How do you write an effective newsletter?
Several of my clients rely on newsletters to get information out to current and potential clients. So how do they write one that people will actually read? How will it not get sent to the spam folder? Here are some tips on writing an effective newsletter.
1. Make it fun. There's nothing worse than opening a newsletter and reading a longwinded, dry explanation of mortgage rates this week (sorry, Tom!). In order to keep your readers interested, you have to make the reading interesting. Of course, the information needs to be there, but there is almost always a way to jazz it up. Trust me, my degree is in political science.
2. Make it pretty. Even if the writing is out of this world, opening an email with just paragraph after paragraph is daunting, and nobody is going to take the time to read it. Making content visually attractive is going to increase interest. That's why Apple makes such visually enticing, sleek promotions for new products - no one cares that the new iPhone is .5% faster. But people buy it! Packaging is important.
3. Make it informative. If there's no new information, make the newsletter shorter. If there's oodles of new information, make it longer. Don't aim to have your newsletter be the same length every month or week or [insert period of time here]. Length should be proportional to new information. Otherwise you're just filling blank space with equally worthless reading that will likely decrease the number of readers for the next periodical.
4. Make it simple. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT just send a link to a bunch of clients to try to get them to read a newsletter. If you absolutely have to link to your blog or website, have an excerpt or clickbait-esque line so it doesn't look like a scam or virus. The best way to send out your newsletter, in my experience, is an embedded graphic. Very few people will click on a link. Very few people will actually open an attachment. So just embed the graphic and resize it so it fits beautifully and send it. It's not that much extra effort and it's 1000x's easier. Clients should not have to work for information about you.
5. Make it consistent. Even if the topics in your newsletter are different from week to week, there should be consistent formatting and it should be sent at a consistent time. If you're going to "revamp" your design, let your readers know - seeing something different might make your clients think it's not your newsletter. I know, I know, it shouldn't be so hard to change it up. But people just don't read. If they see something different, they will assume it's something different. As far as the consistent sending time - people will know to look for it when it's coming.
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If you have any thoughts or feedback or extra knowledge, share it in the comments. The whole point of this blog is to help each other figure it all out!
