Creating and maintaining a monthly newsletter is HARD. And lately I’ve noticed a few things that are a glaring error to me, but that you may just have missed by not having another set of eyes (cue client responding to MY newsletter last month with a typo in it…). So, here’s 5 pesky things I think your newsletter needs…
- Your Social Media Should be Consistent – I love my senator, I really do. But this giant Snapchat and over-linking your social media is too much. Yes, I understand he’s featuring Snapchat as the new social media source. In that case I would move it elsewhere in the newsletter to announce it. One of the reasons I like MailChimp is because they make it easy to share your social media links in a consistent way. And I noticed yesterday that Constant Contact finally made this easier too.
2. Awkward “From” lines – My newsletter always comes from Elizabeth & Norm. People know that a real person (and real dog) are sending them a newsletter or note. Sometimes your business name is okay, but even then I’d include your name. One newsletter I get sends from their name and business (ie: Elizabeth at Yellow Dog Consulting). I want a real person showing up in my inbox, not a business name I don’t automatically recognize (or do recognize because I know them and wonder why it wouldn’t come from their NAME).
3. Inconsistent Signup Forms – This was a fantastic fail I discovered a couple of weeks ago. I received an email from a name and business I don’t recognize, so I opened it to scroll down and unsubscribe. In the process I discovered someone at the company and learned why I was signed up for this newsletter I didn’t ask to be. So, I hit the unsubscribe button and it took me to a landing page to ask why I’ve unsubscribed. I filled it out and then got this response…
You can see why this is an issue right?
What happened? Well, they created a great signup form process and just didn’t know that it would copy over to their unsubscribe page. Take a moment and go through your signup forms to ensure that they’re properly setup and you don’t do this…
4. No Way to Share Your Message – If I read a good newsletter I want to share that with my network on social media. Include those snazzy social media sharing icons in your newsletter. You’ll always find them at the very bottom of my newsletter…
5. My Name – Every newsletter program makes it easy to include your subscribers name. Include it! Every newsletter I create for clients starts with some form of “Hi (Name)!” – I wanted to be greeted. I’ve invited you into my inbox and made the time to open you. The least you could do is remember my name. If your list isn’t consistent with names then make the time to clean that up.
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