Newsletters are a low-effort way for customers to keep up to date on topics important to your business or industry. They sign-up and wait for the latest news to show up in their inbox. They’re also low pressure; hanging out in email until the perfect reading time opens up. You, however, need to attack your newsletters with more energy. Use these six key points to keep your subscribers from tuning out, or worse, turning off their subscriptions.
- Know Your Audience – If you don’t know your audience, you can’t provide information on topics that interest them. Even the most specialized niche will continually have a variety of topics to cover, but reviewing the current hits on Billboards Latin Dance charts probably won’t fly if your readership consists of Fortune 500 Finance Execs. If you’re not sure of your audience, do some research on them. Look at your top viewed pages, top requested products, or the common challenges facing your customers’ industries. If you serve diversified industries find common areas of focus. If one of your article drills down into a detailed, finely-targeted topic, other areas need to have broader appeal to keep everyone reading issue after issue.
- Don’t Bait for a Solution Sell – Everyone knows that your newsletter doubles as a marketing tool. While your readers may have volunteered to receive your newsletter, you still have to wine and dine them a bit. If you have a tool that will solve your readers problems, they still need to buy-in to the idea before they’ll part with that hard earned cash. Educate your readers by way of useful explanations, tips, or intermediate solutions to convince them that you understand their problems and solutions. Email after email of “buy this,” “buy that,” “you didn’t buy last time so I’m slashing the cost” will hurt your credibility and will cost you subscribers.
- Looks Matter – There are many freeware programs that can save your newsletter in a document format that not only looks appealing but can also be universally opened. It can be as simple as creating your newsletter in Google Docs or Zoho and saving it or exporting it as a pdf. Or read this handy guide. Internet users are accustomed to reading good-looking content on the web, spending time to make your work look nice will be worth the effort. Don’t make your readers put up with ugly.
- Plan Ahead – Your best products for a happy holiday season are probably great, but if your clients have already done their seasonal buying they’re not going to do either of you much good. Know when your audience is making their decisions and touch on topics in a timely manner. If you don’t know how your clients’ calendars run, ask a few of your more trusted customers. You’ll find most clients will be happy to share information when they realize you’re trying to help or tailor information to their challenges. As a bonus, they’ll feel valued knowing that that they were among the few that you reached out to.
- Be Consistent – You don’t have to send out your newsletter every week or even every month, but make sure it is on your calendar for a regular recurring dispatch. Getting in front of your customers with new information will build your credibility as an expert in the field. Knowing that you have another issue coming up means that your subconscious will be cranking away with ideas. You’ll also be on the lookout for good content so you’ll notice more applicable information. The process will also ensure you’re adding to your knowledge base regularly. Finally, that email showing up in your customer’s inbox will be a reminder to call YOU instead of one of your competitors.
- Call to Action – You’ve now armed your readership with a topical good-looking newsletter that educates them and arrives at the perfect time. Whew! Don’t stop there. You have their attention. Direct them. Give tips for putting your ideas into action or show them where they can find more information…yes, even if it means they’ll have to fork over some cash in your webstore. Get them involved. And make it easy for them to do.
Keep these six items in mind when planning your newsletters and your subscriber counts will thank you.
If you have newsletter tips or tricks you’ve found useful, or challenges you’re trying to overcome, let me know in the comments.
