Electronic newsletters have many advantages over conventional printed marketing methods. They are cost effective and time efficient because they don’t require printing and postage costs, or time collating and folding. They can be sent out instantaneously by a click of a button. Whether you currently have an e-newsletter or plan to develop one, you can learn to make the best use of this medium. Here are 5 valuable tips to creating an effective or more effective e-newsletter.

1. Sign Up For e-Newsletters
By signing up for e-newsletters from your competitors and other nonprofit organizations, you can glean good ideas to apply to your e-newsletter. Once you’ve collected a large enough sample to gauge the current best practices and common trends, you will have a good starting point - a baseline to build from. This assessment will also help you identify your competitors’ mistakes and discover areas of opportunity for a niche that might need to be filled. If you have comparisons, you will know if you’re offering something different and unique.

2. Know Your Audience
Create a targeted e-mail list. Shoot with a rifle and not a shotgun; in other words, don’t send a broad message to a broad audience. If you know your audience —your client base and prospects – your information is more likely to be interpreted by the recipient as legitimate and thus more likely to be read. Do research to find out what your audience is looking for in an e-newsletter, what adds value, what information is important to them and will make them want to read it. Survey your current readers and request feedback. The e-newsletter should reflect the needs of your audience; as their needs change, so too should the e-newsletter content and offerings.

3. Make Sign Up Easy
However you go about getting readers to opt-in to your e-newsletter subscription, make it easy. If you have a Web site, have a persistent e-newsletter sign up available on most, if not all pages, especially the most visited/viewed pages – the Home page is a must! Market your e-newsletter in all of your promotional materials including letters and correspondences; direct them to your Web site for this or give them an e-mail address that is specifically used for e-newsletter sign up.

4. Send a Welcome Letter to New Subscribers
A welcome letter is essential. It’s the first impression given of your e-newsletter. This one-time, auto-response letter serves many purposes: to welcome the subscriber; to confirm their information; to introduce the e-newsletter’s voice and personality; to set expectations about content, issue frequency, copyright, and permissible usage; and finally to provide instruction on how to update their data, unsubscribe, and how to contact the e-newsletter staff. The welcome letter should market your publication and encourage readers to stay on your mailing list for a long time to come. We also recommend a similar design to the actual e-newsletter to brand the publication and set readers’ expectations.

5. Develop Valuable Content
Content is the meat and potatoes of the e-newsletter. It is so important, but many aspects of content are overlooked because organizations just want to get the e-newsletter out the door. The primary focus of the e-newsletter should be to provide the readers with added value and benefit—NOT to sell or advertise your products or services. A good ratio for content is 75% value – relevant and useful information, and 25% promotion – specials, coupons, product descriptions, etc. Push value! Build trust and credibility by providing original content in your area of expertise, and by solving readers’ problems. Make use of regular columns, fun facts, and helpful tips and post news and events. Common elements every e-newsletter should include are calls to action, company contact information, copyright notice, forward to a friend function, feedback forms, and always a way to unsubscribe (preferably with an exit poll).


6. Personalize the message
Personalizing your message can help build credibility and establish trust. Use active voice, use first and second person vernacular, incorporate humor, use a tone that’s casual and engaging, and speech that is conversational. A newsletter is more informal than other forms of marketing communication so take advantage of the opportunity to convey an interpersonal quality through an otherwise impersonal medium. Other ways to personalize the publication is to have a message from the editor or CEO (with their signature), offer a Q&A section, feedback forms, polls and forums - anything you feel would engage the reader from an individual perspective.


7. Simplify Design and Layout
Don’t re-invent the wheel each time you prepare your e-newsletter. By designing a template to use every time and changing out the images, text, headings, etc., you can focus more on the content itself. Have regular sections show up in the same location within each issue so that readers become familiar with these - like weekly tips, letter from the president, or featured product/project.

Keep it clean and consistent. We suggest a column layout to break up the text and make it easier to read. Keep images to a minimum file size, 600 pixels in width. Value your readers’ time by limiting the length of the e-newsletter.

8. Integrate with Web site
Your Web site and e-newsletter should cross-promote/market one another. On your Web site, make the “subscribe” and “unsubscribe” options easy to find and easy to use. Provide a sample of your e-newsletter with a brief description of what they can expect from the publication, how often they will receive it, etc. You may even want to present a special discount or “free” offer in exchange for their e-mail address.
On the e-newsletter side, you can add links directly from the e-newsletter to your Web site. This drives traffic to your site and can direct the readers to past/archived issues, white papers, articles, and any other useful information that may be too in-depth and voluminous for the e-newsletter.
9. Become Familiar with the CAN-SPAM Law
It is important that you comply with the rules and regulations set forth by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the CAN-SPAM law (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act). This law applies to solicitous and commercial e-mailers. Observing the
guidelines of the CAN-SPAM law not only keeps you out of trouble, but because the rules double as best practices, your e-newsletters may become more effective as a result. For more information about the CAN-SPAM law requirements, penalties, provisions, exemptions, and how it affects e-mail communications, visit www.ftc.gov/spam and click on “For Business.”

10. Create a Strategy
This one encompasses all of the other tips mentioned here and many more. As industry experts, we have found that not having a strategy is the biggest pitfall of an e-newsletter; lack of planning is the reason why so many e-newsletters come up short.

By creating a strategy for your e-newsletter initiative you will be able to define the who, what, where, when, why and how of the e-newsletter: Who is your audience? What are their readership needs? What are your objectives? What will the e-newsletter say? Where will it be sent? When will it be sent (day and time)? How will it look? How often will it be sent? These are questions that should be asked before developing an e-newsletter or in re-tooling the one you
already have. Internally, the strategy will need to identify what resources will be required to produce, execute and manage it on a continuous basis. An e-newsletter is a tool; when used correctly and done right it can be of tremendous value to your business and one of the best return on investments your company ever makes.