Do’s and Don’ts of Online Newsletter Marketing

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This is an example of a bad newsletter design. There are no calls to action to entice users to click and do something. There no links within the copy. Remember that users are not looking for a description of services. They are looking for solutions or offerings. Be clear and offer a call to action. This newsletter has no real call to action. It is also poorly designed. Don’t turn your reader by being to wordy and not including images to help communicate the point. Keep the audience focused and help to move their eye around the newsletter. Use graphic elements such as art, photos and buttons to communicate your message. If you don’t have access to a graphic designer, you can use stock images rather than starting from scratch. It is also important to remember not to clutter the newsletter with too many graphics. Remember simple and neat is best.

The art of good design is making it look simple. Philip Johnson made buildings look simple, like the Chapel of St Basil here in Houston. Rather than have a simple or an ornate entrance that most chapels have Johnson went with a play on a tent concept so prevalent in years gone by. This gives the user a more immediate feeling of intimacy. He sets the stage before you even enter the chapel. By keeping things simple a visitor is more susceptible to the overall message.Of course design is not an easy thing to do but always remember the KISS motto – Keep It Simple, Stupid

Clear communication is key to success in any system wherein you rely on a user to make a choice on how to proceed to an end result. Don’t bury things, put your revenue streams in front of their eyes. Confusion leads to anger and anger leads to frustration. The last thing you want is a angry, frustrated visitor

Gone are the days when people want little to do with your company in terms of targeted marketing. Internet users see value in relationships, they see value in being able to opt in and out at any time. This gives users a sense of being in control and when you have a confident user you have someone that isn’t afraid to make decisions on whether or not to do business with you. Knowing this your lines of communication must not only look good but you have to be smart on how easy you make it for people to opt in on newsletters.Part of a well made website is it’s ability to make it easy for a person to get from point A to point B

Well placed calls to action will help increase your interaction with your site visitors. Looking to have more people sign up for your newsletter? Don’t bury it or hide it below the fold. Case in point – The Children’s Museum of Houston had their newsletter sign up form below the fold, once they move it to the top their newsletter sign up rate increased

No one is a wizard, no one likes to figure out riddles when they are trying to find something on the internet. The harder you make it for folks to do something the easier you are making it for them to go to your competition. Avoid burying your content deep in your newsletter. The last thing you want to do is confuse someone and make them go somewhere else. Brand and marketing consistency needs to be carried over from your site to your newsletter and vice versa. Make sure your imagery from your newsletter is consistent with your landing page. If you are promoting a particular event or area on your site use similar visuals through your marketing. This helps establish recognition in a users memory, making them more comfortable in their experience. If you have a newsletter that looks completely different in every aspect of your landing page you will confuse the user. This is why websites have the same look throughout the site

Make sure you are consistent. Use imagery from your landing pages in your newsletter

Timing is everything once you get passed those crazy spam filters. Share content with your members when they are expecting it. Let’s take a look at some examples of timing…

Sending 5 newsletters a week is probably not a good idea. You never want to over send newsletters because then you would be a considered a spammer. As a matter of fact, once a month is common practice. But some organizations want to stay in front of their members more often because they have a lot going on. For example, some museums have a ton of events. You could see the need to send a weekly or biweekly newsletter if you have time to gather content. If there is an event that you are leading up to, I like to recommend coming up with a schedule: of notice, reminder and last chance notices for the event. This schedule needs to fit into the regular schedule of newsletter distribution for your organization. And the design of the newsletter should probably be tailored to the event brand if possible.

Another really good time to send a newsletter is after a great event. For example:This is a photo of a Houston based event that took place last February. After the conference and events are over send out photos taken at the event. People love images of people. Sending event follow-ups that include photos from the event gives people something to look forward to. These email follow-ups also demonstrate just how great the event was. Make all of your upcoming events seem wonderful by following up with interesting photos and happenings from your event. In the newsletter follow-up include things like; photos and calls to action that drive traffic to other upcoming events. You can also highlight certain information that was shared at previous events.

Even with all the social networking tools out there. Email is still an important method of communication but spammers have abused it. Spammers have made it tough for Marketers to send email newsletters effectively because so much content is block by spam filters. Let’s go over a few ways to can help to improve delivery of your newsletters.

There are a few things to look out for when sending online newsletters. Use good Subject linesAvoidTrigger wordsDon’t use Heavy formatting Having all All images, no HTML is bad.Watch out for Junk Code

This is an example of a Bad subject line because it contains trigger words. Win and Free are considered trigger words that spammers often use. More trigger words include buy, for sale, offer, trial, etc. Using these types of words could cause your email to go to spam. Subject lines that have excessive punctuation could also send your email straight to a spam folder.A better use of the same message would be Enter The Wayne Osteen raffle for a new home drawing!While you are careful to not use trigger words, you literally have seconds to grab the readers attention, so make it count. Sale the reader from the subject line. Make them want to read the newsletter.

Certain words will trigger spam filters and send your email straight to a spam folder. Don’t use words like free, trail, no cost, no catch, take action now, charges, save, winner, mailto etc. Obviously, adult-material-related terms are major triggers, For a complete list of words and phrases check out this web site. http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/spamfilter_phrases.htm

Not only is heavy formatting bad for the eye, it is bad email delivery success. Don’t choose several font faces, sizes and colors to communicate your message. Choose one font face and stick with it. Bold and hyper link text that are areas of interest. Don’t over due it. People are smart. You don’t need to dumb down your newsletter down with the overuse of formatting. Keep it clean!

You can use beautiful images but make sure your newsletter has some HTML. Don’t just insert a huge graphic because it looks nice and you personally hate the look of HTML fonts. Include some text. This is an example of a good balance between HTML text and images. There are people who have images turned off in email. If you just include a graphic, they won’t get the message at all.

This what they would get. If you decide to just use an image an no HTML text, the newsletter message will come across like this. If images are not set to automatically download, your audience will not get your message at all. This is not good. Include some HTML text.

If you have checked the subject line and copy for trigger words, made sure your formatting is clean and simple, and your email is still going to spam. Click the HTML view and make sure your source code is clean and not keeping empty span tags like this. Look for code that is not being used and delete it.Empty tags get carried over into the editor when you copy and paste text from another HTML source. It also happens when you try and change the formatting or delete areas of text using the WYSIWYG. The previous code and formatting is kept and must be cleaned out. You can use notepad first to strip out any extra formatting. Then format your newsletter sparingly using the WYSIWYG. This will help to eliminate the problem.

It is a good idea to test your newsletters before you send them out to the final group. Send the newsletter to a test group. Test links in your newsletters and look at the display of images. Make sure the email is perfect before you send it. Sending a typo or a broken link to several thousand people would be embarrassing.

Good design is simple , uses calls to action, links within the copy and is never confusing to the reader.

Sending newsletters when your audience is expecting it. Event follow-up with images and information about past events and for events to come will help to increase attendance for your next event. AND - You should create a schedule that works for your organization. Stay in front of YOUR audience with new and interesting content but don’t overkill.

Trigger words like buy, trial free will send your email straight to SPAM. Empty tags in the code, Heavy formatting and all image newsletters increase the chances that your newsletter will end up in a spam folder.

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Do’s and Don’ts of Online Newsletter Marketing - Presentation Transcript

Do’s and Don’ts of Online Newsletter Marketing
What we will cover today
- Newsletter design aesthetics
- Targeting newsletters
- Timing newsletters
- Newsletters & spam
What is bad DESIGN?
This is a bad newsletter design
http://www.saveralphsbay.org/images/uploads/April2007_newsletter_thumb.jpg
What is Good Design?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deneyterrio/303687525
Good Design Should be simple
http://cache.jalopnik.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2008/09/Ten-Conf-Montreal.jpg
Don’t confuse your visitors
Examples of Good Design
Factory Direct Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Visual Media Markers. Client Spotlight. Brand recognition carried over.
Factory Direct Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Visual Media Markers. Client Spotlight. Brand recognition carried over.
Factory Direct Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Visual Media Markers. Client Spotlight. Brand recognition carried over.
Factory Direct Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Visual Media Markers. Client Spotlight. Brand recognition carried over.
Factory Direct Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Visual Media Markers. Client Spotlight. Brand recognition carried over.
Factory Direct Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Visual Media Markers. Client Spotlight. Brand recognition carried over.
Factory Direct Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Visual Media Markers. Client Spotlight. Brand recognition carried over.
Factory Direct Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Visual Media Markers. Client Spotlight. Brand recognition carried over.
Factory Direct Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Visual Media Markers. Client Spotlight. Brand recognition carried over.
Videos cannot be
embedded in a
newsletter
Factory Direct Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Visual Media Markers. Client Spotlight. Brand recognition carried over.
Factory Direct Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Visual Media Markers. Client Spotlight. Brand recognition carried over.
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Editing the photos
to look like Polaroid
photos are a nice touch. These types of photos have a sense of familiarity to them
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Virtuosa Newsletter
Clear calls to action. Links to Social Media. Short section titles. Brand recognition carried over. Employee spotlight
Newsletters – more than an email
People want to hear from you
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwkw/310223707/
Make it easy to stay in touch
Wizards need not apply
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dunechaser/1228011889/
Newsletter to Landing Page
Don’t leave it up to the user to figure things out. Your business is not a puzzle
Give people what they want
http://www.flickr.com/photos/soggydan/3587602667/
It makes them happy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/xanboozled/3197826939/
And that will make you happy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosengrant/3370782464/
IT’S ALL ABOUT TIMING
Schedule your newsletters
http://www.flickr.com/photos/don3rdse/3209281471/
Event follow-up
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/3305122874/
SPAM IS EVIL
Spammers are making marketers do their job better!
Why is my newsletter going to spam?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollyclark/465593675
Subject lines
BAD:
Win a FREE home in our home giveaway today!!!!
GOOD:
Enter The Wayne Osteen raffle for a new home drawing!
Trigger words & phrases
free
trail
no cost
no catch
take action now
charges
save
winner
mailto
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/spamfilter_phrases.htm
Heavy Formatting
This is what really bad heavy formatting looks like in a newsletter and this
will cause your newsletter to get stuck in the queue or go
straight to a spam folder.
This is not good because you really want to get your
message out and change the world, RIGHT?
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sapienmassa, posuere vitae porttitorvel, mollis ac felis.
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lobortis.gulamalesuadaullamcorper. Sed
Craspellentesque ante necligulaconsectetur
Fringilla.
You need clean HTML
Don’t send just an image
Check for junk code
Test your newsletters
What did we learn?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/naztrida/2862505972
Dos and don’ts of newsletter design
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamiemckerral/3210027714/
Targeting newsletters
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffeg/175558343/
Timing newsletters
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveduke/3567204954/
What Triggers spam filters?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sammy-naas/2292433070
QUESTIONS?
Kim Hodgson / Jason McElweenie Schipul – The Web Marketing Company
Kim’s Personal Brand
http://www.inkoluv.com and http://www.facebook.com/inkoluv
Jason’s Personal Brand
http://www.canerican.com/ and http://www.lowendtheory.net/