I’m helping a few clients with email newsletter marketing and know I should start an email newsletter of my own, so I’ve been reading up on the subject.

Apparently, New York Times best-selling author Chris Brogan, who is also CEO of Human Business Works, has been thinking  about email marketing newsletters too.

Today, actually, he wrote about how “Your Inbox is SO Sexy” and shared many email marketing tips.

Here are 5 that resonated with me; tips that those just starting a newsletter, or those looking to improve a newsletter,  should  keep in mind:

 

1. Keep Email newsletters to 500 words or less.
2. Ask people for one action per email.
3. Use an email service provider – Constant Contact, aWeber, Mailchimp, and more hardcore, Infusionsoft are several examples of popular email providers.
4. Make sure 85 percent of your content doesn’t try to sell anything. Instead, train your community, he said.  Don’t make them part of a sales funnel.
5. Separate the blog content from the newsletter content, offering feeds to both.

 

Chris points out while social media buzz is all the rage, that the one place everyone always checks, and checks first, is their email inbox.

This is a prime way to reach your targeted audience, folks that have asked you to send them information. They want to hear from you. And they don’t mind hearing from you on a regular basis. I think some companies forget the latter.

Want to see what Chris Brogan also said?  Read his whole blog post:  Email Marketing Tips

 

What’s been the secret to your newsletter’s success? Have you ignored any of these tips but still had success? Tell me about it.

photo © M. Sharon Baker