Top 9 Tips for Writing an Email Newsletter

At Blue Dog Marketing, we’re often asked how to write an email newsletter. Is there a secret? The main thing I've learned in my experience writing email newsletters is that not many people open them. Fewer still actually read them.

This can be disheartening if you’re a small business owner looking to keep in contact with your customers. But if you know this to start with, then you know you have to have a killer subject line, an intriguing headline and very short body copy that tells people quickly what you want them to know.

Here are my top nine tips for writing newsletters that people open and read:

1.   The subject line is king. Something like 99.9% of marketing emails don't get opened. If you can get someone to open your email you're more than halfway there. Make sure to make your subject line short, interesting, different, important, clear and valuable.

2.   Know who you're writing to. You've got to know exactly who you're writing to, what they like, what they need and what key words will trigger them.

3.   Keep it new. Some of your customers will read your newsletter, so they need to find it useful and relevant to them. Write about different things in a different way each time.

4.   Call to action. What do you want your customers to do? Make sure this step is big and bold. Include it separately from the body copy as people will miss it there.

5.   Top 10 lists are a great idea. Nothing is easier to write than a top 10 list. It's great for the reader because they can skip down the points in bold or read more.

6.   Do questions work? Yes. It's an old trick, but a good way to start the first paragraph, or in the subject line, with a question.

7.   Include pictures and picture captions. After subject lines and headlines, the most important piece of copy you'll want to include is the picture caption. Pictures are much more important and interesting than copy, and, after they've seen the picture, they'll often read the caption to get a bit more information.

8.   Have a theme. Each month it's good to have a different theme so that you can tie in seemingly irrelevant news items or articles in together. Magazines do it regularly for the same reason. It makes your newsletter seem more essential, more thought out.

9.   Include sneak preview and quick polls. You can fill out the content of the newsletter by adding a quick poll, facts or Did you knows? Also, tell the reader a bit about what to expect in the next newsletter in this one to whet their appetite and help keep the open rate up.