by Tari Faris, @FarisTari
Welcome back to the final part of the Making Your Newsletter Work for You series. It has been so great to share with you how I shifted my feelings about writing newsletters from dread to joy and at the same time grew my subscriber list from 300 to 7000 in three years. If you missed them, make sure you take time to read PART 1, PART 2, PART 3, PART 4. and PART 5.
Now let’s dive in because today we are wrapping it up with a few nitty gritty details. These details may help you take your newsletter to the next level.
- Get creative with email subject lines.
I never put newsletter in the subject. Usually, it is a statement or question that is answered in the newsletter.
- New starts, fresh goals, and colorful planners!
- What a month it was!
- It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
- Let’s connect in 3…2…1…
I don’t have the catchiest titles, so maybe that is what I will work on next. Just make it something that would spark curiosity.
- Pick one primary call-to-action.
As I mentioned last month, my call to action was always connected to a giveaway. Although, if I have a sale or something exciting, I will add that in the section “before you go.”
- Make sure images have alt text.
Most email programs have a place where you can offer “alternative text” or “alt text” when inserting a photo. Using key words and phrases that go with the image help if the image doesn’t come though. But it also improves the SEO and how a mail program treats it.
I need to get better about this. People with SEO knowledge say it is necessary so I will pass that on to you.
- Make it easy for people to unsubscribe.
Most email services have it at the bottom and I agree—make it simple. If you don’t, people will mark it as spam (some will anyway) and if you get too many you can run into problems with your email service.
- Test, test, test.
Yes – too many times I have sent an email out with a bad link. One time, I sent out an email pushing P.S. Goodbye but with a bad link. 75 subscribers clicked the bad link. I fixed it and resent the email but only 25 clicked it a second time. 50 people missed out because I failed to test.
- PROOF, PROOF, PROOF
I have dyslexia so this step is necessary for me but I also encourage you to have others proof your newsletters. Get more eyes on it. We miss our own mistakes. Editors have jobs for a reason.
The last thing I will cover is to address the question that has no great answer: When is it time to trim your subscribers?
No one wants to do that. Why would we throw away email addresses we fought our blood, sweat, and tears to get? One answer: money. I will use my experience as an example.
I am sitting at 7000 subscribers. When I looked yesterday, 1800 of my subscribers had not opened a single mail I had sent in the past year. We can officially call them dead weight. However, cutting them at this point would take me down to 5200. This is the same price as I pay for the 7000. Does it make sense for me to cut them now? Nope.
However, as I get closer to the next price point (10,000 for me), then I will consider trimming them. There are ideas online about sending an email to give them one last chance to engage. I will look into that. Maybe when the time comes – I will write a blog post here about it. But for now, I want to make sure my current subscribers have had some engagement.
Does it make sense for you to trim? Look at your price points and know before you grow.
Most email platforms have a built-in system to help you remove them. Just be sure you are really ready to make the move and have given them a last opportunity to connect before you do because you can’t reverse it. I have heard that some systems block information that would tell my email program that the reader has opened/interacted with the email. That is why it is good to give inactive subscribers one last chance to “click here to stay subscribed.”
So there it is—my six-part series on making your newsletter work for you.
What did you find the most helpful? Was there anything I didn’t address? Put it in a comment. Maybe it will end up as a future blog post.
Leah Williams is back in the quaint town of Heritage, Michigan, and ready to try again to make her business a success. But blank slates are hard to come by, and a piece of her past is waiting for her there. Heir to the Heritage Fruits company, Jonathan Kensington is the guy who not only made Leah’s past difficult, he also seems determined to complicate her present as well.
Jon is trying to prove to the Heritage Fruits board that he, not his manipulative uncle, should be running the business. The board insists Jon find a new owner for the building that will house Leah’s business. To avoid forcing a buyout of Leah’s part of the building, Jon strikes a compromise with Leah, and the two go into business together. With her vision and his know-how, it might work. And Leah might realize he’s loved her since high school. If only he didn’t keep on shooting himself in the foot by boxing her out of important decisions.
Sparks fly in this romantic story of two people who must learn to trust both each other and the one who called them to this journey.
Available now for preorder! And visit linktr.ee/tarifaris to sign up for preorder rewards!
Tari Faris has been writing fiction for fifteen years but has been creating fiction in her head as long as she can remember. She is represented by Wendy Lawton at Books & Such Literary Management and is a member of ACFW and My Book Therapy. She was the 2017 Genesis winner, 2016 Genesis finalist, and 2014 Genesis finalist. In addition to her writing, she also works for My Book Therapy as a special project manager and writes for LearnHowToWriteANovel.com . When she is not writing or working, she spends time with her amazing husband and kids. In her free time, she loves coffee, rockhounding with her husband and kids, and distracting herself from housework. You can connect with her at www.tarifaris.com