Starting your own digital newsletter is an exciting business model with virtually unlimited opportunities for entrepreneurs. The low startup costs and ability to work from anywhere, makes it ideal for anyone looking to break into the world of publishing.
According to Nielsen Norman Group’s (2013) extensive Email Newsletter Usability report (based on 270 email newsletters across 6 different countries), readers feel an emotional attachment to their email newsletters.
“Newsletters feel personal because they arrive in users’ inboxes, and users have an ongoing relationship with them… The positive aspect of this emotional relationship is that newsletters can create much more of a bond between users and a company than a website can.” – Nielsen Norman Group (2013)
Here are 10 tips to make a strong start and achieve consumer engagment from the first newsletter:
- Grow your brands email list
Without an extensive email list it’s likely that your newsletter is not going to have a great response. Here are some ideas on how to start recollecting:
- Put an email signup box on your website
Place the signup box in a prominent place on your website so all your visitors will see it.
- Give something in exchange for an email address
Offer your fans or clients a free download or a reward after they sign up to your list. Give away a piece of relevant content they would apprieciate.
- Use social media to get your followers onto your email list. Encourage your social media followers (those that can still see your posts, of course) to sign up for your newsletter, tell them what they’ll get in return, and link them to your signup form.
- Be informative
According to the Nielsen Norman Group (2013), more than 40% of users said that each of the following aspects make for valuable email newsletters:
- Informs of work-related news or company actions (mentioned by 2/3 of users)
- Informs about personal interests/hobbies
- Informs about events/deadlines/important dates
- Reports prices/sales
- Avoid the (sales) hype
People like to be informed of sales, but selling shouldn’t be the main focus of an email newsletter – send your offers in promo-specific emails. 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.
- Keep it brief
Guess how long the average person spends reading a newsletter? 51 seconds! Keeping your content scannable with content blocks, brief blurbs, snapshots, takeaways and/or bullet points and including call-to-action buttons will give your readers’ eyes a scanning sigh of relief. Satisfy your readers with just enough info, but leave them eager to learn more. Lead readers back to your site/blog/social media network for more info.
- Have a compelling Subject Line
First impressions are important for establishing any type of relationship, professional or personal. If the subject line isn’t compelling, interesting, intriguing, thought provoking, etc. your reader may not make it past “Hello.” In fact, the Nielson Norman Group (2013) even found that “Some users who forwarded email newsletters on to others said they sometimes changed the subject line to make it more interesting…”
Below’s a really catchy subject line example from Airbnb
- Respond
Using a “do not reply” email address when sending out a newsletter indicates to recipients that any responses will not be seen or answered. Allowing customers to reply to your email newsletter, and responding to those inquiries or comments lets your readers know a friend listening on the other end. You’ll also receive valuable insight, feedback, and questions that very well may improve your newsletter for next time.
- Let them opt-out easily
A person unsubscribing from your newsletter is just a fact of life, and it’s nothing to take personally. However, the harder you make it for someone to unsubscribe, the easier it allows them to click that seemingly insignificant “spam” button, and that means that after a while you can go black listed!!
- Pick one primary “call-to-action”
Part of what makes a newsletter a newsletter is that you’re featuring multiple pieces of content with multiple calls-to-action (CTAs). But, that doesn’t mean you should let those CTAs be equally important.
Instead, let there be one head CTA — just one main thing that you would like your subscribers to do. The rest of the CTAs should be “in-case-you-have-time” options. Whether it’s simply to click through to see a blog post or just to forward the email to a friend, make it super simple for your subscribers to know what you want them to do.
- Keep design and copy minimal and original
Concise copy is key — because you don’t actually want to have your subscribers hang out and read your email all day. Concise copy gives your subscribers a taste of your content — just enough that they want to click and learn more.
Having an original format is defenetly a way to catch the readers attention, it’s likely that your subscribers already receive a fare amount of robotic emails in their inbox, and “Think Clearly” newsletter example serves as a reminder that you shouldn’t be afraid to incorporate a little personality in your content. This unique format strays away from what we’ve all come to expect from a newsletter, which feels refreshing.
- TEST, TEST, TEST
Test the email as many times as you need. Send it to yourself and to your collegues. Make sure all the links and images are properly placed and working, and double check the copy with your collegues in case of any typos.
It is also very important that you have a mobile version, as many of your readers might open the email from their phones or tablets. Check if it opens properly from your Smart phone as there always tend to be more difficulties with the mobile version.
Creating a personable, presentable and effective email newsletter takes work, but it creates a friendship with your customers that most marketing strategies can’t. You can use these email newsletter best tips as a jumping off point … but make sure you think a lot into it to then experiment your own style targeting your audience.
Here are a few of my favourite content ideas you can try:
- Blog posts
- Tips, tactics, how-tos, tutorials
- Industry news/third party news
- Events, dates to remember, holidays
- Interesting facts
- Reviews
- Photos
- Contests/contest winners
- Resources
- Company news – updates, improvements, new products, awards, volunteer…
- Infographics
- Webinars and/or videos
- Testimonials
- Recipes
- Fan photos
Good luck!
Nielsen Norman Group. (2013). Email Newsletter Design to Increase Conversion and Loyalty. Available: https://www.nngroup.com/reports/email-newsletter-design/. Last accessed 1st Feb 2016.
Corkery, C. (2013). 7 Golden Steps to Creating an Effective Email Newsletter. Available: http://www.verticalresponse.com/blog/7-golden-steps-to-creating-an-effective-email-newsletter/. Last accessed 1st Feb 2016.