The email newsletter is a great low-cost way to share cool information, updates, and discount opportunities with your customers and subscribers. No printers or ink required, no stamps or mailing costs, and it’s environmentally friendly to boot. 

The method is so convenient and popular that every organisation, from car dealerships to Facebook social groups, tend to offer weekly or monthly newsletters.

If your company has a regular newsletter or is considering starting one, the reality of inbox-competition cannot be overlooked. When you consider that your clients could be getting more than ten different news emails a day, a few questions must be asked before filling the content of your next letter.

• How do I stand out in a stack of newsletters?
• How do I help my newsletter escape the spam filter and be seen in the real inbox?
• How can I make sure my customers are happy to receive the letter?
• How do I get the most clicks and return customers through the newsletter?

Your ideal newsletter design is not just one that gets noticed and read, but one your customer wants to read! The key is to make your newsletters personal, interesting, and content-rich so that your readers will be engaged by the titles, then pleased that they stopped and read your content. Ditch the promotional and dig into the fascinating details of your industry and how it relates to your customers.

Stand Out in the Crowd

In order to break the monotony of fluff-packed promotional newsletters, the first key to getting noticed is content!

With the overwhelming prevalence of the email newsletter, every week a person’s inbox fills with updates on their grocery store, local gym, IT service, cell phone plan provider, school, job boards, and many more.

Most of these newsletters don’t even provide ‘news’ so much as an impersonal, computer-generated list of links and coupons that have very little appeal to the recipients. To make your newsletter stand out, personalize the content and come up with thoughtful email titles.

Stay away from corporate language and come down to earth a little by speaking to your customers, clients, or group-members as you would in a conversation about the subject matter.

If this week’s topic is tires, for instance, instead of selling them tires, have a ‘chat’ with them about the interesting side effects of good tire maintenance.  If the topic is appliance repair, provide a helpful checklist of signs that an old appliance is in good or bad condition.

Even seemingly dull topics become engaging if you relate them to your customer’s interests. They might even appreciate a coupon placed politely at the bottom of a page of relevant content.

Escape the Spam Filter

Many newsletters end up swallowed by the modern spam filter, but for good reason!

These automatic filters have gotten cleverer and more complex in the last several years and are programmed to save people the trouble of filtering through ‘junk-mail’ that hits their inbox.

The majority of ‘newsletters’ are as much junk-mail in email form as they would be in an auto-mailer, so the best way to avoid the spam filter is to not be spam, look like spam, or conform to common spam practices. While some spam-avoidance methods are obvious, there are a few that should be kept in mind for the smarter/pickier filters.

Top spam tactics to avoid:

• Don’t buy email lists, send to subscribers only
• Don’t use deceptive or promotional titles for the emails
• Avoid deceptive and inconsistent sender addresses, stick with something clear like “newsletter@mysite.com”
• Don’t hide text in images or try to hash-disguise it

Be careful about these, too:

• Minimize your use of words like “free”, “promo”, “buy”, “purchase” and “prize”
• Avoid ALL-CAPS and stick to one exclamation point per statement
• Keep email-size down below 30kb
• Images used should be hosted on credible services
• Balance use of images and text – attractive minimal layouts are ideal, focus on content

If you’ve followed all the rules and are still ending up in spam folders, check to see if your IP address is on a known-spammer list. This might be the result of a mistake or possibly spammer malware that needs to be purged from your network.

Satisfied Readers

At this point, your newsletter plan includes an attractive but simple layout, a solid block of content text, a few nice pictures, a clear and readable title, and a recognized and trusted sending address. This is already a great start.

With this strategy, your newsletter has escaped the spam filter, intrigued your audience, and has been opened, but now what? How do you turn their curiosity into happiness every time they see your sender-address in the inbox? The answer, again, is content.

While your goal in sending the letter may be to create return customers, their goal in reading it is to be entertained and informed, so entertain and inform!

From personal stories about staff to interesting news about adjacent topics, people would rather read something real that relates to their interests instead of more meaningless promotional copy. If your company grooms’ dogs, send fun pet stories. If you’re a car dealership, send articles about neat ways people have used or refitted their vehicles. Just remember not to get too image-heavy or the spam filter might rear its ugly head.

TIP: If you do want to use a collection if images in your newsletter without getting flagged, remember that you can always use a single composite image in order to show two or three pictures in a single modestly sized file.

Return Customers

The recipients of your newsletter are usually people who have already purchased your products/service in the past. They don’t need to be told how great you are because they already know.

If you have followed the previous steps, then turning an entertaining newsletter into an invitation to return customers is a snap. Catch their interest with content, engage them with amusing, inspiring, or fascinating news and stories relating to your company and product and delight them with real-world examples.

Once they’re drawn in, mention your product without pressure, either integrated into the conclusion of the content or as understated coupons at the bottom of the newsletter. This will transform their interest into honest consideration of whether or not they need or want your product that day. Even if they don’t buy right away, the interesting content will have created a memory-hook and the next time they need an oil-change or a friend needs a recommendation, they’ll think of you.

Finally, end your newsletter with a gentle call to action, more of an invitation to contact you if ever they need assistance, advice, or service. Your email newsletter can be used to create a closer relationship with your customers by engaging them with content they will enjoy. Keep your subscribers informed with fun industry news, personal staff stories, and organisational updates they’ll have a good time read about.

When you take the time to make a high-quality newsletter, your customers will respond with loyalty and return business knowing that your company respects their time and values their interests.

For more excellent advice on promoting yourself, your company, or your organisation, contact us today, our digital marketing experts are always ready to help.