What’s the Deal With E-Newsletters?
Remember the “club fair” when you first started college, everyone with great enthusiasm signs up for way too many clubs but in the end only really joined one or two. Similarly, it’s become an all too familiar occurrence, email inboxes brimming with newsletters we signed up to receive. The realization usually starts with a Monday morning inbox mess, and a when did I sign up for that moment?
The secret is building an e-newsletter that is compelling, useful and focused, most subscribers will stick around if they like what they see. Heck, they may even shop around or make a connection. E-newsletters are a great way to keep you and your business in your clients’ mind. They keep your followers up to date on all things new in your business and industry and establish a unique connection.
Even with all their ROI potential, e-newsletters had fallen out of fame because they also have a huge potential to flop. However, as businesses have been revamping the e-newsletter, it’s proving itself to be a key asset to marketing success.
One of the biggest problems businesses face with an e-newsletter is putting too much pressure on it. Sometimes this turns into overcrowding it with content and other times it becomes way too sales oriented. Instead, it should be full of amazing content that emphasizes your story, resources, and expertise, but not so overdone that it’s confusing. 
If you do it right, your business and sales team will reap the benefits of increased touch points and potential connections.
Tip One: Keep it Simple.
Instead of trying to include content showcasing every aspect of your business, try focusing in on one aspect. How to pick a focus?
- What is the main goal of your e-newsletter? Is the goal, more leads or an additional marketing touch point? Make it match: the custom content and your brand message should easily connect your users with your intended goal.
- Whose your target audience? If your audience is muddled, your content will likely be inconsistent and confusing.
- Hone in on the leading topics that will tie all of your content together. Try taking a look at your most successful blog posts or what content followers respond to on your social media channels. This can give you a good idea of what in your industry people are interested in reading. For example, two of StellaPop’s most successful articles are 7 Traits of a Successful CEO and Time to Go Big CEOs — How To Think Big Picture. So, we might consider a newsletter geared specifically for CEOs.
- Finally, you need to keep it consistent. If someone subscribes to your newsletter about marketing strategies, your subscribers will be annoyed with an off-topic newsletter.
Tip Two: Educate, Don’t Sell
People don’t subscribe to e-newsletters to receive long-winded ads from your business in their inbox every month. That would be like someone relishing receiving a mailbox full of junk mail. You know, the kind of ads and flyers that get laid out on the floor when you’re potty training a puppy. Don’t be a digital pee-pad!
Instead, focus on adding value to your industry. Educate and inform your readers. This is a great way to establish authority and build trust.
A good rule of thumb for your e-newsletter is a 90/10 breakdown: 90% value adding and 10% promotional.
Tip Three: Keep it Catchy
If you don’t want people to unsubscribe after one newsletter, you need to be delivering content that makes them want to read it each week. It’s important to make it fun and interesting. In keeping it catchy, it’s not all about what you’re talking about either. A big part of hooking your readers comes from the packaging.
A couple of things to try are:
- Make sure you have a catchy subject line. It’s the bait to your hook. If your subject line is a fluke, your subscribers might hit delete without opening your amazing content! Convince and Convert reported that 35% of emails are opened based on the subject line alone.
- Use a friendly and informal tone. An e-newsletter isn’t a stiff professional dialogue. It’s your one-on-one contact with your subscribers, who are likely reading your newsletter in their pajamas, sipping on coffee.
Tip Four: Make it clean cut and strut your stuff!
Not only does your written content need to be focused and clear, but so does the appearance! People respond to great color and images, but if you overcrowd it and over style it, then you’ll end up with a big fat mess. Keep it simple!
Instead:
- Try separating sections of your e-newsletter by color. Color blocking is a great way to quickly divide up your content, making it easy to navigate and adding a visual pop.
- Bold the important stuff. Bold can be a powerful tool for drawing your reader’s eyes through your content to exactly what you want them to be looking at. This can backfire if you over-do it, so be careful not to fall too in love with what you write and bold everything.
- Pay attention to mobile optimization. You can bet that a lot of your subscribers will be using mobile devices to view your content. You want to make certain that at the very least that your content makes sense if it’s stripped of all formatting.
It may take some time before you see your e-newsletter build momentum, but you don’t forget to think about the end game. Plus, if you feel stuck, StellaPop can help make your success happen!
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