- Determine your agenda. Are you trying to motivate people, provide relevant information, seeking donations? What need is your e-newsletter filling for its readers?
- Who is the audience and should they be segmented? Are you using the house list or are you interested in an acquisition strategy?
- Encourage e-newsletter sign-ups by offering additional resources, stories or articles.
- People open emails because of (1) who it’s from and (2) the subject line. For subject lines, consider highlighting how you plan to educate or enlighten the reader. For example, you can use How to, Review of, Top 10 Tips, Resource List, Answers to Common Questions, Interviews with Associates, or Review of a Book or Resource.
- Depending on the amount of content, consider adding an approximate reading time to the beginning so people can decide if they want to read now or wait when they can devote more time.
- Consider reading the e-newsletter out loud before you send it. Imagine all of your subscribers in a room. Can you picture yourself using those words? Talking about this topic? Would they stick around or wander out looking for a Diet Coke or Starbucks?
- Ask for feedback. Include questions like ‘What topic would you like to see us devote an issue to?” to encourage communication and to learn more about your audience.
Many of us subscribe to so many Twitter accounts, RSS feeds, blogs, newsletters, etc. that the reading can become overwhelming. I know I have a stack of magazines and newspapers waiting for me and calling my name in the middle of the night. In order to manage all of this reading, I use a few tools that you might want to check out:
- Google Reader – Allows you to consolidate all of your blogs and newsletters into one website. You can watch a great tutorial video here to get started: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSPZ2Uu_X3Y
- Reading for Your Success provides a great posting about speed reading and tools available online to help you focus your attention on the information that will truly impact your life. http://www.readingforyoursuccess.com/the-best-6-free-tools-for-speed-reading-anything-2-3x-faster-online
I hope this information is helpful. I would love to hear from you about other resources, tips or suggestions you have for future issues. Thanks!