Best Practices For Your E-Newsletter:

There are lots of good marketing reasons to have a newsletter. Which ones work for you?

Marketing research tells us that customers and prospects need to have some contact with us from time to time so that they remain familiar to them. Your newsletter can help you stay in touch and keep customers aware of who you are and what you do.

Your newsletter lets you demonstrate your expertise. It's an easy way to remind your customers of what you do well and why they should do business with you.

Your newsletter mailing list is a part of your market that you can reach directly and easily. Use it to sell things directly or make your customers aware of special offers.

How long should your newsletter be?

Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing consultant. Her newsletter is very short. She designs it to be read in two minutes or less.

Larry Chase's Web Digest for Marketers is very long. It includes lists of resources, guest articles and an article by Larry.

Which is for you? The answer depends on your goal and your resources.

Daphne's goals are to stay in touch and demonstrate her skills as a writing coach. She writes the newsletter herself.

Larry's goals are to position himself as a web marketing expert that people will hire as a consultant or speaker. He has a staff that helps put out the newsletter.

If you're writing your own newsletter, short is usually a better choice than long. Just know that research tells us that short, "tip" newsletters are more likely to be read, but less likely to be kept as a reference.

How often should you send your newsletter?

The answer to this question sounds like the answer to the question of length. It depends on your goal and your resources.

There's lots of research about how often your customers should hear from or about you so that the little bell goes off in their head when they hear of you or need what you sell. Some experts say it should happen at least four times in every six weeks. Other experts recommend nine times in eighteen months.

You probably want to send your newsletter at least monthly. Weekly is good if you can do it.

Text or HTML?

This is almost like those "Tastes great versus less filling" arguments. Each side has experts and research.

The experts who favor HTML, point to research that says HTML newsletters have higher click through rates than plain text. The plain text advocates point to research that HTML email is more likely to get caught in corporate spam filters.

You can pick one or the other and test. You can give customers a choice, sending some HTML and others plain text.

The Subject Line

Most successful newsletter creators mention the content of the current letter in their subject line. That tells readers the benefit of reading this particular newsletter.

You can change the subject line, but make sure you keep your "From" line the same. That's important for getting past the spam filters.

Good Newsletter Writing

Good newsletter writing is like good writing anywhere else. Use short, sentences and paragraphs. Use common words, Write like you talk, not like you're doing a college paper.

Most people today get lots of email. So they scan before they read. Help them read your newsletter by writing clear subject lines. Make the copy scanable by including subheads like the ones in this article.