WE'VE ALL GOTTEN them. Some of us, to our vexation and bewilderment, have produced them: e-mail marketing newsletters that fail to keep recipients opening and clicking over time.
According to Forrester Research, eight out of 10 broadband users delete most commercial e-mail without reading it, and six out of 10 say most e-mail doesn't offer them anything interesting. With time and inbox space increasingly at a premium, and patience wearing thin, how can marketers stay in customers' good graces and ensure that their newsletters will be eagerly anticipated?
Here are some simple things you can do to create an e-mail newsletter that looks great, and works even better.
- Be the friend in the “from” field
The relentless assault of spam has changed how people approach their inboxes. Today it's not your offer but your reputation that matters most to e-mail recipients. Research shows that the No. 1 factor influencing people to open an e-mail is knowing and trusting the sender, followed by an intriguing subject line.
Presuming you've done everything to ensure a recipient wants your newsletter — that is, you've obtained permission, and are sending only relevant communications at an appropriate frequency — using your company name in the “from” field and in the subject line will help recipients recognize your messages, and increase the chance that your e-mail will be opened and read.
- Adhere to your regularly scheduled programming
Be sure to tell recipients at sign-up when they can expect your newsletter to land in their e-mail inbox — and then stick to your schedule. Timing is targeting, and if your newsletter arrives only sporadically, customers will forget about you and move on to other things. At the very least, they'll cease opening your e-mails. But if enough time elapses between issues, they could even complain to their ISP because they might not remember signing up.
- Tailor content to recipients
Ultimately, the most important thing in e-mail marketing is relevance. And the key to relevance is personalized content. Industry figures show that e-mail marketers that tailor content to specific recipients achieve consistently higher open and click-through rates than those that send the same messages to everyone.
To avoid the one-size-fits-all feel in your newsletters, ask customers about their interests when they sign up. Then segment your list so that recipients get the specific e-mail content they say they're most interested in. For pre-existing subscribers, you can send a survey asking what content they'd most like to receive from you.
- Toot your horn softly
In the search for higher ROI, e-mail marketers must strike a delicate balance between their mission to market brand and product, and their customers' acute sensitivity to receiving unwanted, irrelevant messages. Subscribers to e-mail newsletters want actual news, not advertisements disguised as newsletters. Recipients also want to know that you value their privacy and will not share their data with others.
- Give your readers things to do
Make your newsletter even more interesting and useful by making it interactive. You can add relevant polls, quizzes and contests, and links to sign up for white papers, studies and seminars as well as your most popular previous content. Not only will customers find your newsletter more engaging, you can use the information and insight you gather from their behavior to create even more highly relevant content going forward.
- Keep it short and simple
Online readers prefer short copy to dense walls of text. So keep content simple, direct and targeted.
Newsletter copy should consist of short statements or paragraphs and bulleted text in an easy-to-read, sans-serif font such as Arial, Tahoma or Verdana, in 10-point or larger type. Dark text on a light background is easier to read, as is boldface rather than capitalized, underlined or italicized text for emphasis. You can avoid a wordy, text-heavy appearance by offering short and enticing lead-ins to stories and inviting readers to click links to continue, and by using graphical content such as photos, charts and tables to guide the eye in place of text.
ELAINE O'GORMAN is vice president for strategy at e-mail marketing software maker Silverpop, Atlanta.
Further EZINE LISTS Reading:
- How to Build Your E-Zine List
- How to Write an E-zine Your Subscribers Will Love (or at Least Open and Read)
- How to Start and Run an E-Mail Newsletter
