It’s that time of year when you’re thinking about resolutions and new or different ways of doing things, so why not do the same for your email newsletter? To prevent your e-communications from becoming stagnant, freshen them up with some of these quick and easy ideas.
1. Mix things up a bit
Do you always have the same format and order in your email newsletters? Perhaps there’s always an introduction, a short newsy item, a link to a blog or other sizeable piece of content and something promotional. And that might work well for you, but if you think there’s scope to get higher open rates and engagement with your emails, then how about changing things around? Why not try:
- A large, impactful image, with one line of intriguing text and a link
- A video, announcing your latest news
- Some short, snappy quotes or statistics, then a link to the full article
- A completely different structure – e.g. columns instead of solid text
- Some subtle design changes, different colours for headings (all within your brand guidelines, of course).
You could also try changing the order around of your regular items or even leaving some of them out and featuring something completely different.
2. Change the subject
Have you experimented with subject lines and reviewed how they correlate with open rates? If not, then have a go with these:
- Include ‘video’ in the subject line (obviously only if you have a video in the email!) – statistics say that this increases open rates
- Make people curious – don’t give everything away with a long subject line, hook them in with just half the story, encouraging them to read on …
- Get personal – if your data is good enough, personalise the subject line
- State the obvious – if you already have fancy subject lines, then perhaps try something simpler like ‘Marketing newsletter: expert tips and advice’.
3. Time trials
From your e-communication reporting you’ll be able to see when people open your newsletters, but have you ever tried another day or a completely different time? Making such a change can be a bit scary, especially if you’ve sent your email at 9am on a Monday morning for years.
But perhaps you could increase opens at a different time – give it a go! You can always resend to people who haven’t opened it if this doesn’t work.
4. Size up the competition
If you haven’t already done this, sign up to your competitors’ emails – or any company that you admire. This isn’t to copy them, just to get inspiration for alternate ways of doing things.
5. Ask readers what they really want
Out of all the ideas I’ve suggested, I’d probably do this one first – send out a short online survey to gather views on:
- What people want including in the newsletter
- How often they want to receive it
- When they want to receive it
- What they like the most/least.
Bear in mind that people will have individual preferences and that you can’t please everyone all of the time, but some unexpected themes and suggestions might arise that could increase engagement.
How did it work out?
These are just a few ideas to get you thinking about doing things differently. And, of course, you don’t have to do all of these at once; try out little changes, one at a time, and measure their effect through your email’s reporting system. Most importantly though, is to analyse the impact of changes on your metrics and then adjust your communications appropriately.
I’d love to hear about changes you’ve made and how they have affected engagement with your customers, so get in touch.
If you would like to improve your email open and clickthrough rates or would like to start email marketing just give me a call and we can discuss your options.
Julie Waite Marketing 