How to Optimize Your Newsletter Before Sending it – Email Marketing for Beginners Part 3

CleverReach

Learn how to make your newsletter really valuable for your email subscribers

You have already created your first newsletter? Before you send it out, CleverReach will give you a checklist of all the important points for your campaign:

Recipients: Which recipient list did you select? If this is your very first email, it’ll probably be your entire email list.
Advanced users segment their list of recipients before sending their message and send different content to different groups of recipients.
Subject Line: Do you have a convincing subject line? Does it make you want to open it? It’s important to make sure your subject line piques people’s curiosity, because that’s what’ll decide whether they open your email or delete it.
Sender: Who is the sender of your email? Can you tell who the newsletter is from? Otherwise, the recipient might think it’s spam.
Content: What does the email look like? Preview the content and images.

Found something you want to optimize? Go for it! Now is (still) the time:

Optimize Your Subject Line
Find the Right Time for Sending Out Your Email
Find Exciting Topics for Your Newsletter

Optimize Your Subject Line

You already entered your subject when you set up the new email campaign. Just before you send out the final version of newsletter, take another quick look at your subject line. Does it make people want to know more? And does it match what you’re actually sending in the newsletter? Or is it not quite in line with what you’re sending out?

Keep the subject line short and sweet. If you can, always think about what’s going to be useful to the person you’re sending it to. It’s worth taking the time to think about what you want to say in the newsletter subject line. At the end of the day, the subject line is the first thing the recipient sees of your newsletter. If you can get them to click, a subject line that arouses curiosity will lead to a significantly higher open rate.

Negative example: “Newsletter 2018/01“
Positive example: “5 Tips for Skyrocketing Subject Lines!“

Which newsletter would you rather open? If you’re looking for some ideas for an eye-catching newsletter subject line, our PUSH category has got you covered.

Have you come up with a subject line that’s too good to resist? Then it’s time to hit send on that email! Right?

Just checking—are you sure that NOW is the right time to send your newsletter? The day and time you send your email can make a big difference in whether it’s opened, ignored, or even deleted.

Find the Right Time for Sending Out Your Email

Timing is key to a successful newsletter campaign. There are times your recipients are really engaged with the content, and other times they’re not so into it.

So, the general idea with email marketing is to think carefully—or better yet, test—about when you send which newsletters to your recipients. The best time to send out your email really depends on the topic and industry.

No one can predict with certainty whether sending to your email marketing audience on a Monday evening or a Thursday morning will result in higher open and click-through rates. The best way to find out is to give it a try. Try sending your campaigns on different days and at different times and see how the open rates compare.

There’s No “One-Size-Fits-All” Send Out Time

Let’s say you’re a hairdresser looking to get your customers pumped about a new style. Think about it. When are your customers most likely to be interested in hairstyling? On the weekends, people plan leisure time, going out, and partying. The best time to send your email campaign is from Thursday evening to Sunday lunchtime.

The situation is completely different in the B2B sector if you want to inform your business partners about business news. Your customers don’t want to read your newsletter in their free time. Send industry or company news during normal office hours. Just a heads-up: Monday is a bit of an exception. It’s often a day when people sort through and clear out their email inboxes. There’s a chance your newsletter might get caught up in this and end up in the trash.

Tip: Just use the “Set start time” option to program the sending time you want. That way, you can send your newsletter very conveniently and reliably, even early in the morning or at the weekend.

Find Exciting Topics for Your Newsletter

It’s not enough to just send a newsletter once in a while. To really build customer loyalty, you need to send regular emails to your target group. If you include a specific topic in the subject line, it’ll grab your target group’s attention and show them why your message is relevant to them.

There are usually plenty of suitable topics out there—you just have to recognize them. Take a moment to think about it. What’s new at your company? Have you got any new products or exciting developments to share? Have your offers or products been adapted to new laws?

You can also put together campaigns for your email marketing, like sales promotions or in-house exhibitions.

A quick look at the yearly calendar shows us when it’s a good idea to send out your newsletter. Nobody’s ever complained about sending friendly Easter or Christmas greetings or tips on starting school.

There are also lots of fun and quirky “holidays” you can use to connect with your customers in a lighthearted way if you link your product or company to them. I’ll give you a few examples:

International Sweatpants Day: January 21
Worship of Tools Day: March 11
Walk to Work Day: April 6
International Friendship Day: July 30
International Chocolate Day: September 13
World Vegetarian Day: October 1
World Kindness Day: November 13

Find Topics for Different Target Groups

You’ll get to know your target group better and better, and you’ll start to get a feel for which occasions are good for sending out a newsletter and what kind of topic will resonate with them.

Have you ever thought about what topics you can derive from an event calendar for your industry? Let’s stick with our example of a hairdresser for now:

The Academy Awards (in February): What’s trending on the red carpet
International Women’s Day (March 8): Ladies Special
Back to school (August): Discounts on children’s haircuts
Oktoberfest (end of September): Braided hairstyles special

Not every topic is going to be right for every target group. For example, hairdressers in Munich are more likely to get a good response with the braided hairstyles special. The Berlin hairdresser is all about keeping up with the latest hair trends for Berlin Fashion Week. The Baden-Baden hairdresser, on the other hand, is the go-to for classy looks for race week.

Your newsletter campaign is complete with a matching landing page. The option of getting more info with just one click makes it easy to track the success of each campaign.

Send Out Exciting Newsletters – Celebrate Success!

Have you revised the subject, topic, and send-out time? Could it be better? Then you’re ready to send out your campaign. And immediately afterwards, the tension rises, because you want to know:

How many emails were opened and clicked? The newsletter report shows these and other measured values. In the next part of our series, “Email Marketing for Beginners: The Most Important Newsletter KPIs,” we’ll go over which data is measured and what the figures mean.

You can also check out the other episodes in our “Email Marketing for Beginners” series.”:

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