3 Ideas for Helping Newsletter Readers

3 IDEAS FOR HELPING NEWSLETTER READERS
by Michael Katz

* At the moment of sign-up, tell readers when and how often you intend to publish.

On both the page where you ask people to sign up for your newsletter (view a sample here) as well as in the "Welcome Letter" that you send as confirmation, make sure to share your publishing schedule. Remember that if you publish a monthly newsletter, and you published yesterday, the person who signs up today has 29 days to go until the next edition arrives. If they know the schedule, they know what to expect.

* Include a synopsis at the beginning of each issue.

Not every subscriber will want to read every issue you send out (I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this). It doesn't mean they don't want to continue receiving your E-Newsletter, it just means that for whatever reason, this topic on this day is not important enough for them to take the time.

To help readers quickly decide if the topic of the month is useful, include a brief synopsis – an executive summary – at the beginning of each e-mail. Something that indicates what they'll find. This way, busy readers can read on if it's relevant, but quickly delete if it's not.

* Give your E-Newsletter a meaningful subheading.

The subheading of this newsletter is, "a free biweekly guide to creating, writing and managing effective e-newsletters." It serves two purposes:

First, it reminds people what they've subscribed to. In the barrage of e-mails that your readers receive on a daily basis, some of them may forget from month to month who you are and what you write about, or even that they opted in to receive your E-Newsletter in the first place. The subheading helps to reorient them.

Second, it makes the forwarding process more effective. When one of your subscribers forwards your newsletter to a friend or colleague (one of the main benefits of writing in the electronic world in the first place), a good descriptive subheading will serve to properly prepare the recipient, who very likely has never even heard of you, and whose forwarding friend may have only said, "thought you'd be interested."