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How do I make my email newsletter more effective and engaging?

This is a question that's asked a lot at the moment, suggesting that it’s something many brokers are keen to find the answer to.

Firstly, you need to be clear on what a newsletter is.

Newsletters inform and engage and include high-value, topical and relevant content that you know is valuable to subscribers. They nurture the relationship – and don’t attempt to sell.

Our weekly Marketing Memos, for example, are classed as newsletters, even though the content doesn’t usually include ‘news’.

What can a monthly newsletter achieve for your business?

Follow best practice and you could achieve a considerable return; research shows that this can be as much as £38 for every £1 spent. But be careful, create something of little value and you could potentially harm your customer relationship.

So why is this newsletter email effective - and what can you learn from it?

  1. The subjects lines we use try to be eye-catching and intriguing

    Your subject line is critical to your open rate. This particular email’s subject line was created to pique the interest of anyone who sends out a regular newsletter, or is interested in starting.

  2. Our emails are personalised

    According to Dale Carnegie, a person's name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language; so use it.

  3. Keep it relevant

    Segment your database. Filter your contacts into categories to ensure that the content they receive strikes a chord. Our Memo is only sent to those interested in Marketing, i.e. members of our Broker Marketing Community.

  4. Maintain the quality and value of every word

    Bore your clients just once and they’ll stop reading, and are unlikely to return.

  5. Keep the content concise

    Long newsletters get filed for ‘later reading’ and are destined for oblivion. Use short words, short sentences and bullet points.

  6. Use the proven PAS formula

    The three step PAS formula is commonly used by copywriters.

  7. Keep the design easy-on-the-eye

    Don’t lead with your brand; it’s not what people care about - they care about what's in it for them. Keep the layout open and use plenty of white space, plus the closer it is visually to a letter, the better.

  8. Split test your subject line

    Relevance, open rates and bounce rates are key to your success and each can be improved by split testing with A/B copy This is easily done using most email management systems.

  9. Use your business domain name

    Avoid being labelled as junk. Many spammers send e-newsletters from personal accounts such as Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo.

Finally use your newsletter to make people feel that they belong to a community; including social media links within the design is a great way to do this.