As I reported in my last column, MarketingSherpa research shows email newsletters are gaining new readership at an average rate of 38.4% per year – that’s an enormous sustained growth rate for what is, after all, a fairly established online offering.
Your customers and prospects are definitely interested in receiving email newsletters. However, they may dislike your particular newsletter. Why?
After examining samples and results data from more than 1,000 email newsletters, I’m compelled to report that marketers make response-deadening mistakes on an all too frequent basis. In my last column, I gave you the top five mistakes. Here are the rest of the top 10 mistakes you should avoid:
No. 6. No True Interactivity
Email is supposedly an interactive medium… yet most newsletters are really designed as one-way response prodders.
Example: If a consumer hits “reply” and sends a note back in response to a newsletter, does anyone on your end even look at it? (Many marketers assume they get no replies or the service bureau is “handling it.”) Try replying to one of your own broadcast messages and see where your note ends up. You may be in for an unhappy surprise.
True interactivity means you are really asking questions of the readers and then responding to their answers. That means reader surveys – but only if results change your newsletter per the readers’ command. And, how about featuring reader mail and even photos in the content?
Plus, fairly standard email tech now allows you to adjust the content of a newsletter for each individual reader so they only see their favorite content (instead of having to wade through your whole issue to pick out what they want to read.) You can use an online preferences center and/or watch which types of links they tend to click on routinely and adjust your content to meet their interests. Yes, dynamic content is interactivity!
No. 7. Looong Text-centric Copy
Fewer than half of adult Americans read literature for pleasure. Reading isn’t pervasively thought of as “fun” or “enjoyable” in our society anymore.
That’s sad, but the point is, as a marketer you should communicate to your audience using the format they prefer. Unless you’re sending a letter to English Majors (or perhaps your mom), chances are long text won’t be the winner.
I’m NOT advising you send rich media such as Flash movies, streamed video or audio in email. Everyone on the cutting edge tried that a few years ago and discovered email recipients got something that was garbled or broken too much of the time. The situation’s not much better now. (In fact more people now can’t see routine HTML than were able to in email two years ago.)
Instead, consider much shorter text, additional interesting images (not just photos and logos, but perhaps charts, pull-quotes, graphs, etc.) Also consider linking to rich media on your site – “Click here for a quick movie” is better than sending the movie in the message itself. (See my link at the end of this column for samples of real-life emails that do this well.)
No. 8. “Filter me now!” Content and Formatting
If you rely on email broadcast reports that tell you 90%+ of your email is “delivered”, you’re being deluded. Almost all so-called email delivery reports only show you messages sent minus messages bounced. The problem is, that doesn’t include messages filtered.
Filters can chop off as many as 40% of your messages before they reach the end recipient in-box. Since your delivery report doesn’t show that data, you just think people don’t like your message or offer. You don’t know you have a problem that can be solved.
In fact, in the US today there are seven different email delivery auditing and anti-filter assistance firms that specialize in getting your mail past filters. (This is not to be confused with the broadcast firms who send email for you.) These include Habeas, Pivotal Veracity and Return Path.
Each of their CEOs tell me big problems are often caused by fairly basic email formatting mistakes such as messy HTML formatting and junk-mail-style wording that any marketer can fix swiftly… if only they know they are making them.
No. 9. Teeny Tiny Type
Are you using a small typeface such as Verdana 9.0 for your email content? You’re not alone, and you’re not being read. Any font under 10 points, plus anything that’s not black on white, is hard to read. Email recipients already have too much to read and too little time. Your teeny tiny type gets trashed.
No. 10. Relying on Email Alone
From investment capital firm Jordan Edmiston to apparel retailer Sierra Trading Post, smart marketers are combining the powers of postal direct mail and email to send offers to their best lists. These best lists may be new-to-file names, or best-responders, or most valued customers.
The mailings can either match together as a set, with creative reemphasizing the message you’re getting in both mediums. Or you can try two different creatives to widen your appeal.
Either way, smart marketers realize that while email is here to stay, not every single prospect or customer on your file adores email at every single moment. Some people prefer postal mail. Some messages (or length articles) work better off-screen.
Don’t relegate your best lists to email-only because it’s cheaper. Instead, invest a bit more in your best lists because they’ll pay off in spades. Do the math.
Anne Holland is president of MarketingSherpa, a research firm publishing case studies and benchmark data for its 173,000 marketing and advertising executive subscribers. For a free copy of the new illustrated report ‘Top 10 E-mail Newsletter Mistakes + 28 Inspirational Samples from Marketers Who Get It Right’ go to http://Top10.MarketingSherpa.com
© MarketingSherpa, Inc. 2006 All rights reserved
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