TOP TIPS FOR YOUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER

There is often a lot of debate surrounding email newsletters – Does anyone read them? Is social media a better platform for building connections? In fact, email can be a very effective way to connect with your target audience.

Having a mailing list means you have already captured ‘interested’ parties from your target audience and having subscribers means they do want to receive updates from you.

In the current climate with everything moving online - conferences, workshops, meetings, networking and presentations - email newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with your connections. For the professional services sector, email newsletters in today’s digital world can help to keep you at the forefront of your target audience’s mind.

How your email newsletter can grab attention as soon as it lands in the inbox:

• Subject line – this is first thing subscribers will see so it needs to stand out and in as few words as possible. Keep the subject relevant to your target audience. Questions, humour, offers, one-word subjects and personalisation can be effective subject lines to grab attention.
• Preheader – Subscribers will then see the preheader. This needs to be a short summary of what your subscribers are going to read in the newsletter. Including personalisation and emojis will help make it stand out.
• Segment your newsletter – no one wants to read an essay - everyone is busy and there’s not enough time in the day to read everything. Breaking your newsletter into sections will help your reader to identify what is important to them - keep each section short with bullet points and provide calls to actions such as ‘read more’ or ‘book now’, to entice subscribers to find out more.
• Personalise throughout – humanising your brand is important. Including the subscriber’s name will make your email feel more personal. It is also useful to send your email from an individual name, not the generic company account or marketing department.
• Design – It is important to have a consistently branded approach to your email newsletters. Subscribers should recognise it is from you or your firm when they open it. Include your brand colours, logo and other brand assets but don’t go too heavy with background colours – it’s good to keep a simple clean layout with white space so the content is easy to read. Double check your email is responsive - can it be viewed easily on a phone, tablet or desktop?
• Include visuals – although there has been a lot of discussion/trend for plain text emails, including visuals such as images, videos and animations can really help to gain more attention.
• Emojis – emojis can lead to higher open rates but be careful not to go overboard with them, particularly if it not your usual company ‘tone of voice’.
• GDPR – ensure your email newsletter is GDPR compliant. Only send to opted-in subscribers and include an unsubscribe button at the bottom of your message.
• Test your email - If you want to improve your email performance, it is good practice to A/B test your email in terms of subject line, colours, format etc, to see what performs best.

Emails are a great way to build relationships and engage with your readers and they don’t have to be very time consuming – find out what works best for your audience – a monthly email might work better than a weekly one or like us, you may find a quarterly update is sufficient.

Cal Partners is an award-winning digital marketing agency helping professional services firms attract and retain their ideal clients. If you need help with your email strategy, contact us here to book your free consultation.