- Inject your brand’s personality into your email newsletter.
- Crowdsource questions and content ideas from your readers.
- Use your email footer more creatively.
- Change your “sent from” name and icon to be more personal.
- Plan out your email calendar every year.
Each year, the question, “Are email newsletters dead?” gets asked. And each year, the response is, “Absolutely not!”
Email newsletters have consistently remained important for brands and businesses despite changes in digital marketing. Why? Email newsletters offer personalization, control, and tailoring that other communications can’t. How? Segmenting your audience means you can send targeted content that is engaging. The expectation is that if you give a company your email address, you’ll receive something relevant and exciting.
If your email newsletter is a little stale, or if you haven’t sent out an email in a few weeks, months, or even years, we’ve got some advice to help you get back into the swing of things. Here are 5 ways to improve your newsletter open and click-through rates.
1. Inject Your Brand’s Personality Into Your Email Newsletter
Some of the most engaging emails are the ones where you feel you’re talking to an actual person over a cup of coffee. Achieve this by sharing real-life experiences from you or someone on your team. Talk about yourself. Give readers a behind-the-scenes peek into your business. Don’t just reiterate content; give your thoughts and opinions on those topics. Declare your perspective and authentically elaborate.
2. Crowdsource Content from Your Readers
Just as much as your readers want to hear from you, you need to hear from your readers. Don’t rely on surveys measuring what people do and don’t like about your communications. Instead, create forms and polls requesting input on specific topics. Repurpose this tactic on other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, to solicit honest feedback and expand your view on different subjects and trending topics. Your readers will feel appreciated, and maybe you’ll even learn something in the process.
3. Use Your Footer to the Fullest Extent
It’s 2023. Email footers no longer have to be boring and short. Stop underutilizing your footer and start adding more to it. Once your readers have made it to the bottom of your email, reward them with something unique, fun, and creative—not just the unsubscribe link. Are you promoting a subscription or a new service? Pop it in the footer. Do you want them to share your newsletter with their friends and colleagues? Pop it in the footer. You’re wasting that space if you don’t give subscribers one last chance to connect with you. This is a quick way to improve your newsletter.
4. Change Your “Sent From” Name
Inboxes are flooded daily with emails from brand names, but they’re not usually inundated with emails from humans. While we want subscribers to know who is sending them an email newsletter, why not add your name to the “sent from” section? For example, instead of saying “Betty Boop Boutique,” say, “Kendall @ Betty Boop.” Depending on your email content, you can switch this up with different team members. And don’t forget to add your icon, which appears in most email clients next to your “sent from” name. You can even animate this if you’re feeling bold and creative!
5. Plan Your Email Calendar (Seriously!)
Plans are nothing, but planning is everything, right? If you take the time and effort to seriously think about your email newsletters (what you’re going to discuss each week or month, what email segments you will send them to, the best days and times to schedule your emails, etc.), it will pay off. It’s your chance to reduce uncertainty in your readers and give yourself room to breathe when you’re feeling completely overwhelmed. You can always refer back to your plan, take a deep breath, and focus on your email subscribers’ needs.
Bonus: Make Your Subject Line Snappy
Always test your subject lines and preview texts to get people curious about your email. Don’t give away the newsletter’s content. Instead, be mysterious and enticing, encouraging subscribers to open it. Give them a bit of the punch line, but don’t finish it. And don’t be afraid to experiment with emojis in your subject line, too. It can be an effective and attention-generating technique to increase your email open rates. Because who doesn’t love a shooting star or megaphone?
And voilà—you’re ready to take your newsletter to the next level this year! Get out there, use your personality and all the underutilized resources of your email scheduling platform, and consistently connect with your email subscribers. You’ve got this.
Need some help curating the best content so you can improve your newsletter this year? Chat with the Kudzu team about how we can start crushing your marketing goals. Let’s get growing!