What are the top five ways to get people to sign up to your email newsletter?
Define the type of reader you are after. Once that is clear, all decisions are based on that one essential.
Provide what readers want to read at a time when they have the time to read it.
Tell customers, potential and actual, about your newsletter every opportunity you can.
Make it worth their while in some way. Consider offers exclusive to subscribers.
Put old copy on your website and tell them they could have read it much earlier.
How often should you send out your email newsletter?
There are varying pressures as to frequency. You might think that your budget is the most important limiter and who could argue. However, you must fulfil the expectations of your subscribers. If they want it monthly…
Do not be restrained by the calendar. If your newsletter is news based then deliver it when the information is current.
Event triggered newsletters can be demanding as if something important happens your staff might be employed dealing with the fallout. The type can be productive. If your subscribers anticipate your assessment and explanation of an event immediately after it happens then it becomes essential reading.
What email address should you send your newsletter “From:”?
The most obvious answer is one which is recognisable as the company they signed up with. You do not want to frighten or bewilder your readers. Also keep it simple. Recipients will only glance at it.
What are the most successful email newsletters you have seen and why were they so successful?
There are annual awards for newsletters and they are well worth studying. Some of the winners are all but awe inspiring. The graphics are often stunning, the content fascinating. However, the question included the word ‘successful’.
If these newsletters were produced in order to win awards then they are indeed successful. However, most are there to encourage subscribers to email marketing lists and to retain them. On top of that, it should be done at limited costs.
Which are successful depends on returns and not on the perception of a competition judge.
I subscribe to over 30 newsletters, mostly for research purposes. Some are an effort to read. My favourite, the one I open within a couple of hours of receipt, is written in a style where the enthusiasm of the editor is obvious and infectious.
What are the five most important factors in a successful email advertising campaign?
Trust the returns. If an email style doesn’t work then bin it.
Your website, counters, service staff, sales teams, receipts, invoices – I think you get the picture – should encourage subscribers to sign up.
Know your customers: what they like, dislike, aspire to, can afford, and will spend. The statistical returns will help here.
Be honest with them. If it says it on the email, it must be true.
Subscribers pay your wages and provide the profit. Be nice to them.
There is a sixth: every now and again ignore accepted wisdom (and lists) and try something radical.
