Spam to sparkle: how to make your e-newsletter appealing to readers

Everybody knows that the junk mail, or spam option on our emails was put there for a reason. When you receive a multitude of wordy, over-flashy emails a day, it becomes a routine of moving unread emails straight to their designated bins. However, if you’re a company trying to reach your audience members by e-newsletters, it can be hard to cut through the clutter. Luckily, there are ways to improve your readership.

• No news is good news.

Too many times companies feel the pressure to keep producing for their audience, even when nothing noteworthy is occurring. Don’t make the mistake of compiling e-newsletters just for the heck of it. If it doesn’t pertain to the readers, they’re not going to read it. Instead of regularly sending an e-newsletter out, save it for material that is truly news.

• Stick to one idea

If your email pertains to a specific topic, stick to that topic. Do not divert into other areas of your company, or its happenings. By highlighting one issue for the majority of an email, readers are saved from the troublesome navigating of bulk text.

• Clean and concise copy

If you can’t write copy, either take a course to improve your skills, or hire a professional copywriter. By including bad copy in your emails, you are taking the risk of ruining your company’s reputation as well as offending readers. I mean, who wants to open a poorly-written email? It will make the readers feel like you are not concerned with their viewership and ultimately, land you in the spam bin. However, you can be the best writer and still say too much. Keep it concise. Get your point across and explain its importance to your readers in easy sentences (i.e. why they should care). Just like any writing, you need to get your point across quickly and efficiently to maintain interest.

• Frequency

Appeal to your readers by allowing them to receive your emails less or more. Even better than this, is giving them the option to receive particular emails in accordance with what their primary interests are. For example, if they’re more interested in the outdoors section of your company, rather than specials pertaining to luggage, you’ll want to send them more of what their looking for.

• Design it right or not at all

Emails don’t necessarily require design, but if you’re going to design them, do it right. Overloading text or pictures is not the way to win over readers. If your newsletter feels like something ripped out of the back section of the Sunday paper, it mostly likely isn’t cutting it. People don’t want to be drowning in text, or feel like they’re aggressively being sold something.