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November 9, 2015 at 9:40 am #993245Up::0
Hey guys, for those who are new to email marketing (edm, monthly e-newsletters etc) I thought I would share some advice relating to an article I just published (on the Tube Academy blog) about the length of an email newsletter because this is an area which many people get wrong.
When you’re making an email newsletter it’s important to think of the purpose. In most cases the purpose of it is to attract people onto your website so they can hopefully buy something from you. This highlights one of the most common problems…
MAKING YOUR E-NEWSLETTER TOO LONG
Typically the best way to make an EDM (electronic direct marketing/email) is to use a blog post. You write out your entire blog post on your website, and then include a small excerpt in your EDM as a teaser.
If you make the common mistake of including too much (or in some cases the entire article) in your email, then the reader has no need to click through and explore your website and you lose the opportunity.SO HOW LONG SHOULD THE EMAIL BE?
Not to sound too cryptic but it should be just long enough to make the reader curious enough to click through to your website and read the rest of the article.
Generally only 1 introductory paragraph is needed and if you write your blog articles well you can just copy/paste the first paragraph from there into your EDM and you’re good to go!This means that once you have written an article for your blog, you’ve also done about 90% of the work needed to publish a highly valuable email to your database. NICE!
The result? People will click through to your website, read the article, build more trust in you/your brand and buy things from you. YAY!
[MODERATED – Video Removed – outside forum guidelines]
November 9, 2015 at 11:34 pm #1190571Up::0Good thoughts Stuart.
Some folk are pasting the whole blog post on the email. If we reproduce content like that, people will stop visiting the blog and all that is found there, including popups for freebies and coupons, and social sharing and following (although that can be done directly on some newsletters).
Also, few people are interested in everything posted on a blog so it bodes well if the sender shows some sensitivity and discretion. I don’t include all my posts. Get them to the really great ones and they might poke around a bit for others.
We do title plus about 6 words as teasers and write the headline with brevity in mind right from the outset as Twitter’s going to need it short as well.
We should say that some businesses send customers in the opposite direction (from website to email) and make email primary. They link out to affiliate sites that couldn’t host this content. I’d prefer a cycling approaching where I keep them moving around all our offerings for brand awareness as well.
November 10, 2015 at 1:44 am #1190572Up::0Great advice Stuart B,
Thanks for this tip, I have been tossing up over a need to a newsletter.
Also, I love your Quick Tips on You Tube, I have been watching them this morning, and I do plan on signing up for Tube Academy to be able to learn a little bit more. I learnt so much just from your Facebook Post Link Video
For someone like me who is trying to learn as much as possible, I think your way of teaching is fantastic. You are straight forward and easy to follow.
November 10, 2015 at 1:52 am #1190573Up::0Mischelle, post: 223666, member: 60404 wrote:Great advice Stuart B,Thanks for this tip, I have been tossing up over a need to a newsletter.
Also, I love your Quick Tips on You Tube, I have been watching them this morning, and I do plan on signing up for Tube Academy to be able to learn a little bit more. I learnt so much just from your Facebook Post Link Video
For someone like me who is trying to learn as much as possible, I think your way of teaching is fantastic. You are straight forward and easy to follow.
[USER=60404]@Mischelle[/USER] thanks so much and I’m really glad you’re enjoying the Quick Tip videos! I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy
You know it’s so funny I get so much feedback about those “Anatomy of a text/link/video post” on Facebook. I think it’s because people use them every day but are totally unaware of actually how powerful they can be when you have a thorough knowledge of how they work, and how you can control them.
November 10, 2015 at 6:23 am #1190574Up::0Stuart B, post: 223599, member: 10757 wrote:Hey guys, for those who are new to email marketing (edm, monthly e-newsletters etc) I thought I would share some advice relating to an article I just published (on the Tube Academy blog) about the length of an email newsletter because this is an area which many people get wrong.When you’re making an email newsletter it’s important to think of the purpose. In most cases the purpose of it is to attract people onto your website so they can hopefully buy something from you. This highlights one of the most common problems…
MAKING YOUR E-NEWSLETTER TOO LONG
Typically the best way to make an EDM (electronic direct marketing/email) is to use a blog post. You write out your entire blog post on your website, and then include a small excerpt in your EDM as a teaser.
If you make the common mistake of including too much (or in some cases the entire article) in your email, then the reader has no need to click through and explore your website and you lose the opportunity.SO HOW LONG SHOULD THE EMAIL BE?
Not to sound too cryptic but it should be just long enough to make the reader curious enough to click through to your website and read the rest of the article.
Generally only 1 introductory paragraph is needed and if you write your blog articles well you can just copy/paste the first paragraph from there into your EDM and you’re good to go!This means that once you have written an article for your blog, you’ve also done about 90% of the work needed to publish a highly valuable email to your database. NICE!
The result? People will click through to your website, read the article, build more trust in you/your brand and buy things from you. YAY!
[MODERATED – Video Removed – outside forum guidelines]
Stuart! I love this It’s spot on.
We have a client who often writes long rambling emails. Apparently she gets lots of people reading them, but I my recommendation has always been to put the actual content on their website, and then use teasers through as you do.
The same thing with social media. A lot of people put their content on facebook and then just walk away… but they’ve kind of given the control of their content to facebook in this case! What a waste when they could be driving traffic through to their website by providing a small teaser text and then a link through to the website directly.
(Of course, facebook are trying to actually cache content these days but I guess that’s another story).
The other obvious advantage of having your content on your website is that it increases ingress search likelihood… it’s impossibly to search your content if it’s locked in an email somewhere, so yes… great advice.
Regards,
JulianNovember 14, 2015 at 9:33 am #1190575Up::0Most people don’t want another Newsletter… so let’s not call it that if you want optins.
The length is irrelevant…. if what you put out is good and is matched to what people in your market want and the urgency of their need… they’ll read it?
January 19, 2016 at 2:58 am #1190576Up::0The tip with putting teaser into a newsletter is great.
However, you should always consider what is the goal of your EDM before doing so.
Is the goal improving brand awareness? How about doing a conversion? How about tightening the relationship with your customer?In many cases, you do not need the reader to visit your website. You want to get your message into his head. You want to be seen. Or may be you want something else – think about it. Think about the goal and he purpose of your email.
Engagement is good, but the fact that the people are not always clicking is not bad. May be they are just not ready to buy yet.
January 19, 2016 at 5:32 am #1190577Up::0I disagree. The goal of your email campaign will help shape the design and the content you choose to put into your email. But the gold standard is always to have someone click through to do something after reading it.
January 19, 2016 at 9:41 am #1190578Up::0Exactly what I meant Stuart. The goal shapes content. It is a good idea to navigate the recipient to some action/click, I do not argue about that. There are however times when it does not make sense. We have for example successfully used email program “Coffee message of the day” – the main content is usually composed just by few lines of the text (short tip/trick). That messages are purposely very simple. We do not use any large call to actions here as we know that the customer would not buy (there are seasonal peaks and off-season time is used for brand building). The option of getting to the website through the link is still there (non-highlighted link), but the main goal is not to get the customer to the website, but to minimize cognitive load and let the user focus on the message (during off-season).
January 20, 2016 at 1:17 am #1190579Up::0@StuartB Hi Stuart, I don’t believe that a hard and fast rule like that works now with so many emails being read on smartphones. A few teaser lines will struggle to draw a mobile reader to your website for the rest of the message unless you’ve immediately hit a raw nerve with the reader.
[USER=75976]@hana.trojkova[/USER] well said
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