E-Newsletters are Regaining Popularity
With so many other ways to reach customers, many marketers and business owners wonder, is it still worth sending email? The short answer: Yes.
Although social media has been a dominant force in reaching audiences, e-newsletters are still gaining popularity due to the fact that users can look at the email at any time, giving it a longer “shelf life”.
There are several key factors to creating an email newsletter that people will actually read. Here are three.
Timing.
Tuesday’s have the highest open rate of 19.9% and click through rate of 4.55%. It’s also known to be the most popular day to send emails. Consider circumventing the masses. (Source: Getresponse)
The first hour matters most. The highest open rate will be an hour after your send time, so it is important to keep this consistent so it can be part of your audience’s routine.
Pick a time & stick with it. Consider what your audience is doing at certain times of the day based on their demographic and what you know about their work/personal time. Are they commuting, just getting to work, or are you sending it on the weekend? Choose wisely.
Design.
65% of users prefer emails to contain mostly images, compared to 35% who prefer text. (Source: HubSpot)
- Short & Sweet. Your newsletter should be mobile-friendly, concise, and able to be looked over quickly. Make sure to write and design for scanners & readers. Snippets of info, bullet points and pictures with informative captions and calls to action can be supported by more detailed copy for the readers.
- Add Eye Candy. A picture speaks 1,000 words. Use images that instantly grab the reader’s attention while enhancing the effectiveness of your message as well.
- Helpful Hint - If you place images further down in the newsletter they have time to load.
- Be Compelling. The subject line needs to be compelling enough to make your audience want to open it and it needs to avoid SPAM filters.
Helpful Hint - Use a tool like Mailchimp to pit one subject line against another to see which has a high engagement rate as well as passing muster with SPAM filters.
Content.
Content is still king. It’s as simple as that. So, now what?
- Show what you know. Know what you do better than everyone else and drive that message through your newsletter.
- Balance. Balance your newsletter content to be 90% educational and 10% promotional. While they may love you and want to hear from you, there’s only so much selling you can do before they tune out.
- Pick one primary call-to-action. Choose just one main thing you want your readers to do. Make that primary – the rest can be “if they have time”.
- Keep copy concise. Concise copy gives your subscribers a taste of your content -- just enough that they want to click and learn more from your website, your blog or a partner company page.
Need an email marketing tool? PC Magazine tested 10 email marketing software packages that offer simple tools to help you easily create successful email campaigns, add and manage subscribers, and much more. See which ones made their TOP 10 list.
