Start Spreading the News - with an Email Newsletter

There are lots of business reasons to publish an email newsletter, including to:

• Keep your company name in front of your customers for repeat and referral business
• Attract new customers who are interested in your subject area
• Inform customers and prospects about new products and services
• Become better known as an expert in your field

However, to achieve these benefits, your newsletter has to be read. That can be more difficult to accomplish than you might think.

Subscriber Maintenance

How will people be added, changed, and removed from your newsletter list? If you are just getting started or your subscriber list is small, you may want to maintain subscribers manually in your own email address book. However, as your list grows, be prepared to signup with an Email Service Provider (ESP) that automates list maintenance for you. A few of the bigger names in the ESP biz are Constant Contact, iContact, GetResponse, and AWeber.

If you have a subscription form on your website (most ESPs will give you the code for one), beware the temptation to fill it with fields. People will not provide much personal information to get on a mailing list. The more you ask for, the more people you will drive away.

Deliverability Issues

Every Internet Service Provider (ISP) is fighting spam, which clogs their servers and frustrates their customers. If people complain to their ISP that you are sending spam, the ISP can "blacklist" your sending address. When you are blacklisted, none of your email will get through to anyone on that ISP. Depending on the ISP, even completely legitimate and law-abiding emailers may have to spend substantial time getting their address removed from the blacklist.

To increase the odds of staying off blacklists, "double-opt-in" your subscribers. Whenever people subscribe send them an email to confirm that they want to be on your list. It's also critical to remove anyone from your list upon request. Having a prompt and working removal process is not just a good idea, it's the law under the Can Spam Act that took effect in 2004.

Spam fighting goes on at the personal level as well. Anti-spam programs are prevalent and sometimes throw the good out with the bad. It can help to ask your subscribers to add your email address to their address book, safe-senders list, or white list. You can also avoid triggering anti-spam programs by avoiding an excess of images, colors, and marketing hype in your messages. If your message looks like spam and sounds like spam, anti-spam programs will assume it's spam and block it from inboxes.

Time-worthy Content

Let's assume your newsletter survives all these perils and arrives in your subscribers' mailboxes. Will they read your message or just hit the Delete key? One deciding factor is a good subject line. Including your company and/or newsletter name is a way to establish legitimacy. Then, follow that with your main topic. Avoid the:

• Overly creative title - most people won't take time to figure out what you mean
• Sales pitch subject line - it's too easy to just say no and delete the entire message

Of course, the newsletter itself must provide value to the reader. Thinly-disguised self-promotion, hype, and fluff pieces are unlikely to gain loyal readers, referrals, or repeat business. Make sure you serve up at least one "steak" article along with the sizzle.

Any newsletter today faces a variety of hazards to gain the attention of readers. Only good writing combined with delivery know-how can gain you a positive return on investment for your business.