Your first
date is round the corner and you are busy undergoing a makeover
that will help you woo your date. Dressed in your best attire, wearing
his/her favorite fragrance and armed with their choice of chocolates
or flowers, you are set.
Put your best self forward while considering their likings and preferences.
There’s no way you can go wrong in charming your date, the
first building block towards a long-term relationship.
Now lets see how different this is to your first email
newsletter. Well if…It’s your first communication
with the consumer, you want to woo them, charm them into subscribing
to your product or service and initiate a long term association
with your brand.
Not very different from dating, so lets take your newsletter through
a quick makeover process, making it ready for its first date with
the consumer. |
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Lets start
by making your newsletter visually appealing. |
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Your newsletter will appear in the message window of
the recipient’s inbox, therefore limit its width
to 600 pixels so that it fits in that space. Though
there is no set limit for height of newsletter, try
and restrict it to maximum of three mouse scrolls. |
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Choose a color mix that is reader friendly. Use colors
schemes that match your audience profile, loud and strong
colors for a product or service aimed at a young audience.
Similarly subtle and earthy colors for middle-aged audience.
If possible, incorporate your brand’s colors to
generate certain affinity between the brand and audience. |
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Use web-friendly fonts like Arial and Verdana. Ensure
the font size is appropriate, not too small or not too
large. Make it simple for the reader to grasp your message. |
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Ensure the layout is navigationally friendly don’t
push the important links to the bottom of the page.
Place your message and other important information upfront,
right at the beginning of the newsletter. Text boxes
are fine to highlight some points or features, but don’t
go overboard with them. |
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Decide and Mark the areas, where you want to place the
http://www.benchmarkemail.com/newsletters/bme1/images in your newsletter. Also limit the image size
to not more then 14k, so as to ensure faster download
of http://www.benchmarkemail.com/newsletters/bme1/images. |
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What you
say and how you say it, will generate and maintain your
consumer’s interest. A low down on getting it right: |
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Set a tone for your newsletter. Give it a voice, character
and personality of its own. Make it formal, gossipy,
funny or critical depending on the nature of your product
or service. Also take into account your competitors
communication approach. |
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Include content that is relevant to your product or
service in a lucid manner. Make your content informative
and interesting, which will clearly communicate the
benefits that you have to offer. Tell your consumer
explicitly ‘what’s in it for them’. |
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Build in enough ‘call to action’ points,
making it convenient for the user to respond to your
message. These points can be in the form of web links,
e-mail addresses, contact numbers or anything that will
help them communicate with you. Identify appropriate
locations and insert them, ideally, at the end of each
paragraph. |
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Try and include testimonials of previous consumers or
press clippings in your content. This will help in generating
trust and wider acceptability of your message. |
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Personalize
your newsletter. Replace 'Dear Reader' or 'Dear Subscriber'
with 'Dear Jim'. Address your consumers with their names
so they will be more receptive to your message. Also,
end your newsletter with a name of a person, making
it look as an individual has written it. Never end it
with a department or company name like 'Regards, Customer
Service team' or 'Thanks, XYZ company' |
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Before you
can step completely into the consumer’s computer
screen and psyche, you will be scanned through your From
and Subject lines |
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Your consumer will first read the ‘From’
and ‘Subject’ lines of your newsletter,
making them extremely crucial. Try and personalize this
too. Send it from the person who is signing off at the
end of newsletter. If you think your company enjoys
a substantial brand equity, then let your company name
appear in the ‘From’ field. |
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For the Subject line, you can attempt either a personalized
line or an offer led line depending on the contents
of your newsletter. If it’s your first time, address
the consumer with their name in the subject line itself.
For e.g. Jim, can you diet? If you think the offer you
are making to the consumer is strong then craft an offer
led ‘Subject’ line. For e.g. ‘CD’s
for 2$’ or ‘Vacations with free air tickets’ |
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You have followed the guidelines and created a charming
newsletter, Now before you start sending it, test it
thoroughly. Send it to your colleague’s, associates
or close friends and ask them for their feedback. Send
it to different mailbox accounts and see how is it appearing
there. Are there any technical glitches, is the image
not showing? Test it till you are assured and satisfied. |
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complete, you are now all set to allow your newsletter the
big date with the consumer. Sit back, sip some coffee and
hope your hard work has paid off.
Newsletter written
by Chet Asher, email: chet@bmesrv.com |
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