I subscribe to several newsletters. One of my favorites is Early To Rise. Newsletters are a great way to interact with your customers and to maintain interest in you or your company. You can use these to advertise promotions, to highlight new products and/or to offer usable content (tips, how-to’s, etc.) to your readers. However, many newsletters that people have subscribed to never get opened and read. What can you do to improve your open and click-through rates (the number of links people click on within the body of your newsletter)?
First, personalize your email. All email services (I use AWeber) allow for personalization so when you create your email sign up form, don’t just collect email addresses. Collect names as well. Don’t always say “Steve, how about this newsletter?”. Try moving the name placement to something like “How about this newsletter, Steve?” And do think about making your statements or questions for the subject line attention-grabbing.
Understanding what your goal for the newsletter is will encourage recipients to open. Is it to promote something or to teach something. Make sure you’ve accomplished that goal in as brief a manner as possible. Write the newsletter like a news piece. The most important details first in case your reader bails before reading it.
If you are promoting something, make it time sensitive. Give your reader a deadline and use it in the subject line or in the first sentence of your newsletter.
Give your reader something to DO. A link to click on (preferably some of your own), a video to watch, resources to use.
Use a conversation casual voice to encourage your recipients to open and read your newsletter.
Use white space. Add in frequent paragraph breaks, numbering and bullet points and do this routinely. Visitors who know they can scan your newsletter quickly are more likely to become loyal openers.
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