Our number 1 rule of e-newsletters is: if your first one isn't good, no one will open your second one. And if that happens, all the time and expense you invested in your e-newsletters would be for nothing.

We make sure you'll have an e-newsletter that's well-designed with short "teaser stories," so as not overwhelm your audience. "Teaser stories" link to you website for more in-depth information. If the e-newsletter itself is too long, it can feel like it'd take too much time to get through.

With a well-done e-newsletter your audience sees you as an expert in your industry, as you share your success stories. Then, when your people are ready for someone with your expertise, you'll be top of mind. Staying in your prospect's mind depends on having a regularly-scheduled newsletter, even if it's once a quarter.

See an example of one of our own e-newsletters here.

See our e-newsletter section here.

You can sign up to be on our quarterly e-newsletter list here.

Four critical things to know before you start.

1. Preparing an email list is the exact opposite of preparing a direct mail list:
   When it comes to direct mail, unless someone opts out you can assume they want to receive it. However when it comes to email, unless they opt in, you have to assume they don’t want it. Ignoring this simple rule can result in your organization being removed from reputable email services as quickly as you can say “Uh, really? Can they do that?” Unfortunately, the answer is yes.
2. Don't purchase an email list:
   Buy an email list and you fall into the trap addressed in number 1. You should only send emails to individuals and companies you've already connected with, or who have agreed to be on your email list. Of course, you should also send them to your current customers. By sending only to people who want to receive your communications, you'll avoid what happens in number 3.
3. Worst case scenario if you use a purchased email list:
   If someone gets your e-newsletter and they don't know who you are, they'll likely mark it as spam. Isn't that what you do when you receive an email you didn't sign  up for? Unless, of course, they're kind enough to go through the effort to unsubscribe. If just 1 out of every 200 recipients (that's .05%) marks your email as spam there's a chance you'll be blacklisted by a reputable email service from sending out further e-newsletters. Read about email blacklists here.
4. Why you need to  use an email service, like Constant Contact, to send out your emails:
   If you’ve ever wondered why folks use those services instead of just sending out an email through their work or personal email, here’s why:

• Many email services (ie; Outlook, Gmail, Apple mail) won’t let you send out large quantities of emails at once, assuming it might be spam.
• Your company's IT department, or freelance IT consultant, might have set up your system to not allow mass emails to be sent out.
• The major email services (like Constant Contact and Campaign Monitor) have agreements with all the major email providers (ie: Gmail, Apple mail, Outlook, etc.) to assure what goes out through their services isn’t spam. That's why email service companies have rules to follow if you want to use their services. If you don’t go by their rules, you'll be banned from using their services.
• Email service companies have great reports that show who opened your e-newsletter, what links were clicked, and how often. See an example of a report from one of our e-newsletters here.
• The email services companies track who opts out of your e-newsletter. They make sure folks who have opted out won't receive your e-newsletter again even if you accidentally re-upload their email address. If you send your newsletter to folks who don’t want it, they’ll surely mark it as spam. And as we mentioned in item #3 (above), if just half a percent of your recipients mark your e-newsletters as spam, there's a chance you'll be banned from using their service.
• The email services track which email addresses are no longer active, which email addresses have full mailboxes, and which email addresses can’t receive emails for any number of reasons.
• And finally, they’re really inexpensive to send e-newsletters: between $10 and $30 a month. See Campaign Monitor's pricing here.

Here's an example of one of the reports Campaign Monitor offers:

See the e-newsletter section of our website here.

Creating e-newsletters takes a bit of time.

You'll need to plan for a significant amount of time for each e-newsletter, because each issue requires you to:

1. Write the stories (or blogs) on your website which you want to link from the e-newsletter.
2. Add those pages to your website that each “story” the e-newsletter  links to. (If they don't already exist.)
3. Find and purchase the images that go in the newsletter and write the teaser text. The e-newsletter should only have teaser copy, which links to a page on your website with the full story. That makes the e-newsletter more inviting to read. See an example here.
4. Prep the images for web, upload them to Campaign Monitor and make  the “Learn more” link go to the page on your website that has the whole story.
5. Test the newsletter to make sure it looks good and make sure the links work in different email applications.
6. Compile, or update, the email address list each month.
7. Upload an updated version of  the email addresses (if the list changes from one month to another), and
8. Schedule the e-newsletter through Campaign Monitor to be sent out.

If you don’t have the time to do it yourselves, you'll need help you with it from an experienced design firm who knows the ins and outs of both websites and e-newsletters. Just so happens, that's what we do! If you'd like to talk with us about your e-newsletter contact us today.