Why Use Email Newsletters?
How to do them correctly.

Email newsletters let you maintain a relationship with your customers and supporters that has residual value far beyond their visits to your website.

Email newsletters are an ideal website compliment because they answer a different need:

• They keep customers informed and in touch with your organization.
   

• Seasonal opportunities can be timed to help your readers take advantage at the right time.
   

• Email newsletters are fairly cheap.
   

• They require little technology.  You can get a great email list management program like MailList King for $100.
   

• Your customers and prospects will appreciate hearing from you if you create good newsletters that aren't too long, are well written and if you don't send them too often.

If you don't have a newsletter, then publishing one is probably the single-highest return on investment action you can take to improve your online activities. If you do have a newsletter, then improving it will likely make it several times more valuable.

Newsletters have one more benefit: they are the best way to free your website from dependence on search engines. In the long run, this is one of the most important strategic challenges facing web marketers.

KISS: Keep it short, stupid.

If you want to write the next great American novel, don't to it in your email newsletter.

Usability testing shows that the average reading life of most email newsletters is 51 seconds.  Reading is not really the right word for most newsletters.  Research shows that only about 19 percent of newsletters are completely read.

Scan-ability of the message content is key.  Forget the tiny text.  Headlines in 14-18 point san serif fonts like Verdana of Helvetica (this page is Verdana), body copy at least 10 point.  Use bold and bullets appropriately to emphasize important information.

Introductions are wasted copy - get to the point.  Research shows that about 67 percent of email newsletter readers totally skip over intro copy looking for the meat of the subject.

Usability research shows that the most common email newsletter's recommendation is "keep it brief."

Scanner Stoppers: Email Subject & Content Headers

One of the most challenging parts of writing good email newsletters is getting your recipients to open them rather than send them off to the junk folder or click the delete key.

A consistent email subject line is important for reader recognition, followed by something important for the current edition.  A recent example for one of my clients:

Hypatia Beauty News - Win A FREE Gift for Your Mom for Mother's Day
See the newsletter here.

Newsletters must be designed to facilitate scanning.  Readers' dominant mode of dealing with email newsletters is to skim them.  Sometimes, users simply skim the headlines to get an update or overview of what's going on in the newsletter's target area.

Good content headers in the body of the email are key.

Designing for users who scan rather than read is essential for a newsletter's survival. Scan-ability is important for websites as well, but it's about 50% more important for newsletters.  Newsletters must be designed to let users quickly grasp each issue's content and zero in on specifics. Content and writing styles must support readers who read only part of the material.

Content & Usability

Newsletters must be current and timely.  What makes newsletter valuable to your readers? Information about:

• Work-related news and activities.
   

• Prices and sales
   

• New products, services and opportunities
   

• Personal interests and hobbies
   

• Events, deadlines, and important dates

Newsletters must be relevant today and address the user's specific needs in the moment.  What can you do for me now is the key issue.

Newsletters can also build relationships with readers, and because it's so easy for readers to ignore individual editions, newsletters can have some leeway. The key is for a newsletter to be predictably relevant at particular times. During periods in which a newsletter isn't relevant to users, they can simply ignore it rather than unsubscribing.

Keep the content short and relevant.  Make hyperlinks back to your website intuitive underscored hyperlink blue.  Don't make them guess - remember - you have less than 60 seconds attention from the average reader.

Keep the email file size small.  Rather than embedding images, create the newsletter in your website and call the images to the newsletter page through absolute hyperlinks to your website.  See the Hypatia example same link as above.

Many newsletters don't necessarily need images.

There are other advantages to putting the newsletter in your website.  You have a new page of content.  The page might get a search ranking.  You can use the information as a resource for new clients.  Refer them to your previous newsletters that have relevant content.

Make It Easy to Subscribe

Make a subscription link or signup form obvious on every page of your website.  Offer to show them your previous email newsletters as an example of value.

Getting people to sign up for regular newsletters remains the ultimate way to maintain a relationship.

Readers should be able to subscribe to a newsletter in less than a minute.  The more information you ask for, the less likely you are to get a subscribe.  Research shows that the success rate for subscribing to newsletters was 81 percent several years ago.  A  success rate of 81% implies that a newsletter with 5,000 subscribers could gain an additional 1,170 subscribers a year by improving the usability of the subscription process.

If you are asking for more than just the email address, make your subscription form compatible with Google and other browser toolbar autofill.

If you are doing email newsletters and are in the USA, make sure you follow the rules below which are law.

Sign up for my FREE WEB MARKETING NEWS.  Look at MailList King as a great way to manage your email list and automate or semi-automate the process.

The CAN-SPAM Act:
Requirements for Commercial Emailers In The USA

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.

The law, which became effective January 1, 2004, covers email whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service, including content on a Web site. A "transactional or relationship message" – email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship – may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the USA's consumer protection agency, is authorized to enforce the CAN-SPAM Act. CAN-SPAM also gives the Department of Justice (DOJ) the authority to enforce its criminal sanctions. Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law against organizations under their jurisdiction, and companies that provide Internet access may sue violators, as well.

What the Law Requires

Here's a rundown of the law's main provisions:

• It bans false or misleading header information. Your email's "From," "To," and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
   

• It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.
   

• It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a "menu" of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.

Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor's email address.

You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address.

Finally, it's illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.

It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender's valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.

Penalties:

Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising.
Additional fines are provided for commercial emailers who not only violate the rules described above, but also:

• "harvest" email addresses from Web sites or Web services that have published a notice prohibiting the transfer of email addresses for the purpose of sending email
   

• Generate email addresses using a "dictionary attack" – combining names, letters, or numbers into multiple permutations.
   

• Use scripts or other automated ways to register for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial email
   

• Relay emails through a computer or network without permission – for example, by taking advantage of open relays or open proxies without authorization.

The law allows the DOJ to seek criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for commercial emailers who do – or conspire to:

• Use another computer without authorization and send commercial email from or through it
   

• Use a computer to relay or retransmit multiple commercial email messages to deceive or mislead recipients or an Internet access service about the origin of the message
   

• Falsify header information in multiple email messages and initiate the transmission of such messages
   

• Register for multiple email accounts or domain names using information that falsifies the identity of the actual registrant
   

• Falsely represent themselves as owners of multiple Internet Protocol addresses that are used to send commercial email messages.

More Information

See the FTC Web site at www.ftc.gov/spam for updates on implementation of the CAN-SPAM Act.

The FTC maintains a consumer complaint database of violations of the laws that the FTC enforces. Consumers can submit complaints online at www.ftc.gov and forward unwanted commercial email to the FTC at spam@uce.gov.

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