Publishing an email newsletter is a great cost effective way of getting information out there. The trick is to publish these newsletters in the right way. There are certain things that need added attention and certain things that should be avoided. Here we will go through the steps in a simple and clear way to get you publishing!
1. Know your Agenda First and foremost, you must know who your target audience is and what agenda you have with them. What is the newsletter designed for? Sales, customer retention, thought leadership? Think these things through before you begin on the other strategies of your newsletter.
2. Distinguish Yourself You have to distinguish yourselves from the rest. Do something new and offer your audience something that they don’t already have. Many newsletters today are vague and repetitive. If you are not in the publishing business it might be a good idea to hire someone in helping you determine what exactly it that you have which others would most want. Make sure your content is fresh- something that your audience isn’t seeing everywhere else!
3. Get an Email Service Bureau Get an Email Service Bureau that is doing well. Get at least three recommendations from this bureau before signing up with any email service provider. Email Service Bureaus tend to be complex sometimes, so make sure to check out how responsive they are. You can put calls in to their tech support to check this out.
4.Reputation Matters Be aware of what type of reputation you have. Make sure to guard your domain name reputation. Also, publish your SPF records and try to use a service that will increase your click through rates, open rates, and email deliverability.
5.You must have a Subscriber Acquisition Strategy A subscriber acquisition strategy is a must. The reason for this is that people drop out of newsletters left and right. People also change their email addresses. At this rate your list will be shrinking quickly unless you have a killer plan for getting new subscribers. Here are some great tips for increasing your subscriber registration numbers:
- Always place your subscription box near the top of your home page.
- Offer an attractive incentive.
- Always remember that every time you ask a subscriber for more information your acquisition rate will dramatically decrease. So, in the beginning only ask for their email address. To gain more information along the way, continue to offer additional incentives inside the newsletter.
- Make sure to display your privacy policy in a notable and clear way.
- Before supplying their email address people need to see what they are signing up for. For this reason you should make sure to display a sample issue.
6. Pay attention to Subject Lines Keep those subject lines short and to the point. If you want to prevent those recipients from hitting that delete button than make sure to keep your subject line specific and informative. Basically tell the reader something that they don’t already know. Since many readers use the internet in order to learn, “How to” and Real News subject lines tend to work pretty well.
7. Give your Reader a Feeling of Control Readers will appreciate it if you give them that feeling of control when it comes to reading your newsletter. Most people are short of time and skim emails. So make it easy for them to skim your newsletter as well. Enable them to keep continuity while providing short information in chunks. Avoid making them click too much or fill out too many forms.
8. Try reading your Newsletter out loud This might sound a bit ridiculous but it’s a great way in preventing your newsletter from sounding fake and phony. If you don’t feel comfortable with the actual speaking of the words, than it’s a sign that something is off in the writing. One way to break the boundaries of the sometimes impersonal internet is to try and be human- and that includes talking like one.
9. Make sure to get Feedback Some of the best Newsletter tips are gotten from feedback of readers. This way you can get answers to such questions as what topics you should keep putting in your newsletters. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback- it’s free advice that works.
10. Make Arrangements with other Newsletters if Necessary Sometimes it’s practical for you to have arrangements with other newsletters. You can both offer a subscription to a newsletter on each other’s sites. It’s basically like working a deal out with your competition. This might end up doubling or even tripling your subscription rate.
11. Put ads in your Newsletter In order to build up your subscriber base in a specific niche and to generate ad revenue, you must give prospective advertisers a reason to advertise in your newsletter. Advertisers need to see new subscribers which they call “hotliners” These are subscribers that are less than 30 days old and have an inclination to react and click through ads. Try and charge a bit less than competitors, making the cost per lead slightly less for advertisers. This will encourage them to return to you again the following years, enabling you to save time searching for new advertisers.
12. Keep it New Try and introduce something new each year. This keeps both the readers and advertisers happy and interested.
Bottom-line: Publishing email newsletters is a great cost- effective way of getting information across. When done right it’s one of the most resourceful ways of allocating your online media budget.
