Five tips for newsletter success
FIPP’s new Innovation in Magazine Media 2015-2016 World Report includes a chapter on newsletters, well worth a read. Find out more about the report here.
Below, Innovation Media Consulting’s John Wilpers, co-editor of the Innovation World Report curates five tips for success from Time.com’s director of digital innovation Callie Schweitzer and managing editor Edward Felsenthal, Quartz’s Simon Davies, and Prof. Brad Best’s analytic advertising class at the Missouri School of Journalism.
1. Don’t make your readers search for the sign-up page
Put sign-up buttons in prominent locations throughout your website, especially at the top of articles.
2. Make the sign-up process easy
Signing up for your newsletter should be hassle-free. Quartz only asks for your email address and your time zone (to deliver the newsletter at 6am your time). Ask only for essential information; fewer steps equal happier subscribers.
3. Show restraint in your subject line length and tone
As tempting as it is to jam your newsletter subject line with tonnes of topics to lure readers in, Time.com learned through A/B testing that overloaded subject lines actually decrease open rates. As a result, Time.com editors use a maximum of 45 characters in subject lines, which also result in the subject lines being readable in full on most smartphones.
Subject-line restraint also applies to its tone: “I always think about the subject line as something that’s going to make a reader take an action,” Schweitzer told The Poynter Institute. “But that does not mean being sensational.”
4. Deliver on the subject line’s promise
With some newsletters, “it’s hard to find the reason you clicked,” Time.com’s managing editor Edward Felsenthal told Poynter. The story in the subject line should be the top story in the body of the email.
5. Design your newsletters in a mobile-friendly fashion
Make sure your subscribers can easily read articles and click links when viewing your newsletters on their mobile devices.
More like this
Twelve tips to make your newsletter mobile-friendly
This book is a goldmine. Seriously. Commit to Innovation.
Order your copy of Innovation in Magazine Media 2015-2016 World Report
Download the 2014 print-digital advertising innovations chapter: Better together
Subscribe to the monthly FIPP Innovation newsletter (FREE)