If you’re like most of us your inbox is full of stuff you don’t read – and don’t have time to read. So, do you send your newsletter out and wonder why the open rate is barely in single figures?
Just because it’s your newsletter doesn’t mean that all those people on your list have any burning reason to read it, no matter how much they like you!
Here are my tips to improve the open rate of your newsletter:
- Give it an interesting subject line. ‘Acme Newsletter March 2017’ doesn’t cut it as an ‘interesting’ subject line! However, there are plenty of good subject lines that might get people’s interest or ignite their curiosity.
Don’t read this unless …
Discover the secret of …
Does [issue] give you a headache?
You see where I’m going here – something that people want to know more about or find out what comes next. Think of your subject line as the headline in a newspaper, it’s what makes people want to read the article that follows. - Put the email in the body of the newsletter. Don’t create an attachment, people don’t open them unless they have to. It may be tempting to create a glitzy pdf, but it takes effort to open an attachment (yes, I know it sounds crazy, but it’s a good reason to ‘do it later’ – and then completely forget about it.
- Always deliver value. This won’t make people open it the first time – but it will encourage them to open the next one if they like the last one! The first item should always offer something of value that shows off an area of your expertise. This might be a summary of one of your recent blogs with a link to the full item or some tips or a ‘how to’ item.
- Talk to people directly. Develop a writing style that talks directly to the reader – as though you have them in front of you as you’re writing. Make it conversational not corporate. One of the reason people find newsletters boring because they’re written in pompous corporate-speak. Engagement comes from a direct chatty style. People buy people and they will start to think they actually know you.
- Have a structure that you follow for each newsletter. Your reader will get to know what’s coming and see it as comfortable and familiar, they’ll be more likely to open it when they know what they’re getting.
Remember a newsletter doesn’t have to be long – in fact, sometimes short is best – but it does have to deliver something that your reader will value.
