Why Are Some email Newsletters So Bad?
By Jeanne S. Jennings, Published in Marketing Fast Facts, a publication of the American Society of Association Executives, September 2004

The question in this headline was actually posed by a client, a vice president sitting in on a meeting about developing a new email newsletter. His point was that he didn’t want a “bad” email newsletter—he wanted something of real value to his audience.

That got me thinking: Why are so many email newsletters of such poor quality? And how can you be sure yours isn’t one of them? Here are some responses I came up with.

1. Content is king. Too many associations make their email newsletter “all about them” instead of “all about the reader.” If your newsletter is 100 percent marketing, it’s not a newsletter—it’s a promotional piece. There’s a big difference.

I recommend making at least 60 percent of your e-newsletter editorial content—and maybe more. (An article I read recently recommended 80 percent.) The content should be highly relevant to your reader. That doesn’t mean it can’t relate to your association, but it shouldn’t be a blatant sales piece.

There are lots of free and inexpensive ways to develop editorial content. Here are just a few.

·         Create a compilation. Link to relevant articles on the Web that were written and posted by other (noncompetitive) organizations.

·         Call on industry experts. Many consultants and others with expertise in your field would probably be happy to write an article in exchange for attribution and a link to their Web site.

·         Recruit your association’s members. Ask them to write about the challenges they face in their organization and how they overcome them. Again, many are happy to do it just to get recognition.

2. Format is queen. I got an email newsletter from a publisher telling me about the latest issue of his magazine, which I like. The problem? The email was text-only, and the paragraphs were really, really long. They looked like (they were!) big blocks of text—not something you’d feel like reading, on or off a computer screen.

If you’re writing for email, keep it brief. I try to keep paragraphs to five-and-a-quarter lines or less. Use bullet points. Especially in text emails, be sure you have a lot of white space. Even the highest-quality content is unlikely to be able to overcome poor formatting.

3. Have a take and don’t s*ck!...to borrow a line from Jim Rome, one of my favorite sports radio guys. Too many email newsletters are afraid to have a personality. Don’t be. That’s what makes people want to read. After all, what’s more appealing: something that a real person put together for you, or something that appears to have been done “without human intervention”—by a computer searching a database? Engage your readers; don’t keep them at arm’s length.

One example of a newsletter with a great personality is the Personal Finance Newsletter put out by CBS Marketwatch. The editor does an intro paragraph that pulls me into almost every issue.

4. Make it personal. email is much more personal than direct mail—it falls somewhere between USPS mail and the phone. Too many associations make the mistake of transmitting an article or press release with no introduction, even though these formats do not lend themselves to email. It’s as if you pick up the ringing phone and the person on the other end just starts in talking without saying hello.

Take a line to include a salutation—anything from “Dear Jeanne” to “Hey!” to “Good Day!” will work.

5. Put it in context. I’ve increased click-through rates on email newsletters by as much as 50 percent by including a brief paragraph as an introduction. It makes the case for why the reader should take a minute right now to read this email newsletter, highlights a few content items, and spells out the benefits. It’s also a good way to infuse your email with a little personality (see number three above).

This intro paragraph, combined with a table of contents, lets your readers determine if this issue is for them. If it is, they engage. If not, you haven’t wasted their time.

6. Don’t leave it to an intern. Nothing against interns, but unless they are steeped in knowledge about your audience, don’t just drop the newsletter on them. Too many associations focus on quantity—how many people they’re sending their email newsletter to—rather than quality—is this something of genuine value to readers?

If it is valuable, they will read the editorial and see your marketing messages (again, just 20 to 40 percent of your material). But if it’s not written by someone who knows what’s truly valuable to them, readers will hit the delete key.

7. Do what it takes to do it right. I often think back to a lunch I had with two online editors for a large publishing company. We talked email newsletters almost exclusively: how to use them as marketing tools, get more people to sign up for them, increase deliverability, find content sources, etc. At the end of my lunch I offered to send a proposal—after hearing about their challenges and frustrations, it was clear I could help.

Their response was along the lines of, “A proposal? But it’s only email—it’s not like we’d pay someone to help with that.”

The bottom line: If you’ve reached a certain level of success but your growth or response rates aren’t meeting your goals, or if you’re just starting a program and aren’t quite sure how to proceed, don’t hesitate to look for help. Lots of free information is available online (some of it excellent, some of it not, but if you read enough you can sort it out quickly). And there are lots of people—including consultants, vendors, and colleagues—who can help you out.

Good email newsletters, especially those that softly market your association’s products and services, are a different animal. Creating them is less like writing an email to your friend and more like publishing. It’s also less like direct mail than a great ad placement in a publication for which you happen to control the editorial. Learning from others what works—and what doesn’t—can save you time and money in the long run.

Jeanne S. Jennings is a marketing and product development consultant focusing on email and Web sites in Washington, D.C. She writes a monthly column about email marketing optimization for ClickZ.com and publishes The Jennings Report, a free e-newsletter for email marketing professionals. email: jj@jeannejennings.com. Copyright 2004 Jeanne S. Jennings.