Creating an email newsletter is a great way to keep in touch with customers, build your relationship and stimulate repeat business.

However, some of your customers may be bombarded with newsletters and promotional emails everyday, half of which end up in the trash unread.

Here’s five tips to make your email newsletter is opened, read and shared.

1. Have an Attention Grabbing Subject Line

You have seconds to grab the attention of your newsletter subscribers. The best way to do this is to create an enticing subject line. Forget “Company Name’s February Newsletter” – experiment with more creative subject lines. And be specific. Entice your reader to open it.

2. Make Sure It’s Clearly Branded

Why not give your newsletter a playful name – something your readers will remember and recognise. You should also include your logo and link it to your website.

3. Provide Valuable Information

Did you know that on average a reader spends 51 seconds skimming over a newsletter? So make sure you use interesting sub headlines and images to grab their attention and make them want to read it.

But they don’t want to hear about your products and services in every newsletter. Instead, use your newsletter as a means to “catch up”, be helpful, be informative. This will build rapport and at the same time reinforce your credibility and authority as an industry expert.

Aim for around 90 % educational content (“how to” articles, tips,industry news and links to your blog posts,) and 10 per cent promotional content (latest specials, customer testimonials, new products).

4. Keep It Frequent

Make sure you send it frequently so people expect it. We prepare and issue a newsletter at the beginning of each month for one of our clients, and if it’s the teeniest bit late – they get emails and calls asking where it is!

5. Make It Easy to Share

You’ve created this informative, interesting newsletter, so get it out to as many people as possible. Extend the reach beyond your email list by include social sharing buttons, so your readers can share it with their social networks. Include links to your social media pages too to build your following.

If you’d like to set up a professional email newsletter, and want some expert help, we have two great email newsletter services available. Give us a call on 1300 554 495, or send an email and we’ll get right back to you.

About Annette Welsford

Hi there. My passion is to inspire and help business owners to create the type of marketing and customer service that makes their business irresistible. I'm privileged to have a talented team at Commonsense Marketing who create and execute beautiful websites, engaging social media campaigns, and fantastic email campaigns that deliver results for our clients. And it's wonderful that many of them have said lots of nice things about the work we’ve done (see our case studies). We love to work with the owners and teams of small to medium sized business who are motivated to become the best in their niche and achieve more than they ever thought possible.

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