Sadly, we’ve become a society of readers with ADD. There are just so many demands for your readers’ attention that if you are lucky to get their attention, you don’t want to jeopardize it by overloading them. In other words, if you create an e-newsletter where they have to scroll, they will roll.

The Fix:
Try to keep the length of your e-newsletter to 300-400 words if it’s one article. If you have more you’d like to say, you can always add a link to your website with more in-depth coverage.

If you want to have more articles in your e-newsletter, list the headlines of each article and then have a one or two-sentence description of the article underneath with a link to a more in-depth article on your website. Just like your subject lines, your article headlines will have to be attention-grabbing to get them to click.

This tactic offers another advantage in that most e-newsletter programs have reporting functions so you know who is clicking on what. This lets you know which prospects might be interested in what your company offers and gives you some intelligence so you can do some follow-up.

This was taken from Nobody Reads Your e-Newsletter…And How To Fix It.

Addendum:
When the last edition of this came out, size of an article certainly mattered. With the increased popularity of mobile devices, readers aren’t as averse to scrolling. You still should not overload them with text. For longer articles, draft a paragraph or two and then provide a link to the entire article.

Perhaps not the best choice of words, but it made you want to read more, right? Your subject lines need to grab your target audience in the same way your headlines for print ads do. Your prospects and customers receive an awful lot of e-mail and if your subject line doesn’t make a case for opening the e-mail you’re sunk.

Poor subject lines fall into two camps. In one, the subject line tries to be catchy or trendy and ends up having nothing to do with the actual content of the e-newsletter. On the other side, you have the subject line that sits on the page like a manhole cover, doing nothing to entice the reader to click and find out the rest of the story (forgive me, Paul Harvey).

As crude as the above headline might be, you knew what this section was about and the angle. It certainly catches your eye more than a title of “Why subject lines are ineffective.” You may choose different verbiage for your publication, but make your subject line catchy and specific to the story subject.

The Fix:
To write better subject lines, you really need to focus on the benefit of the story to the reader. If you write a story on a new company offering, the subject line should not read, “Company Y introduces new widget.” It should be more like “New widget improves production speeds by 10%”. Make it about what’s in it for your readers and not what your company just did and you are halfway there.

If you do not have somebody on your staff with the skill to hit that high note, then hire a copywriter. There are plenty of freelancers out there ready, willing, and able to craft an e-newsletter with subject lines that leap off the page. And for a reasonable price, too.

This blog was taken from “Nobody Reads Your e-Newsletter…And How To Fix It.”.

Addendum:
In 2017, the battle for attention in the in-box rages on. If you want them to open, you have to grab their attention in the subject line.

That’s a pretty good reason why nobody reads it. If your company does not have an e-newsletter and you downloaded this report, chances are you know it’s something you should do. And why not? An e-newsletter provides another way to get in front of your current and former clients in an unobtrusive fashion.

The Fix:

Get one and commit to putting out an issue at least once a quarter. But honestly, if you really want to reap the benefits, make it monthly.

By regularly publishing an e-newsletter or some other communiqué, you improve the odds of former clients becoming current ones; and lessen the likelihood of current clients, now adequately informed, turning to the competition for a service they didn’t know you offered.

That alone more than covers the cost of putting out an e-newsletter (relatively affordable with e-mail marketing programs like Constant Contact, which can run for as little as $20 per month, depending on your e-mail list. Or even free e-mail marketing platforms like MailChimp.

The goodwill you create with your client base with regular communication is an added bonus. It’s a win-win, but only if you do it right.

This blog was taken from “Why Nobody Reads Your e-Newsletter… and How You Can Fix It”

Addendum:

The last version of Why Nobody Reads Your E-Newsletter came out several years ago. Since then, much has changed about e-newsletters. Much is still the same. With all the hype about social media, e-newsletters remain an essential part of any company’s arsenal. Especially since the content created for e-newsletters can easily be repurposed for social media.