Email Newsletters: The Basics
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It’s true – email newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with your clients and to disseminate important information regularly. They’re also very cost-effective, and you’ll never wind up with a thousand of them sitting in the mail room waiting to be mailed out. There are just a few things to consider to get the most out of newsletters, and more importantly, to avoid winding up in that dreaded virtual circular file… the spam folder.
It’s All About the Email List
In real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. When it comes to eNews, it’s list, list, list. Please, resist the temptation to purchase a list; there’s no quicker way to get flagged as a spammer. Build your email list from the ground up, starting with your clients.
Signup forms on the website are perfect; if they’ve requested something from your site, they are at least mildly interested in what you have to say. Other than the obvious “sign up for our newsletter” form, you can also collect addresses from:
- Contact Forms: When visitors reach out with questions or comments, include an opt-in option to receive future updates or promotions.
- Information Requests: If someone asks for more details about your services or products, invite them to join your email list.
- Contest Signups: Hosting a giveaway or contest is a fun, low-barrier way to capture email addresses while also building excitement around your brand.
- Discounts or Coupon Signups: Offering a discount code or special deal in exchange for an email address is a tried-and-true method to quickly grow your list.
- Document Downloads: Gated content like whitepapers, guides, or templates can be a valuable trade for a visitor’s email address.
- Microsites: Launching a separate landing page or mini-site for a special promotion, product launch, or event can help gather targeted leads who are highly interested in a specific topic.
The ultimate goal is to build an “opt-in” list, full of folks who have actually indicated that they want to receive communications from you.
Use a Third-Party Service
One of the biggest mistakes we see people make is sending bulk emails from their personal email accounts. Most ISPs (Internet Service Providers) limit the number of emails you can send at one time, and will simply turn off your account if they suspect that you are sending “spam”. In addition, it’s very doubtful that these emails are CAN-SPAM compliant, which is a law passed in 2003 that sets guidelines for sending bulk emails. By using a third-party service, you get lots of great tools, and it will be compliant. There are quite a few services out there (i.e., Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, Emma), but our favorite is MailChimp, both in terms of price and features.
Another great thing you get from a third party is the ability to send emails as both HTML and plain text. HTML emails are those pretty ones you get with images and such (the ones that a lot of email clients will flag and ask if you want to download all the images). Plain text emails are just that – all images are removed and only the text is delivered. It’s important to send both as some recipients will not be able to receive those wonderfully pretty HTML emails, and will then miss all your hard work. Lastly, all the reputable services have great tools to maintain your email database, generate reports, and archive messages.
Get Readers To Your Site
You only have so much space in an email. Sure, you could create a ridiculously long email, but that’s what your website is for, right? One of the powerful things about email newsletters is the site traffic they can generate. Those of you who linked to this article from our newsletter can testify that it works! Google and its bots love site traffic, so this will help your SEO efforts. Once you get readers to your site, there is a chance that they will poke around on other pages to see what else you have going on. Just make sure your site is updated and ready for visitors.
Spam: It’s Not Just For Breakfast Anymore
Most people we know are pretty annoyed by spam and have implemented filters on their email accounts. It’s entirely possible that your well-meaning message could get flagged and find its way into a spam folder. Sometimes it simply can’t be helped; some accounts are locked down so tight that they automatically treat any new email addresses as spam (another reason opt-in email lists are so important). Emails often get flagged because the text in the email is considered “spammy”. For example, a phrase as innocent as “call today” is considered spammy. Put that phrase and several other red flags in your message and off to the spam netherworld you go.
Last But Not Least… Make It Quality
So you’ve done all the items above but aren’t getting any response? Well, welcome to what seems to be the most overlooked part of sending eNews: quality content. We don’t know anyone who doesn’t have an overflowing inbox, and you have just added to it. Better make it worth their while. Blatant sales pitches, self-aggrandizing messages, and jargon-filled newsletters all waste readers’ time.
Here’s a quick test (painful as it might be). Before sending, take a look at your email and ask yourself how the recipients will benefit from your message. For a great example of a quality, optimized newsletter, subscribe to our digital marketing newsletter below!
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone did that?