Creating e-Mail Newsletters Your Customers Actually Want to Open

If you think e-mail newsletters are an outdated content marketing technique, you’re missing out on one the most cost-effective marketing tools ever devised.
Not only does e-mail offer an incredible return on investment (ROI), it’s also incredibly relevant in the mobile age. As recently as January of this year, 66 percent of all e-mail was opened on a mobile device. That’s a lot of eyeballs, but they won’t stick around for long if you’re not offering them something truly compelling.
In a recent posting on SearchEngineland.com titled, 11 Hacks for Improving Your Email Click Rates, a group of content marketing gurus took on this very subject. Here are a few of their top tips.
Stand Out
If you’re like most of us, you probably subscribe to a whole bunch of email newsletters, but really only read one or two of them. What is it about those newsletters that keep you reading? If there’s a call to action or promotion that’s attractive to you, chances are it will be attractive to your customers, too.
If you’re not enthusiastic about reading your own newsletters, there’s no way you’ll get anybody else to get excited about them either.
A/B Testing is Pretty Cool
You’ve probably got a lot of great ideas for content marketing and A/B (or split) testing allows you to test them head-to-head.
Unlike the old days, split testing is not something that requires a degree in engineering and masters degree in analytics. Even basic emailing services offer simple A/B tools that tell you exactly how customers are responding to specific calls-to-action.
Make it Mobile
If 66% of all e-mails are opened on mobile devices, that means that 66% of e-mail recipients are expecting a newsletter that’s been optimized for mobile devices.
Testing mobile optimization is as easy as sending yourself a copy of the newsletter before you send out to the entire world. If it looks good on your mobile, you’re probably good to go. How hard is that?
Finally
Creating quality email newsletters that offer real value is pretty simple if you’re s=willing to put some effort into the project. Once you’ve put in the ground work, you’ll have a few templates that can be used over and over gain. Just plug and play!