“Inbox clutter” (a term that didn’t even exist a few years ago) is an increasing menace to many Internet users. Most of it has to do with newsletters that are considered junk mail. Following some steps can help to produce outstanding e-newsletters that get more “opens” than “opt-outs.”

E-newsletters enable writers to maintain a relationship with editors and publishers, as well as to “nurture” prospects. They are far more cost-effective than printed mail, and are easy to create. Using a hosted email service provider gives the opportunity to create great content rather than focusing on more mundane tasks such as writing HTML code or managing subscriber lists. However, they have to be well-crafted to stand out from the crowd.

Here are a few tips for creating newsletters that will attract and retain readers.

Provide news that is interesting to your reader.

Offer tips and advice. Business readers are naturally drawn to any article with “How to” in the title (assuming it’s actually something useful).
Make it interactive. Include a quick poll relating to an industry topic. People love to have their voice heard, even if only through a quick vote, and to see how their peers view an issue.
Make it fun. Include a completely unrelated topic (e.g. one-hit wonders of the music world, movies, TV, history, etc.), a quote-of-the-day, or something else amusing or off base.

Keep it short. Keep the body of the newsletter short by providing headlines and excerpts linking to longer articles on your Web site or blog. This enables readers to scan the content quickly, then link out to articles of interest.
Provide both HTML and plain text versions. Most hosted e-mail services allows this set up automatically. 
Provide an RSS feed of your newsletter content for readers who prefer that option.

Try to include the recipient’s name in the subject line whenever possible. 

This page was last updated on December 15th, 2009.