Email Newsletters - What works, what doesn’t, and what you have to figure out for yourself.

Email Newsletters
What works, what doesn’t, and what you have to figure out for yourself.

Email is not Print

Email has its own style
Much like web
Scan and skim
Short and sweet
Drive to your website
Provide value – make people want to open your emails

Strategy – Why?
Who is your audience?
What do you want them to do?
How often will you send?
What kind of content?
Where will it come from?

Obama Email
Targeted
Short, sweet
Focused topic/action

McCain Email
Too long
Too broad
Too much going on

Rules
CAN-SPAM Act
Opt-in is best
Opt-out is a requirement
Avoid deceptive subject lines
Use a 3rd party email service provider
Don’t use Outlook/Entourage to send your mail or you’ll end up blocked and banned
You need measurement

Subscriber Management
Subscribe button or form on your website
Promote subscription offline
Listserv use

Design Options
Existing templates
Clear ND and department branding

Campaign Monitor - Measurement

Measurement Options

Google Analytics
Track how/what users are doing on your site once they come in from an email newsletter
Even measure conversions/ROI

It’s the Content
There are a lot of newsletters, and you get a lot of emails
What makes you open a newsletter and read?
Content is king – it’s why you even bother reading these things.