I just wrote a short forum reply for a friend on
Triiibes.com who had asked,
- “How can I increase the open rate of my newsletter?”
Here it is, I am sharing it with you.
A good point in time to deliver another email marketing tip after having stopped that series of articles for some time. Maybe I should revive the carnival? I have to think about it and check how many spam submissions I have received in the meantime. Well, I am preparing a guide, a tutorial for email marketing anyway.
The business in question is a European based specialist for colors trends and consults with designers in fashion, home design, …
Dear Carolina,
I find the content and design of your newsletter rather intriguing. However it's a constant challenge to keep readers engaged and interested over a longer period of time. Let me give you a couple of bullets to think about.
Just to start off the discussion here.
- Make it more personal!
Have an editor, a spokesperson write the newsletter in a colloquial tone. Introduce that character as a person with a back-story, and also address the reader on the personal level. An email is communication from one person to another. A newsletter should not be an exception.
What about the idea of following the Editor - James or Jane on his or her personal journey through the universe of color and time.
- Increase the frequency. Once a month is too infrequent to maintain and strengthen the relationship with your readers.
You don't want to be perceived as the 57th agency which sends yet another trend report. You want to be perceived as “friend” who helps the reader through the jungle, who offers effective solutions for whatever the biggest problem in this industry is.
Go beyond of just being a reporter.
- Interact with your readers.
Engage them to give you feedback. Give them something they can and want to talk about.
- Find out what they want and need.
Don't assume! Ask.
- Offer timely sensitive info!
Train your newsletter members that they better read each and every edition of your newsletter or they could miss out opportunities otherwise.
- Email has not been invented for mailing “web pages”.
Just a couple of things to start with. It means more work, but you said you want to increase the impact of your email marketing.
In case your goal includes selling more of your services with the help of the newsletter, you have to make it a topic,too. Meaning you talk about your offers from time to time and ask for the sale! Or even better come up with “newsletter subscriber only deals”.
Last but not least, it has been said already that headlines are very important. But in the long run your members will continue to open the newsletter issue not because of the headline, but because they hardly can wait for the next one. They want to hear from that person -
the personal voice of your brand. If not, you have lost them somewhere on the road so to speak.
One of the biggest mistakes in business to business marketing (B2B) is to assume
“businesses are different” and you have to be super serious. (Same is true in the academic world by the way, but that's a different tribe.)
There is not such a thing as a BUSINESS … It's always a PERSON, who is reading your ezine.
In your particular case, I bet designers will really appreciate and value a real (not fake), personal touch in your communication.
It's about building relationships through value!
Yours
John W.
@johnfurst
P.S.: Don't be afraid of unsubscribes. It's natural, it happens.
P.P.S.: Subscribe to all your competitors list, spy on them, and be
different. Be remarkable.
I am sure this is useful for you as well.
Keep things personal. Okay?
We are humans, not information processing machines.
Again, Yours
John W.
http://blog.fcon21.biz/comment.php?type=trackback&entry_id=249
Welcome to the eighteenth edition of email marketing tips on June 19, 2009.This is—as you know a revival—after I had kept the pause button pressed for a couple of month. I am curious to see how it goes. Here is my brand new “Intro-Vi
Tracked: Jun 20, 12:29