Creating e-newsletters people will read

Newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with your customers.  But what’s the best way to create a newsletter that will keep people interested and not unsubscribe?

The people on your subscribers list have willingly given their email address, so it’s important to provide them with useful information that is delivered in an interesting way.  They don’t want to read dry, corporate information that sounds like it was written by a robot.

Personalize

Yes, you want to update your customers on sales, promotions or new products.  But don’t just make it all about you.  Tell your customers and clients what it does for them.

Instead of this:  Try our new widget.  We searched far and wide to find a widget that we are proud to sell to our customers.

Try this:  Have you been looking for a new widget?  Our newly launched widget will help you solve this ___________ problem.

Images 

Images are a great way to keep people reading.  Pages of text are boring, but if you choose some relevant images it keeps us engaged and interested.

Images of people are especially important.  We are drawn to people’s faces.  And it’s even better if there are images of you and your staff.  It’s much more relatable to read something that includes a photo of the people behind the scenes.  It provides an immediate connection.

Not too much

You may be thrilled with your new widget and the process you had to go through to get it, but chances are your customers will not want to read an entire page about your new widget.  Use as few words as possible, and as I mentioned earlier, make it about your customer.

Not too little 

You want to be succinct, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t provide some information.  A generic list of new widgets won’t draw interest from your customers, but a bullet point list describing the products and what problems they solve will.

The basics

I’ve noticed that some newsletters I receive forget to add some of the basics about their business.  Such as a link to their website, a contact email address, their store hours or their address.

Once you’ve created a draft be sure to review through the eyes of your customer.  Ask yourself what questions they may have and see if you’ve answered them.

Once you’re sure, it’s time to send.

Do you send out a newsletter to your subscribers list?  If yes, let us know what works for you.