I’ve had an email from my accountant. Not the concerning moment you might think as I subscribe to their newsletter and ‘incident related’ emails. They obviously know about my job in email marketing and mostly keep the information they send relevant to my needs. That’s something we should all learn from. The personalisation means I always open them.

It contained, as I suspected, a breakdown of the recent mini-budget, if that’s the correct term, and how they felt it would affect me and my little business. It was put as likely outcomes, with no fanciful guesses as to the actual amount of any losses. There were no suggestions of wins.

There was good news. They know what I do and the suggestion was that my level of email marketing, and other sidelines, should not be ‘adversely affected to a worrying degree by any specific inclusions of the mini-budget’. To put it another way, they felt I should be all right. There were warnings, in particular how markets would view the situation, with ‘levels of borrowing’ coming in, not so much for criticism as something that could be concerning. As I write, the £/$ rate certainly leaves me concerned.

It’s a good example of what can make a newsletter, and a marketing email to an extent, a must-open. There’s no way I will unsubscribe, probably for some years. Let’s list the good points.

1/ The information was timely, it arriving the morning following the budget announcement;

2/ It was personalised and relevant, with the information pertinent to me being explained on the newsletter, with brief details of the rest;

3/ There were click-throughs to further information, and in addition a link entitled ‘FAQ’ with, at the end, the suggestion that if I needed specific details I should reply to the email – how about that? – or, if it was urgent, to phone an identified member of staff.

The idea was to mitigate my concerns as well suggest that the partners were looking out for my interests. It worked. Consider this as a blueprint for a killer newsletter or a special marketing email. Make you subscribers aware you care about their needs.