Most subscribers devour newsletters. Unlike marketing emails, when they see one in their inbox, they’ll put them to one side to read at leisure, probably with a cup of coffee and biscuit. Their brain will be at its most receptive. With defences down and scepticism hibernating, they are typical of a newsletter reader.
It is obviously tempting for the sender to opt into email marketing mode as people approach newsletters in an entirely different frame of mind. That’s no excuse, though. If you want them to hit the unsubscribe button for newsletters, set out to sell me something.
Most subscribers, to both email marketing lists and newsletters, look for reasons to open the former, the Subject Line being critical here. One small error can ruin open rates. Newsletters are approached significantly differently. The Subject Line is all but superfluous. Subscribers are going to open it to see what’s inside and to boost this likelihood, many companies will split an article and run them over two 
or more issues.
One of the most significant factors with newsletters is that the subscribers have already entrusted the sender with their personal details, albeit for a freebie, and as long as the rules are stuck to, the trust will be reinforced at each opening. If, ‘when’ is more accurate, you suggest they subscribe to your email marketing list, their doubt about what you will do with their details will already have been settled. We’ve mentioned in a previous article the value of generating trust.
In addition to its value as a lead magnet and builder of trust, newsletters can be used to show your company is knowledgeable about the products it sells. Don’t go about this by way of boasting. Some newsletters will tell you about what qualifications one of their staff has just achieved, that they’ve hit a record target, or they’ve just opened a new branch somewhere. That’s not the way to do it.
A nationwide plant nursery produces an email that comes out each issue as a new phase of planting, or, depressingly, work is required in a garden. They give little hints about the best plants to fiddle with at a specific time of year, how to prepare the earth – you can probably guess the rest. They have bits for large and small gardens, even ‘window boxes’. If you’ve got a query, they answer on a page on their website.
They make no overt attempt to sell any specific product in any issue. They will mention plants that require, well, planting, and show images of the same, suggesting that, if you can go to the website or, if you’re a subscriber to their email marketing list, you will receive certain offers, perhaps a free gift, to go with them. Who could resist?
Whatever product you are selling, there’s a newsletter format that will encourage subscribers to trust you, be grateful to you, be willing to subscribe to an email marketing list. There are temptations to go outside the rules, but if you want to encourage subscribers, ensure you conform to expectations.
