter Sign Ups.