Trust me when I tell you, the excuses abound. Let’s see, “we don’t have time,” “don’t know what to say,” “can’t write,” “lack a good email list,” “don’t know what software to use,” “have no ideas,” “won’t be able to keep up with it,” “don’t know how to make it look professional.” Breathe. “Don’t have enough expertise,” “don’t see the point,” “don’t want to turn off our customers”, “don’t want to give away our secrets”, “think emailers get blocked anyway”, “aren’t creative enough,” and our favorite of all time, “I don’t want to bore people.”
We have heard them all and we understand — writing a newsletter is a commitment of time and effort that is not always easy and it does take some courage. But writing a newsletter may just be one of the most valuable communications you can have with both your existing and potential customers. It’s a way for you to stay in touch and keep them informed about all the aspects of the services and expertise you offer — not just the ones they know about but also the ancillary services they may not know as much about. It’s not advertising, it’s education. And if done properly, it can deliver more than other, more expensive, advertising will.
Write about your expertise, not company news.
Yes, a newsletter should be written as a one-to-one conversation, but don’t write about who’s gotten married or whose birthday it is. It’s true that personal information humanizes your business and makes you relatable but it’s better to engage their interest with information they really want and need. A newsletter should be an opportunity to share your knowledge and expertise about what your audience wants to know. (Not, necessarily, what you want to tell them — and there’s a definite difference.) Think of it as more like a written mini-seminar or an answer to a question they’ve asked.
HTML not attachment.
There is no shortcut to a proper e-newsletter. You can’t just write it in Word and attach it to an email. First of all, that’s considered spam. Second of all, people hate receiving attachments that take up space on their servers and computer, so it’s considered very bad online etiquette and you don’t want your company associated with an unprofessional practice. But one of the biggest reasons is that with an attachment, there’s no eye-candy in the person’s inbox. People need to be enticed to read on. A nice looking e-newsletter with a relevant and intriguing headline will do that for you. An attachment will not.
Drive traffic to your website.
Ideally, an e-newsletter should contain one meaty article and one or two other relevant snippets. They can be facts related to the article, quotes, even a little bit on services you offer that are related to the article. It’s okay to advertise your services, just do it as an aside and not as the focus. Always continue the main article on your website. Put just enough information in your emailer to intrigue and interest the reader, then add a “read-more” button that takes them to the full article on your website. It’s a great way to drive traffic to your site. Although, it’s not about traffic for traffic’s sake; the purpose is to get customers into your site so they will be tempted to read other things and learn more about you.
Think landing page.
This is important. Since your main article is going to, in essence, “tease” the reader enough to get them to click to your site, you should make sure what they find when they get there serves that purpose well. The page your continued article is on should contain all of the navigation the rest of your site has, as well as sidebar items that tempt them away from the article into other parts of your site. If you have an e-book they can download, a special service, a webinar you’re doing, or even a video, advertise it there. And, certainly, have a place where they can sign up for your email list, so that if they’ve received the email as a forward from someone else, or chanced upon it in your website, they can sign up. But remember that too much of a good thing isn’t a good thing. The rule of thumb is this: between one and three calls to action per page, but no more than three.
What software do you need?
You don’t need software or equipment for the writing part of your newsletter, although doing some online research on the subject you’re writing about is a no-brainer. But you need software (or really an online interface) to create your emailer template and you need your site to have a content management system so you can add pages to hold the article content your emailer will link to with your read-more button. For now, we’ll assume your site has a CMS and you have the ability to add pages. To create your emailer, you will need an account with email distribution program like MailChimp or My Emma. There are others, like Constant Contact and Campaigner, but MailChimp and My Emma are our favorites for ease of use. Mailchimp is free for up to 2,000 sends per month (which is enough to get you started) and very affordable for larger send list counts. My Emma is all paid but very affordable and has an elegant interface that is very pleasant to use. Once you sign up for an account, both provide instructions on how to import your email addresses into the account.
We generally recommend you have a custom design created that coordinates with your website and reinforces your brand messaging, so you can just place your text and photos each time. It isn’t expensive and once you have a template designed, you can use it for anything you want to send to your audience. Both MailChimp and My Emma offer pre-fabricated designs, but we don’t generally recommend them for business use. It’s not worth the risk that your recipients won’t recognize it as yours.
Once your template has been created, all you have to do is place your text and any photos into the layout, preview it, and send it. We always advise that you send yourself a test first, though, to make sure that everything looks good. Blame it on Murphy’s law or own our busy lives, but it’s a fact — you will not see all your typos until it’s in your inbox. So make sure to preview a test first, and maybe have someone else preview it as well, before you send it to your entire list.
Advancing from there
Once you start sending regular e-newsletters, you can start getting fancy — like sending targeted mailings to subgroups and doing a/b testing to see what gives you the best response rates. But for now, the key is to just get started and keep at it. Your audience awaits your wisdom, truly. We may have a seemingly never-ending stream of information coming at us, but it is not a never-ending stream of relevant, desired information. If you can make your email newsletter serve that purpose, you’re golden.
~ Chris Quinn, principal and brand strategist
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