how to email newsletters
DESCRIPTION
How to design, write and broadcast a lead generating, relationship building, credibility enhancing email newsletter without looking like an idiot, a spammer or both.TRANSCRIPT
E MAIL NEWSLETTERSHOW TO GUIDE:
E‐MAIL NEWSLETTERS
Connect. Engage. Succeed.
APRIL 2012| NEXT
CONTENTS (CLICK TOPIC OR PAGE NUMBER TO JUMP TO THAT PAGE)
S 1 D id h i P 3Step 1 Decide what you are going to say
Define your objectives
Page 3
Connect content to objectivesBe sure you can executeh l bl l f lThe two inviolable rules of newsletters
Step 2 Build your list
Know the law!
Page 9
Constantly add; frequently cully ; q yPersonalize and segment
Step 3 Design your newsletters
Keep it simple
Page 14
Tips for successSample HTML and TEXT formats
Step 4 Broadcast your newsletter
The beauty of automation
Page 19
The beauty of automationThe never‐ending final frontier
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
USIN
1. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY
E mail Newsletters can be incredibly powerful vehicles for Customer Relationship Management INGTHE
E‐mail Newsletters can be incredibly powerful vehicles for Customer Relationship Management, Brand Building and Lead Generation. They can put you and keep you in your customers’ minds, demonstrate your credibility and trustworthiness, and powerfully connect you to people. You can use them not just to sell, but to survey customer satisfaction, do product research and learn about your markets Email newsletters E
PITCHBO
sa s ac o , do p oduc esea c a d ea abou you a e s
Email newsletters can also be a powerful vehicle for driving your organization into the river.
Remember that old saying about how it’s better to remain silent and be
Email newsletters get in front of
people at a depth and scale few other tools can BO
OK
TEMP
thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt?
Email newsletters allow you to get in front of people at a depth and scale few other lead generation or customer relationship management tools can match.
other tools can match.
MPLATE
Powerful tools can yield powerful results. We want to make sure that your results are positive.
We want to help you take advantage of the power and cost‐effectiveness of Email Newsletters, while avoiding the river.
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
USIN
WHAT ARE YOUR OBJECTIVES?
1. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY
INGTHE
You will know what to say in your email newsletter once you understand its objectives.
What do you want your newsletter to accomplish?
Keep you connected to clients? Attract prospective clients? E
PITCHBO
Keep you connected to clients? Attract prospective clients?
Encourage repeat business? Demonstrate your credibility?
Promote events? Keep donors or volunteers engaged?
Clearly understanding your objectives will help you plan relevant useful content for your BOOK
TEMP
Clearly understanding your objectives will help you plan relevant, useful content for your email newsletter subscribers.
Be deliberate in this. Write detailed descriptions of the content you need. Consistently focused, interesting content will build readership.
MPLATE
Eclectic, inconsistent content will be viewed as time‐wasting, especially if you are marketing to businesses. If your newsletter doesn’t consistently contain relevant, useful information, it will not be read.
If it isn’t read it will be a waste of your time and moneyIf it isn t read, it will be a waste of your time and money.
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
USIN
1. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY
CONNECT CONTENT TO OBJECTIVES
Educate readers in your area of
INGTHE
What kinds of content do you need?
Want to keep connected to clients?Identify common interests and supply helpful info and tips.
CONNECT CONTENT TO OBJECTIVES
in your area of expertise.
Be open and generous with
E
PITCHBO
Want to attract prospective clients?Provide content about their problems, especially those problems that can be solved with your products or services.
gyour knowledge and experience!
BOOK
TEMP
Want to encourage repeat business?Include brief descriptions and photos of new or improved items in your catalog. Inform them of the business value andbenefits of innovations the new items offer.
MPLATE
Want to demonstrate your expertise or build credibility?Provide answers to Frequently Asked Questions. Educate readers in your area of expertise. Be open and generous with your knowledge and experience!
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
1. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY
CONNECT CONTENT TO OBJECTIVES
Once you decide on your content, stick to it. Yes, you have to keep it fresh, but also keep in familiar and compartmentalized. Think about the quantity of material you will need for each edition. Come up with regular features that you can build up material for and that readers ill gro to anticipatethat readers will grow to anticipate.
If you run a document design business, have a regular blurb educating readers about particular fonts and their possible uses.
If you have a financial consultancy, include an interesting money‐relatedIf you have a financial consultancy, include an interesting money related quote from a current newsmaker or from a historical figure.
If you own a home improvement business, run a regular ‘tips’ item about home maintenance.
Regular features will make your newsletter easier to produce, as well as more familiar and interesting to your readers.
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
USIN
1. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY
BE SURE YOU CAN EXECUTE INGTHE
Who will be producing your newsletter?
Knowing what to say is half the content battle. The other half is being able to pull it off.
Poor execution will not only hurt your newsletter readership it will put E
PITCHBO
Poor execution will not only hurt your newsletter readership, it will put your organization in a poor light.
The good news is, you don’t have to be a Hemmingway.
The bad news is that you will need to acquire the skills you need to write
Your newsletter can be a powerful tool for success … Or, a bright, BO
OK
TEMP
clearly and compelling‐‐by developing them yourself or hiring someone to to provide them (either with original writing or excellent editing.)
In either case, don’t scrimp on time or money.
l b f l l f d
success … Or, a bright, shining example of organizational incompetence,
laziness or worse.MPLATE
Your newsletter can be a powerful tool for success, engendering trust, and attracting people to your organization, making them want to do business
with you—even becoming evangelists for it.
Or, it can be a bright, shining example of organizational incompetence, laziness or worse.
Make sure yours is the former.
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
USIN
1. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY
THE TWO INVIOLABLE RULES INGTHE
Do you know the limitations of a newsletter?
No matter how beautiful the writing, newsletter publishing has two cardinal rules that must never be violated:
E
PITCHBO
1) GET TO THE POINT! Forget about dramatic tension, building to a climax or surprise endings. Forget about cute. Forget about entertaining. Those things are incredible luxuries for the newsletter that has already achieved useful and informative.
Thi k b t h t t f th l tt th t d Lik ll f t BOOK
TEMP
Think about what you want from the newsletters that you read. Like all of us, you want them to be fast and informative. You don’t want to have to pick the good stuff out of long lines of hype or sales talk, or cheesy humor.
2) MAKE IT SCANNABLE. Everyone is busy, so we all appreciate communication that enables MPLATE
us to quickly scan through something to find the stuff we really need or want.
Make sure your newsletter has lots of informative headlines and subheads and make sure they accurately reflect the info in the article. If you recycle your newsletter content from blog posts or if you archive your newsletters as searchable content on your website (twoblog posts, or if you archive your newsletters as searchable content on your website (two great ideas) accurate headlines and subheads will really help optimize your pages for search engines, providing a free promotional boost and source of new subscribers.
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
USIN
2. BUILD YOUR LISTS
KNOW THE LAW INGTHE
KNOW THE LAW
We no longer look at our email basket the same way we look at our snail mail box.
Unsolicited junk mail is a pain. Unsolicited junk email is a pain, too, but I can also, E
PITCHBO
quite literally, be a crime.
Now, we aren’t lawyers (really. We ARE NOT lawyers, so don’t take this as legal advice) but last time we looked, the federal CAN‐SPAM Act provides for fines of up to $16,000 for each violation. That means that if you send out 500 illegal emails, you have put yourself at risk of BO
OK
TEMP
violation. That means that if you send out 500 illegal emails, you have put yourself at risk of receiving $5.5 million in fines.
But, if you’re recklessly sending out commercial email, giant government fines may be the least of your worries.
MPLATE
First, though, the law …
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
USIN
KNOW THE LAW
2. BUILD YOUR LISTS
INGTHE
The Federal CAN‐SPAM Act regulates commercial email messages. Complying with the law isn’t difficult. For each email, all you need do is:
Make sure the Sender name on your email is accurate E
PITCHBO
Make sure the Sender name on your email is accurate
Use accurate, not deceptive, Subject lines
Clearly identify your email as an advertisement, if that’s what it is
l d h i l dd l b BOOK
TEMP
Include your physical street address or postal box
Include easy, free‐of‐cost way to opt‐out of receiving email from you
Quickly honor every opt‐out requestMPLATE
Make sure any email service you use complies with these rules
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission maintains a website with clear information about complying with the CAN‐SPAM Act. Here’s a link to a concise guide to the Act:
http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61‐can‐spam‐act‐compliance‐guide‐business
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
USIN
WHO MAY YOU SEND TO?
2. BUILD YOUR LISTS
INGTHE
Following the FTC’s guidelines will help you avoid prosecution, but there are other dangers to reckless email marketing, such as getting your organization blacklisted as a spammer.
That can happen as easily as someone not recognizing your email newsletter, and absent‐ E
PITCHBO
mindedly clicking on the “report as spam” button in their email basket.
In the worst cases, that can wind up shutting down your ability to send anyemail, not just your newsletter, if your domain name is identified as a spammer. ISPs and company mail servers may begin refusing to accept your email.
If someone didn’t BOOK
TEMP
ISPs and company mail servers may begin refusing to accept your email.
Once your organizational domain name (that’s the name after the “@” in your email address) is blacklisted, it can be very difficult to get un‐blacklisted.
The best way to avoid problems, is to follow this simple rule:
expressly ask for it or give you permission to send it, don’t send them your email
newsletter MPLATE
Only send your email newsletter to those who have expressly asked for it.
That’s it. Notice we didn’t say AND to members of your college fraternity, local Chamber of Commerce, your Facebook buddies and all of your contacts in Outlook.
newsletter.
If someone didn’t expressly ask for it or give you permission to send it, don’t send them your email newsletter.
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
USIN
CONSTANTLY ADD, FREQUENTLY CULL
2. BUILD YOUR LISTS
INGTHE
So how do build recipient lists for your email newsletters? First, do the obvious basics:
Place an opt‐in link on your website. Something like “click here to get our newsletter.”
Make sure every invoice, online sale, price quote and proposal has a invitation E
PITCHBO
to subscribe to your newsletter.
Ask people if they would like to subscribe, and if they say ‘yes,’ email them an invitation asking them to reply back in order to subscribe. Then, save that email as your proof that they really did opt‐in for your newsletter.
The best way to have an excellent email newsletter list is to BO
OK
TEMP
The best way to have an excellent email newsletter list is to feed it often and frequently prune it. Make sure your email broadcaster automatically handles “unsubscribe” requests.
O i ll h k i ith i i t ki th f f db k l tt
feed it often and frequently prune it.
MPLATE
Occasionally, check in with your recipients, asking them for feedback on your newsletter—including directly asking them if they want to continue receiving it.
But the very best way to have excellent subscriber lists is to produce an excellent newsletter, one that is frequently cited and passed on to friends and associates.
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
USINPERSONALIZE & SEGMENT
2. BUILD YOUR LISTS
INGTHE
An effective newsletter can become the only promotion and lead generation you need.
It’s worth the work!
I th t li ht h ld id h d il l tt d C id h d E
PITCHBO
In that light, you should consider each and every email newsletter you send as being as important as a personal letter. You want each one to be as thoughtful as possible. That not only means you should ensure it has quality content, it also means you should personalize it wherever you can.
Consider each and every email
newsletter you send out as being as important as a BO
OK
TEMP
Voicent’s BroadcastByEmail software makes it easy to personalize your email newsletter. Take advantage of that!
Think about your subscribers’ needs, then carefully segment your lists for content, frequency and format.
important as a personal letter.
MPLATE
If your business has several major elements, and a particular subscriber is really only interested in one, send him a version of your newsletter that focuses only on his area of interest.
When subscribers tell you that they are receiving too much from you, and want to hear from you less frequently put them on a Reduced Frequency listyou less frequently, put them on a Reduced Frequency list.
Regularly ask your subscribers which email newsletter format they prefer—plain text or html. Then, make sure you send them the format they prefer.
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
USIN
3. DESIGN YOUR NEWSLETTER
INGTHE
WARNING: You are going to be tempted to make this a lot more difficult that it should be.
Don’t.
Go take a look at your own email basket. E
PITCHBO
Go take a look at your own email basket.
Chances are that you are using Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo or Apple Mail.
Your email basket probably has three columns: one with mail folders, one showing the contents of your In basket, and one with a calendar, advertisements or task lists. BO
OK
TEMP
You probably have an auto‐preview or “reading pane” enabled so that you can quickly scan email content without actually opening an email.
What you have before you are your design requirements for your email newsletter. What you l ki t i h il l tt ill ll b i d MP
LATE
are looking at is how your email newsletter will generally be viewed.
So, clearly, it needs to be easily readable in a relatively small amount of space.
That actually makes it easier! Here are some tips to follow …
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
USIN1) Obtain a clean HTML template and size it for 600 pixels wide (if you don’t know what
3. DESIGN YOUR NEWSLETTER
INGTHE
we’re talking about here, get a designer or friend who does and have them create the template for you. You will then be able to easily use it over and over again to create each edition of your newsletter). If you are using Voicent’s BroadcastByEmail software, choose one of its template files.
E
PITCHBO
Do not simply create an email in Outlook and try to make it look like a newsletter. It will not render correctly in other mail clients. It will look choppy and goofy, and that’s not a look you want for your newsletter.
BOOK
TEMP
Use the Notepad text editor (it’s an accessory on every Windows computer) or download a free HTML text editor, such as CoffeeCup. Avoid so‐called “Wizzy Wig” editors, which are described as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors. Although much easier to use, these editors tend to drop in all kinds of extraneous code that can play
MPLATE
havoc with email clients.
We’re not saying that you can’t use such editors (FrontPage and Dreamweaver are among them), but if you do, plan to extensively test every email newsletter you create against every major email clientagainst every major email client.
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
USIN2) Design or have designed, a header image showing the name of your organization and
3. DESIGN YOUR NEWSLETTER
INGTHE
the name of the newsletter. Make it simple, clear and clean. This will appear at the top of your newsletter.
This image will need to be placed in a folder on your web server. When your newsletter is opened it will (if allowed) automatically call out to that photo and present it in the E
PITCHBO
is opened, it will (if allowed) automatically call out to that photo and present it in the newsletter at the exact location and size the HTML code specifies.
Do not embed or attach the image to the email. If you do, it will likely appear differently for every email client or not appear at all. You don’t want that. You want consistency. BO
OK
TEMP
y pp y
3) Decide how the Sender Name and Subject Line will be handled . The rule here is transparency and clarity. The Sender Name must be recognizable or you risk having someone inadvertently delete your newsletter as spam.
MPLATE
The Subject Line also needs to be clear. Use something similar to this: “Smith Law Offices Spring 2012 Newsletter.”
Avoid words such as “sale” or “free offer, ‘ exclamation points or other attempts to be attention‐getting. These tactics will trigger spam detection filters and may get your newsletter dumped directly into a spam basket or even deleted outright.
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
4) Choose a common, easy‐to‐read font and keep the background white. Fancy, patterned
3. DESIGN YOUR NEWSLETTER
backgrounds rarely display properly and almost always make newsletters harder to read.
5) Limit yourself to one or two images at most. And make sure they are properly optimized for the web, so that it won’t take forever for your email to load it.
6) Don’t forget to add your postal or street address and instr ctions for opting o t of o r6) Don’t forget to add your postal or street address, and instructions for opting‐out of your email list, to the bottom of your email template.
7) Put some dummy text into your email and send it to your own email addresses, including Outlook, Gmail and any others you have. Make sure it looks good.
8) Now, create a text‐only version, and test that one as well. For the text version, use repeated symbols or dashes to break‐up text. For example:
====================================================================A HEALTHIER YOU
Nutrition and Exercise Tips from Metro City Health Food Store‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Spring 2015 newsletter****************************************************************************************************************************************
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
4. BROADCAST YOUR NEWSLETTER
THE BEAUTY OF AUTOMATION
Now, your email is designed, written and waiting to be sent to your subscriber lists.
Ideally, you have a broadcasting tool that will not only broadcast your email, but will help you with the maintenance work you will need to do.
THE BEAUTY OF AUTOMATION
email, but will help you with the maintenance work you will need to do.
First, you will always get Bounced emails, which are emails returned to you as undeliverable (an incorrect address or one that no longer exists). You will want to delete these addresses from your lists.
Ideally, you have a broadcasting tool that will not only send your email, but will
Second, people will take advantage of your opt‐out UNSUBSCRIBE offer. It’s not only a cool thing for you to quickly honor those requests, it’s also the law.
d ll l b d f ll ll h dl h
help you with the maintenance work you will need to do.
Ideally, your email broadcasting software will automatically handle these chores for you. Voicent’s BroadcastByEmail software will automatically do both.
BroadcastByEmail will also do something else that’s very important to the success of your email newsletter program. That is the never‐ending final frontier of successful y p g gemail newsletters …
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
THE NEVER ENDING FINAL FRONTIER
4. BROADCAST YOUR NEWSLETTER
Now that your email newsletter is out the door and your broadcast software is handling all the routine maintenance work for you, what’s left to do?
Well, you can start worrying about whether or not anyone is reading the
THE NEVER‐ENDING FINAL FRONTIER
Well, you can start worrying about whether or not anyone is reading the thing. If you are using Voicent’s BroadcastByEmail software, you will be able to track exactly how many of your emails are being opened.
By tracking the rate at which your emails are being opened, you’ll know
Track the open‐rate of your emails to know how many are being
how many are being deleted unread. That will give you a clear indication of the perceived value of your newsletter.
As you add new features or make other content changes, keep an eye on that rate so that you will have a good indication of how you’re doing.
deleted unread.
on that rate so that you will have a good indication of how you re doing.
Use the feature to help measure and manage the quality of your email newsletter.
The higher the quality of your email newsletter, the more it will contribute to the success of your organization.y g
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS
A free offerA free offerA free offer …A free offer …Now that you know how to start an excellent Email Newsletter program, how would you like an automated tool to help you organize, send and track your email Newsletters?
Voicent’s BroadcastByEmail is ideal for opt‐in email marketing, newsletter publishing, event management, customer communication and email notifications. With one click, send an unlimited number of personalized emails and automatically track if and when your mail is opened, handle bounced emails and manage un‐subscribe requests.
For a limited time, you can get a free, fully‐licensed copy of this powerful software simply for ‘liking’ Voicent on social networks.
It’s true! Simply download a free trial of the software. Try it out. If you like it, then ‘like’ us on Facebook and Google+ and we will send you your software license key for freeFacebook and Google+ and we will send you your software license key for free.
That’s a $499 value!
If you’re interested, go to http://voicent.com/email‐marketing/social.php to get started.
BACK | NEXT
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS
Vi i i l b V i ’ ff d blVisit www.voicent.com to learn more about Voicent’s affordable, easy-to-use communications tools:
Tools To BroadcastMESSAGES
Broadcast By PhoneAuto dialer
Tools To ManageBUSINESSES
Agent DialerPredictive Dialer
Tools To CustomizeSOLUTIONS
IVR StudioInteractive App Designer
Broadcast By SMSInteractive Text Messaging
Broadcast By EmailEmail Marketing
Call Center ManagerCall Center Management
Flex PBXIP PBX
Voicent GatewayVoiceXML/SMS Gateway
Text-to-Speech PlugInComputerized Voice
Auto ReminderAppointment Reminder
Telephone CRMCRM Phone Integration
BACK | HOME
© 2012 VOICENT COMMUNICATIONS | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.