Recipe for Success: The Ingredients of a Good E-Newsletter

You carefully develop your e-newsletter content and send it out to a list of subscribers who have requested to receive it. Yet, out of that list, only a fraction actually open the e-mail. What's going wrong and what can you do to improve your reader response? It's not just a matter of outsmarting the spam filters, although that does help. It's actually pretty simple: give your readers something they want and they'll listen to what you have to say.

Know Your Audience
Subscribers have to know they're going to gain something from your e-newsletter. Depending on your organization and the needs of your subscribers, what you have to offer might vary from coupons and online discounts to advance details on special events and valuable expertise. Without such an offer – something your subscribers perceive as having value – your e-newsletter runs the risk of being deleted, or worse, marked as spam, before it's even opened.

But when you're sending electronic mass mail, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that your readers are people. Even the way you talk about mass constituent e-mails can reveal underlying feelings about your readers; for instance, the term "e-mail blast" implies that subscribers are targets, instead of people. Whatever you call your e-mail communications, it's important to keep the human perspective in mind. If you blast information at your readers, you may hit a few targets, but you're likely to have many more misses.

Deliver Consistently
Once you've determined the likes and habits of John and Jane Subscriber and determined an offer that will appeal to them, you need to build trust by consistently offering a newsletter that meets their needs and appears in their inbox on a regular – but not annoying – basis. Whether weekly, monthly or bimonthly, a good e-newsletter arrives on time, sending the message that your company is reliable, organized and trustworthy.

On-time delivery also sets the stage for consistency. A consistent layout helps busy readers navigate quickly to the content that appeals to them most. This is important because even your best subscribers most likely scan, rather than read, your e-newsletter. And although your content should always be fresh, it's also helpful to maintain consistency in the type of information you include in each issue and to stick to a range of topics. If the length, subject matter or tone of your content varies too widely from issue to issue, readers may stop opening your newsletter altogether because they no longer know what to expect.

Look Respectable
Your readers also count on you to respect their personal information and their time. Even if you are working with a carefully maintained list of subscribers who have opted in to receive your newsletter, you can ruin your credibility with gimmicky subject lines or by failing to include your business' physical address in the body of each e-mail. It's unfortunate, but spammers have made the general public very wary of any messages received from sources other than co-workers, friends and family. So go the extra mile to prove to your readers – and the spam filters – that you're legitimate. Include your company mailing and Web address, as well as a link to unsubscribe, in each issue.

There are countless ingredients that go together to make a good e-newsletter. But in the end, it's all about knowing your subscribers and meeting their needs. While it's tempting to use your e-newsletter as a brochure to promote your company's work and capabilities, readers need to know that they're getting more than a sales pitch when they open their e-mail. So get to know your subscribers better and determine what your organization is uniquely positioned to offer, whether it's expertise, insider knowledge on upcoming events or coupons. Then, give them what they're looking for. It could make the difference between "open" and "delete."

See the e-mail marketing tool Brady Communications created to help Tippmann Sports communicate effectively with its consumers.