Keeping Subscribers to Your E-Mail Newsletter

I subscribe to at least a couple of dozen e-mail newsletters. Some good, some bad, some extraordinary*. Some I ready start to finish every time they pop into my e-mail box. Others I just delete because I’m not in the mood. I know that’s the state of the e-mail newsletter racket.

So what makes me open one newsletter and pass another by?

There are three main things I look for:

1) content
2) personality
3) usefulness

Now content is important – but if the newsletter doesn’t have much personality it becomes harder and harder to open on a regular basis.

If it has personality but is lacking in content and usefulness I may continue to read it if it amuses me on a regular basis. But probably not.

Usefulness is a bit of a moving target. Some of the best newsletters I’ve read in the past few years have outlived their usefulness. Not because the information is no longer good, or the person behind that information isn’t personable – but sometimes I’ll stop reading something simply because I’ve soaked up about all I’m going to from that newsletter – and either the information is re-hashing stuff I already know, or I’ve personally moved on.

So publishing a newsletter is a bit of a gamble.

And it needs to be one more thing: concise. That doesn’t mean it should be a short, throwaway e-mail. No, it should have all it needs to succeed in the three previously mentioned areas – and no more.

If you’re a writer who pieces together a regular newsletter, you know it’s an on-going challenge. Some weeks you’re up to it and others you don’t succeed the way you would like to.

Life gets in the way: kids need rides to school or your time; sleep-deprivation won’t work any more; you have other business that is more pressing. Could be any number of reasons why the latest issue isn’t up to your personal standards.

But you publish anyway because you know at least SOME people are waiting to read your latest article or listen to your latest podcast.

Besides, it’s a good exercise in self-discipline. And it’s a learning tool: the more you write about anything, the more you learn about the topic you’re writing about.

(Do you subscribe to our Inner Circle Newsletter? Please do – and see if we possibly bother to live up to our own standards!? Just fill in the form on the upper right hand column of this page…)

(btw: the most extraordinary newsletter I receive on a weekly basis is the MondayMorningMemo^© from Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads^®.

The Monday Morning Memo focuses mostly on advertising and writing. But Roy is not only a terrific writer – he finds ways to help you look into your heart. You should check it out…)