However, they can't achieve this impact if you can't keep your audience engaged with your emails.
These eight strategies will get your subscribers to read every email:
1. Welcome new subscribers
Like any other form of communication, first impressions matter. A great welcome message can be one of the most powerful automated emails you can send. This should include the basic information they need to know, such as reminding subscribers when or how often your newsletter is published and the topics you'll cover.
Your opening message should also let subscribers know how to unsubscribe c level or decision maker email list and how to set preferences, such as choosing how often they want to receive messages or only receiving messages about specific topics. Getting their preferences right up front ensures that subscribers never receive irrelevant content that doesn't interest them.
Your welcome campaign can also include a preview of what to expect from your newsletter. This could be samples of recent newsletters that cover relevant topics or evergreen content unique to the newsletter, such as a guide or introduction to a topic.
2. Segment audiences
Unless you only offer a service to a very specific demographic, not all of your newsletter subscribers are interested in the same topics. To keep each person engaged with every message you send, effectively segmented mailing lists are critical.
Sometimes it's obvious how to segment your email lists. For example, a clothing store's newsletter that sends an email about children's clothing would be a waste of time for non-parent subscribers. Similarly, the subscription method used and behavioral data such as browsing and purchase history are often good indicators of a subscriber's interests.
You can segment your audience using your email marketing tools according to virtually any quantifiable data you have, and many segments will be specific to your business. However, a few factors can be useful ways to segment most audiences:
Content and offers aimed at making subscribers think about expensive premium services will not get much response from customers on a budget. Similarly, people who only want the best may be less interested in content and services focused on cutting costs. This includes separating free or trial users from users of paid services.
While all your emails should look good in mobile format, it is useful to know which customers typically open your newsletter from their phone. This allows you to adapt the content to the mobile format, for example, turning an article into an infographic.
In order for your newsletters to reach a professional audience, it’s important to segment based on subscribers’ job titles. Simply put, your content should reflect whether you’re communicating with someone who will use your services themselves or someone who will provide your services to their teams.
3. Use SMS
Source: Online Finance
Source: Online Finance
Text messages can support your newsletter in several ways:
SMS notifications can increase your email open rates by reminding subscribers when you send your newsletter. While a subscriber may only check their emails a few times a day, most people have their phone with them at all times, ensuring that customers never miss an email.
Creating a text to subscribe virtual number can provide a convenient additional opt-in method. This is particularly useful for generating newsletter sign-ups from physical media such as posters, flyers, and direct mail. It only takes a few seconds to pull out your phone and text a keyword. Streamlining the opt-in process is an important step in maximizing the impact of any email marketing.
You can also supplement your emails with an SMS newsletter. This allows you to provide shorter content to keep subscribers engaged between email releases, such as breaking news or flash sale alerts, or provide a quick daily tip.
4. Boost interactivity
Creating opportunities to interact or engage with your newsletter content gives subscribers another reason to interact with your emails. Using surveys and polls to get your audience's opinions on the latest news and trends gives you more insight into what your audience is interested in.
Interactivity is also a great way to get your subscribers thinking about a specific topic. For example, you could pose a question related to your industry and include the most interesting answers in your next email.
In addition to getting customers to think about their own answer to your question, even those who don't participate will be exposed to new perspectives from other customers.
newsletter strategies
Similarly, asking your audience for questions that you'll answer in your next newsletter gives subscribers the opportunity to steer content toward topics they're interested in. The questions and answers you get from doing this can also be a useful source of future content ideas, as it highlights what your customers want to know more about.
5. Get the timing right
Timing has a huge impact on the success of your newsletter. The right schedule depends on your business and your customers, but there are some basic rules that apply to most audiences:
People often spend their weekends relaxing or having fun, without reading their emails.
Mondays should also be avoided, as your recipients will likely already have a backlog of unread emails from the weekend.
According to recent research from Mailgun , emails sent at 3pm on a Wednesday are more likely to be opened.
