A question anybody who puts out a newsletter should ask. Most folks in business receive enough e-mail without adding more to the in box unless it’s something that offers value. To make sure your newsletter doesn’t fall into the “Nuisance” category, you need to follow a few simple guidelines.
Make sure the focus of your articles is on things that actually affect your readers. Better yet, offer a solution to a problem they might encounter. For example, the article on Spell Check in this newsletter. While it may not be on the top 10 list of problems you might run into, it’s a nice-to-know feature that will help.
Do not oversell or even try to sell your services with your newsletter. The idea of the newsletter is to inform. By offering helpful advice and information, you are subtly selling your products or services by demonstrating your knowledge and expertise.
Keep it brief. As stated earlier, people have a limited time and attention span for most e-mail newsletters. Do not overwhelm them with 2000-word articles. Try to keep it under 500, even better if it’s between 100 and 300 words.
The death sentence to any e-mail newsletter is scrolling. So make sure to post longer articles you do offer on your Web site or blog with a link from the e-newsletter.
Always give readers the choice of opting out. You never want to be associated with spam. Unless you give readers the choice of receiving your newsletter, you will be.
Finally, don’t be offended if not everybody reads the articles in your newsletter. Ideally, that would be the case, but it’s not critical to the success of your newsletter. Just by publishing your newsletter, you’re putting your product or service to the front of the brain of your readers, even if that puts you in the “Deleted” folder.
