E-Mail Newsletters Are Still Relevant

I’m not one to throw out the old completely for the new, especially when it works.

One of the most successful underpinnings of providing the opportunity for videos or other content to go viral is the email newsletter (after all, we can’t guarantee virality, but we can do our damndest to allow for the opportunity to it occur).

You should value and respect every one of your subscribers, and not waste their time.  Entertain and inform them, so that they’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Some ask me – isn’t a blog the same as an email newsletter? Well, it’s really not.

Although email newsletters do allow for some response, they’re not as conversational or anywhere near as two-way as a blog.  And best practices probably means not hitting “send” to your five or ten thousand person email list every single day (unless it’s a very special case, such as a media outlet, but that is another discussion entirely).  Not to mention, you’re interrupting people with email, so you have an even higher value proposition to meet in order to engage your customers or potential customers.

So what are some key things that I still folks miss in 2009? Let’s go over them quickly so that you, too, can get the most from your email newsletter.

1) No tracking. At least in aggregate, get an idea of what links your users are clicking on, as well as open rates and time open. This is important for you to know what is actually making an impact with your readers. After all, this is a results-oriented business and just assuming what people want is very dangerous to your pocketbook as a course of action.

2) No text-only version. There’s a ton of email clients that are set at various businesses or mobile devices that prefer the text-only version, and it’s important because you don’t know at what point or how someone is going to view your email.

3) No text at all. If your stuff is valuable, people keep it around and then are going to search their inbox for your message.  If you’re one of those all-image newsletters, it might be hard to find you without the perfect subject line.

4) The subject line is crucial. There’s only a few words, if that, to make an impression on folks to give them the information they need to make a decision on opening the email.  A bunch of formalities and then the meat is not going to work as effectively.  Give’em some relevant sizzle to get them to buy your email steak.

5) It’s about them, not you. Give value to get value. Ask yourself, before you send, why does the reader care about this?

What are your tips and experiences? Have additional questions? Share below.