Elements of eNewsletter Success [Infographic]


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Reducing the Noise

One problem with the current social media soup is the high noise to relevant signal ratio. The most effective way to deal with this problem is to find accepted and popular experts in your field of interest and subscribe to their feeds. This will lead you to relevant online communities from which you can find and share pertinent advice and draw new customers. This approach will work much better than broad monitoring of many social media services because it will greatly reduce the noise you will need browse and therefore, the time you need to spend building your online reputation. Click to Tweet the Article
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Where's the Value?

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Some of you might remember the old Wendy's ad, "Where's the beef?" I was reminded of that when I saw these 3 examples back-to-back on Twitter. What's missing from the middle post in this screenshot? The beef. People are picky about what they subscribe to. If you don't give them a good reason to sign up, they won't even get to taste the beef, no matter how many patties there are. Good calls-to-action are not easy to construct but it's important to make the effort. Click to Tweet this Article
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Alert: How to Increase your Open Rate by 38.1%

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I admit to having a bit of fun with that subject line but I'm not BSing you. Here is the statistic given by Adestra: Using the word 'alert' in a subject line increases open rates by 38.1% (variance vs. average).  (Source:Adestra) You have just participated in an experiment if you opened this post in your email - thanks! If you can legitimately use 'alert' in your subject line, that's great. But beware - if your subject line is not relevant to the content within , you might get more opens but will lose credibility (and subscribers). Another way to lose credibility is to quote incorrect information as fact. I originally stumbled across that statistic in an article by Hubspot. This jumped off the page: 61.8% increase in opens when using the word 'alert' in subject lines. (Source:Adestra) It seemed a little too good to be true and I immediately started plotting to use 'alert' in a subject line. I'm glad I decided to check the origi...
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Idea Challenged? Here are 3 Tools

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We can all get writer's block. I've found 3 tools that help me get past it. I may not use the exact suggestions that result, but the suggestions trigger more ideas and before long I'm off and writing. Hubspot's Blog Topic Generator Fill in the fields with terms (preferably nouns) that you'd like to write about, and you'll get a week's worth of relevant blog post titles in a matter of seconds! Imagination Prompt Generator A prompt appears and you can click the button to generate another. Keep going till you find one that speaks to you, then start writing. 420 Fables Freewrite. Choose a subject and write continuously for a set period of time. Disregard spelling, punctuation and grammar. 420 Fables gives you a time limit and a place to write. If what you freewrite is good, edit it into an article. Click to Tweet this Article
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Why Buy the Cow When You Can Get the Milk for Free?

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Some people still think there’s a scarcity of information in the world, to be hoarded and divvied out carefully. It's true that information becomes less valuable the more it proliferates... but there's definitely no scarcity. If you are ever concerned about sharing too much information, consider this: someone else is sharing it. If it's your area of expertise, shouldn't you be, too? As information becomes increasingly cheaper, the voice of experience becomes much more valuable. That's because it takes more than information to make a good business decision. Experience and sound advice thoughtfully applied to specific situations are what can make the difference between a success and a big mistake. Give away information for free (the milk) so readers can peek at your secret sauce and realize the extra value they’ll get from working with you (the cow) on their problem. Click to Tweet this Article
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Delivering the Goods

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Think about the executive summary that prime ministers and presidents read every morning. That has to be a darn concise document. Up-to-the-minute information, well-curated, and accurate, with an appropriate level of detail. Doesn't that sound like a great newsletter? A newsletter has to be useful or interesting . Both is what you're aiming for. It won't be useful if it isn't interesting enough to read. It doesn't have to be long, full, or detailed. It doesn't need to be chock full of advice. It doesn't need fancy graphics and eye-catching colours. While any of those things may help achieve your goals, they aren't necessary. In fact, it doesn't have to be about the content at all. Think back to that top secret briefing. There's one attribute I left off the list above that makes it ultimately useful. In fact, it would be useless without it. Did you guess that it's the speed of delivery , or timeliness? Can you imagine the busy Whi...
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This is Why People Who Subscribe Don't Get Your Stuff

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You work hard to attract new subscribers who find value in what you're offering. Someone makes a decision to sign up to your mailing list expecting to receive that great value and... they don't hear a thing from you. I'm not talking about businesses who have sign up forms yet never send a thing - that's a different blog post (and hopefully that's not you). Delivering your precious content to your fans has always been a challenge - what with spam filters, corporate gateways, and then trying to stand out in the inbox. What you may not have realized is that Google has become society's censor, whether you use it yourself or not. Google decides what gmail users see in their inbox , and what gets (sometimes arbitrarily) moved to the promotions folder - out of sight, out of mind. Even if you want to receive newsletters from your clients, or get this week's sales at the mall, Google may decide you don't. This is interfering with: satisfying your subsc...
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7 Tips for Communicating Details by eMail

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Email is an ideal way to communicate details , such as meeting minutes, action lists, project updates, instructions, reference data, decisions, event info, checklists and much more. Sending previously prepared information is a snap - just attach, or copy and paste. When I started specializing in enewsletters, I quickly discovered that there are a lot of details to discuss and make decisions about. Some clients like communicating by phone and others by email. But for some of this detailed communication, email is definitely the best method regardless of preference. It allows me to standardize the process, provide checklists, track action items, explain complex ideas, show examples, and document decisions. Here are some tips for communicating detailed information by email: Strive for clarity. Be brief, but not to the point of leaving out relevant information.   Use point-form numbered or bullet lists. This makes it easy for your reader to mentally check things off, or to ...
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It doesn't have to be About You

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Let’s face it: some businesses are in a better position to provide valuable information through newsletters (blogs, social media) than others. Take our own newsletter as an example. We could easily publish a newsletter about publishing newsletters. (Stay with me here.) It would have lots of tips and suggestions and advice. We could really show off our expertise and share our opinions. Now, who would that appeal to? People who are publishing their own newsletters. Perhaps even people who are publishing newsletters for others. These people aren’t our target market - not even close. Our newsletter has nothing to do with our area of specialty. But of course we have to have one. What’s an 'enewsletter boutique' without its own newsletter ? So we found something else of use to our target market:  ideas and tips for small business owners shared by other small business owners. And (big bonus here) members of our...
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3 C's and the Strategy Solution

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The 3 C's of enewsletter execution are contacts, consistency and content . All three can cause issues, some of which can stop you in your tracks. The good news is that all of them can be managed with a well-planned strategy. Vet your initial contact list and then work to grow it with subscribers within your target market, friends, family and fans. A high bounce rate, unsubscribe rate, or complaint rate on your first send will be a red flag to your bulk email service provider and may cause them to lock your account. Do not start your contact list with every email you have collected since the dawn of the computer! Subscribers outside your target market are costing you money and bringing you little value. Identify your target market and fill your contact list with subscribers within that market. Don't forget your fans! Consistency is important to your subscribers. Over time, they will come to expect certain types of content on an established schedule. Your sign up form ...
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