Internet Marketing Uses Electronic Newsletters

Here's a checklist of 10 essential features for newsletters. 

1. A descriptive title
Someone once said that the first step in producing an email newsletter is coming up with the title. Even more important, you have to know what you want to say first. The title flows from that.  But the title has to express clearly what the newsletter is all about. The more esoteric the title, the more likely you are that people will misunderstand it.

2. Name or email address
The recipient needs to know that this newsletter was sent to them, not to "friends@thisdomain.com." You can use personalization (sparingly) or a mail-merge to insert their address into the "to" header, which will help you avoid getting caught in ever-tightening spam traps. 

3.Your name and legitimate email address
Who are you? The "from" header should have your newsletter title, or an email address that incorporates it. That's one way of separating legitimate email from spam.

4. A descriptive subject line
We've written extensively on crafting subjects that are provocative but not spammy. Still, ezines come in labeled "Vol. 4 Issue 1." That line helps you organize your business, but it does nothing for the recipient. If you don't put your ezine name in your "from" header, put it in your subject line. If you do include your name in the "from" space, then put an article title, issue theme or some other defining label in the subject line.

5. When the issue was sent (day, date, issue number)
If you don't include it in your subject line, feature it prominently in the newsletter, so that it shows up whether it is read in the email client's preview pane or double-click to bring up the whole email. Do this especially if you put all of your boilerplate information - subscription management, mission statement, etc. - at the top.

6. Some clue about what the recipient is going to find in this issue
This is especially important if you publish newsletters with varied content: your letter to readers, articles written by you or other writers, standing features such as quotes or jokes or even major advertisers if they're particularly relevant to your readers. A simple table of contents near the top is enough - right under the date is ideal, but be sure to update it with article titles. Otherwise, it becomes part of the wallpaper.

7. How the recipient can unsubscribe
It happens. Don't hold me hostage. Whether you list it right at the top in your headers, or your list software inserts it at the end, tell me how to unsubscribe in the fewest steps possible. After all, I might just be changing addresses.

8. How someone else could subscribe
 if the recipient were to forward the newsletter to a friend:
One way to spread the word is to encourage readers to pass on your newsletter to friends. If you don't include an easy way to subscribe, you won't pick up as many of these pass-along readers as you could if you just add a "how to subscribe" link or, if you use HTML, a "forward to a friend" function.

 9. Where the recipient can talk back to you
Some days you get roses; other days, it's all skunk cabbage. Still, make it easy for the recipient to send you what he/she thinks, and the recipient will be a more engaged reader and more likely to stick around even on the days when you're feeling less than inspired. 

10. Great content
Content is listed last, but it's certainly not the least of your concerns.  You can expect to hit the doldrums in publishing, unless your topic is so compelling that the well never runs dry. How do you get over that? Break the mold, or at least dent it. Scour the news Web sites. Rev up Google or the other search engines to see if there's anything popping in your area. Search article banks for free material. 

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