Category: business communication

business communication, business newsletters, business writing, newsletter advice, newsletter marketing, newsletter tips, newsletter writing, writing a newsletter

5 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Newsletters for Business

1. Long subject lines –  Among the mistakes to avoid in your newsletters for business, keep your headlines short. Long headlines may get cut off in some email readers, especially in preview. Also, a pithier title is more likely to catch people’s eyes. Some experts, such as HubSpot, suggest you keep the headline under 45 characters — keystrokes, not words. 🙂

2. Long newsletters – You’ve heard it all before — people are busy and have short attention spans. They won’t always read content they have to keep scrolling through, especially on a mobile device. As an alternative, you can link back to a PDF or a web page, which is more appropriate for scrolling.

3. Bad links – Links are easy to overlook in the editing process. You can use a link checker or test them one by one to make sure they lead where you want them to go.

4. No links – Links help make text more visually appealing. And, if you’re promoting something, it makes sense to link back to a landing page for it, so this is your chance.

5. Not editing thoroughly – This is one of the most common mistakes to avoid in newsletters — don’t let it happen to you! Maybe you just need to send your e-newsletter ASAP because of breaking news. Perhaps you’re getting pressure to send it on short notice. If possible, take time to pore over every detail, from the wording to the paragraph length to the links and the contact information.

Need help with your newsletter? Contact me.

Quotes

“Don’t send out a newsletter just to send out a newsletter. One newsletter a year that is really interesting is more beneficial than 12 that are boring. If you write two or three boring newsletters in a row, your readers will start to think you write boring books.” ~ M.J. Rose

“Don’t tell users how to interact with your email. If it’s not intuitive enough, go back to the drawing board.” ~ Eric Lepetit, NEST

Comments? Suggestions? Need help? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com

business communication

5 Ways to Make a Business Newsletter Interesting

1. See your stats.  Look at the numbers to see how many people open your newsletter. If the reason why your newsletter isn’t “clicking” isn’t clear, you can consider other aspects of it, or survey your readers. The results can help make a newsletter interesting.

2. Write what people want to read. Besides surveying your readers, analyze any social media and website content metrics you might have to see what your visitors read and search for most.

3. Look at the length. In my experience, people prefer to read shorter content. Think of your e-newsletter as an email. Do you like to read long messages?

4. Examine your top copy. According to HubSpot, headlines with 41 to 50 characters work best on mobile devices. Split A/B testing with different headlines to segments of your subscribers can help you pinpoint what entices your readers. Putting your subscribers’ names in the messages and subject lines, or personalizing them to their locations can also appeal to them.

5. Eye your design. This can be a trickier aspect of e-newsletters. Not everyone can afford heat-map tracking user studies to see where people usually look in your newsletter. Again, surveys can help, as can feedback from people you trust. Obviously, it’s best to create your messages with colors and fonts that look attractive and easy to read in most email clients and on mobile devices.

Need advice to help you make a newsletter interesting? Contact me for a free e-news audit today!

Quotes

“Facebook Fan Pages are email newsletters with smaller pictures.” ~ Jay Baer

“Don’t send out a newsletter just to send out a newsletter.  One newsletter a year that is really interesting is more beneficial than 12 that are boring.  If you write two or three newsletters in a row, your readers will start to think you write boring books.” ~ M.J. Rose

business communication, business newsletters, business writing, newsletter advice, newsletter marketing, newsletter tips, newsletter writing, writing a newsletter

5 Ways a Newsletter Can Boost Your Business Revenue

1. Track your results – Email marketing services (MailChimp, Constant Contact, etc.) let you assess how your messages reach your customers, so you can find out what works and what doesn’t work — whether it’s your subject lines, design, or content — to help you increase your earnings.

2. Build connections – You can control the image you present, which is important for connecting with people and building trust with them to boost your earnings. People can see you as an expert in your field, and if you present them with useful information, your customers will likely share your newsletter with others, which can lead to greater visibility and profits.

3. Content choices – Announcements help you notify people about incentives you offer (such as discounts and coupons); you can also include “how-to” articles that tie into products and services, and upcoming events and news, among other information, to connect with people. Nielsen Norman Group newsletter studies have shown that these types of emails work well to connect with subscribers.

4. Tell stories for $$$ – “Storytelling” is a popular form of content marketing, especially among nonprofits. Nonprofits can include stories about how donors’ donations have made the world a better place — an essential tenet of the “Domain Formula” for print newsletters, which has been proven to be effective for increasing donations. Businesses can highlight how their products or services have benefited customers, and businesses and nonprofits can build emotional connections with people through stories about why their organizations were founded.

5. High ROI – According to a 2015 report by the Direct Marketing Association, marketers could expect a return of $44.25 for every $1.00 they invested in email marketing. An e-newsletter eliminates postage and printing costs; many email marketing platforms charge a low monthly fee (others, such as MailChimp, are free) to send copies to multiple subscribers.

Want to create your own newsletter or don’t know what to do with the one you have? Explore my lead-generating newsletter writing packages.

The Classy Writing Blog

E-Newsletter Examples: Professional Services Firms

“Some e-newsletter examples in the accounting and real estate realms that effectively sell readers on their services….” Read more.

Quotes

“Your newsletter subscribers are usually your most loyal customers and fans, so it’s important to treat them better than the more fickle audience on social networks. Obviously, having enhanced content in the newsletter is one way of doing so. But you should also make sure to send out the newsletter announcing, say, sales or new products before tweeting such news.” ~ Jakob Nielsen, E-Mail Newsletters: Increasing Usability

“Giving your donor just one thing to consider in your newsletter rather than, say, 10 things (you see that a lot) might be a welcome relief.” ~ Tom Ahern

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E-Newsletter Examples: Professional Services Firms

Below are some professional services firms’ e-newsletter examples (accounting and real estate) realms that effectively sell readers on their services.

DISCLAIMER: I’m not affiliated with these businesses. I admire their newsletters, and present them for educational purposes only.

1. Heal Accounting: Heal gives a great, brief summary of news that can affect readers in each email, with a link to the longer newsletter at their website. This works well to drive traffic. Links to feature articles appear at the top of the page. They also offer Tax Tips. They use headings and links well to break up the text for easy scanning. A helpful list of tax due dates for each month appears at the bottom.

2. Horne CPAs and Business Advisors: I love the headlines, the content, and the brevity in this e-newsletter which promotes executive partner Joey Havens’ blog posts. Joey wants us to be better, so it’s not about accounting. One recent email subject line that promoted a humorous, well-written blog post: “Storytelling Works Better Than Viagra.” The email teased people to read the post with a short preview and links at the top and bottom to read more. Each eblast features a thought-provoking story based on real life events with a message.

3. Art of Living by Sotheby’s International Realty: Each issue looks like a mini electronic magazine, with enticing photos of properties priced with a few more zeros at the end than many of us can afford. A short sentence below invites us to tour or read more about European-inspired mansions in the southern Midwest, ocean-front hideaways in the West, and luxurious lofts, estates, and town homes country-wide. Trending listings and Instagram posts round out the highlights. The subject lines could be a little shorter — I suggest they stick to one, rather than two, topics per headline for a pithier message with greater impact.

Need some advice to improve your newsletter? Contact me. Best of all, it’s free. 🙂

Which newsletters do you think are the best?

Published Sept. 4, 2018

business communication, business newsletters, business writing, e-mail newsletters, e-news, e-newsletters, electronic newsletters, email newsletters, enews

How to Create a Great Newsletter for Business

Newsletters don’t merely inform — they’re also effective tools to connect with readers to subtly sell them on a product, a service, or a cause.

To create a great newsletter for business, it helps to know the content to feature in every issue and its length. Consistency is important to build trust and so that readers know where to look for the information they need and want.

Your content should be easy to create to save everyone’s time and be easy to read. Here’s how to create a great newsletter for business.

E-newsletters and e-blasts

An ideal length is 600 words. It’s enough for snippets on one or more topics — the fewer, the better, to keep readers focused, per newsletter studies.

Eblasts are good for short news items and are generally 500 or fewer words. They can feature one or two items with copy that links to more information at a website.

Either way, it’s best to link as much as possible to shorten the copy and make it easier to scan; links help emphasize the text, too.

No matter the content, include the date or the month and year, links to your social media sites and email address, your mailing address, with links to forward the newsletter and to unsubscribe, according to the CAN-SPAM Act (U.S.).

Your most important, eye-catching copy should be at the top to entice people to read more. An engaging subject line can also influence opens.

Essentially, the less said, the better, done in an intriguing style that doesn’t reveal everything all of the time.

Like blog posts, you can include “calls to action” to get leads.

Print Newsletters

These tend to work best at one to four pages long — roughly 2,000 or fewer words, depending on how you format the text. Anything longer than six pages creeps more toward magazine territory, which is fine, if you truly need all of that copy (and design).

For more than a few pages of text, breaking it into columns makes for easier reading. Graphics and photos work well to enhance the text, too. A logo at the top, with a masthead that shows the issue date and how to contact staff, looks professional.

For more advice, read five elements of effective e-newsletters for business.

Need help learning how to create a great newsletter for business? Want some thoughts on yours? Get a free e-news audit today!

What do you think about newsletters?