Read the following excerpt from my book ‘The NZ Small Business Superhero’s Marketing Handbook for some guidelines for the content of your email newsletters…
Personality and tone
Email is quite a personal medium, so an informal tone often works better than a more formal, structured approach. However, the personality of your email newsletter will depend on your overall brand personality. If your brand is very formal, then your newsletter should be too.
From Name
The From Name of your email is the name that appears in the inbox of your recipients indicating who the email is from. This part is very simple, but also very easy to get wrong. Make sure the From Name you use is the name of your business so the recipient can see immediately who the email is from.
Subject line
Your subject is one of the most important parts of your newsletter, because it often determines whether your email gets read or not. Think of your subject line as an advertisement, or trailer, for your newsletter. The copy should highlight the main benefit of the newsletter, or emphasise the problem that could be solved by reading it. The best subject lines convey something important, timely or valuable, and say to the recipient: “If you don’t open and read this email, you’ll miss out on something of real value.”
Persuasive content and calls to action
The more you understand about the motivators and pain points of your perfect prospect, the more you are able
to write copy that addresses the key issues. Each email you send should also spell out exactly what you want the recipient to do. Make links obvious and highlight any deadlines or special directions. Be repetitive when it comes to the call to action in your newsletter – include it near the top of the message and recap it again at the end.
Don’t sound like a snake oil salesman
Your newsletter should be looking more to inform rather than directly sell, and you need to avoid pushy sales copy, like “BUY NOW!!!!” or “LIMITED TIME OFFER!!!” or, due to spam filters, your newsletter may not even reach the recipient’s inbox in the first place. Avoid ALL CAPS (which is considered to be shouting) and lots of exclamation marks, and words like “mortgage” and “viagra” which are often associated with spam.
To read more, you can purchase my book ‘The NZ Small Business Superhero’s Internet Marketing Handbook’ by clicking here.
