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There’s been much debate on effective email newsletter creation and how to provide your list with the best value possible. Some email marketing gurus say just ditch the graphical newsletter and go with text only emails and others love the visual impact of a well-crafted email newsletter. My take on this whole topic is to send both types of emails and so I’ve come up with 10 ways that I often tidy up clients’ email newsletters. Over 90% of the times we usually see significant increases in open and link click rates as soon as the revised newsletter goes out which take into account seasonal and other trends:
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- Split your email newsletter up into sections. Segmenting your email newsletter makes for manageable elements which are easier to scan.
- Add as many bespoke designed and non-stock images as possible. Stock images are Ok but mix them up with a custom design.
- Keep your section heading and designs consistent so that month-on-month your regular readership can quickly scan to the section that they want to see. You’ll begin to see trends with link click throughs.
- If you aren’t currently addressing people by their name then begin to do this and add their name in your email subject too. If some people in your list haven’t included their first name then write a simple if statement similar to add Hi *Fname* if Fname exists else put Hello.
- Run competitions. This type of interaction can be great to improve engagement and reduce the numbers of unsubscribe that you may experience.
- Include video click throughs to YouTube, Vimeo, other video sharing sites or video on your website. This adds to the multi-media format that may help to engage different types of reader/viewer.
- Though typically not a way to smarten up your email newsletter, it’s worth noting that the best times and days to send email newsletter is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. You’ll generally get lower open rates if you send your email newsletter later on in the day or at weekends when people check their emails less and lots of emails tend to build up in mailboxes.
- Treat your regular readers with extra special offers to reward their loyalty. Segment your list to further target your emails and modifying your designs dependent on the sector or niche you’re sending them to.
- Dig deep with your own creativity and ideas. Look to other popular newsletters for inspiration but note that some of the best creatives draw their inspiration and best ideas from unrelated stimuli.
- Take action. Don’t just think about making changes. Make them. Test ideas and then be iterative in your approach. There are good ideas and innovative ideas. There isn’t just one way of doing things.
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