I work with a lot of companies who have email newsletter campaigns in place but are unhappy with the results.
They seem sincere when they tell me that they followed the email software templates to the letter and for some reason they aren’t getting the results they expected.
Here’s an insider’s secret about email newsletters.
People do read them. And if yours is awful, they stop reading it.
You see, email is an interruption medium. You usually interrupt someone while they are doing something else. Then, when an email hits their inbox they can’t help but look at it.
OR
They return from being offline and their inbox is cluttered with 100+ messages. Which one to read?
If they are following you, they will read your email newsletter right there but with the information overload today, it won’t have their full attention. They might even have a folder and slide your newsletter in there to read it later. (Which of course they never do. Do you?)
So to make your email newsletter campaigns work do these three things.
1. Make it short. You’re not trying to make a big heavy document. If you can say something in one sentence, do it. If you need two, do it. But don’t try to be very professional and use 10 dollar words and five sentences when one simple one will do.
2. Make it relevant and actionable. The best type of content is something your reader can do something with. Send a tip, a checklist, something helpful or usable but don’t go into detail about how great the company BBQ was. They just don’t care. Remember, they’re busy.
3. Make the formatting simple. One of the worst things you can do (in my opinion) is to take an off the shelf template to use for your email newsletter and go with a multi-colored, three column, heavy graphics monster. I suggest one column (two if you insist) and perhaps a small header graphic. The the content is headline, paragraph, headline, paragraph, headline, paragraph, closing.
You can include information about upcoming events, or webinars, or product specials if you want but don’t expect the sales to make your quarter for you. I’ll tell you why in another email newsletter campaign post.
There is a strategy that works for this but it’s not what you think.
Here’s an example of a pretty simple layout for a newsletter.
