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Every day your dealers and customers are flooded with newsletters. When you are on the receiving end, it is hard to imagine anyone telling yours apart from the rest. Newsletters still work, but only when you follow a few common-sense rules.
Write for the readers you have, not the few who do not fit.
The biggest mistake companies make is writing for themselves rather than their audience. You are trying to build a relationship on mutual benefit, which means dropping the pushy sales pitch. Answer questions, share productivity tips and deliver insight a contractor or dealer can use.
After reading thousands of newsletters, it is clear everyone assumes there is one winning formula: a magic word count, frequency and number of stories. Instead, do what works for you. One interesting story a month? Run that schedule. Nothing but bullet points? Try it. And if something does not work, change it.
Send too often and your open rate starts high, then busy people begin trashing your emails unopened because you do not have the content or the staff to keep the quality up. Send too rarely and readers forget they signed up. Think through frequency and stick to it.
Most of your readers share one or two common traits. Write for them, not for the small percentage who do not fit. Do not be afraid of alienating a few readers. The alternative is content that gets nobody's attention.
Too cute or too long is a formula for the trash before the email is ever opened. Say what is inside.
No one reads a newsletter start to finish. Headlines pull the reader in, and then they skim the first sentence. Make it a good one. Our post Grab Customers' Attention with Better Headlines has more.
Readers should feel the content is easy to get through. Short paragraphs, short sentences, plenty of subheads and bullet points where they help.
Your dealers and customers want content, and a newsletter is an effective way to deliver it. Do not assume that because so many organizations do it badly, yours cannot work. If you would like help building or refreshing one, visit our ‣ page.