How to make a newsletter

Print this page

With proliferation of spam these days, the stakes are very high. You cannot afford to make any mistakes when you send email newsletter.

Why? What is the big deal with this? Why can't I just slap something together? After all, they are ALREADY in my list.

I will tell you why:

Statistically, about 95% of all your messages only go to 4 major monsters. They are:

gmail, hotmail (msn), yahoo and AOL.

These folks are all very serious about their email and can block your individual messages or they can even block your entire domain. If they do that, it is like cutting your arms, legs and head off, because you will not be able to deliver 95% of your messages!! Of course, there are exceptions if you have a very specialized mailing list to members of a specific organization.

Think about it.

Just follow a few easy steps and learn how to make a newsletter? The right way! When I started emailing my paying customers, I have made almost all of these mistakes I will be talking about. I almost completely ruined my subscriber list. Please learn from my mistakes and do not repeat them.

Most people just do not know how to make a newsletter. I will explain all the major mistakes people make and after that, you can find a lot of good and bad newsletter examples. Most of those that come to your spam box are bad newsletter examples. Those that you read are good examples.

Always, I mean ALWAYS provide a way to easily unsubscribe from your newsletter.

Some even put it at the top of each message... This might be an overkill, but it must be plainly visible and must work. Never hide your unsubscribe text in a tiny, puny Grey on white text that is barely visible. It might not go well with your clients. Most of big Internet providers realize, that you will always have at least some people complaining about your message. They forgot who you are, or they are just generally pissed off and suddenly your message comes in to top the pot of anger and they react... It is ok with them, as long as it is not an en masse movement, but if you know how to make a newsletter, it comes almost automatically.

Always write from the same easily identifiable name and from address.

A lot of people will add your email address to their contact list and this will automatically deliver your messages without any checking to their mailbox. If you change your from email a lot, it will not be possible. Also include the name of your company or a web site, so that your clients know who you are and where are.

If at all possible, use plain text messages.

If you can avoid using HTML and rich text, avoid it. It is also a good practice to place your article with all the HTML, flashy Javascript jumping hoops thingies on your web site and include a link to it. You can do it in the beginning of your email newsletter. This will give you the following benefits:

• Your emails will be much smaller and faster to deliver.
• Most of SPAM uses color text and has a lot of graphics content to grab attention, therefore user eyes are so trained to it, and the users are very trigger happy. They will instantly kill any colorful message with pictures.
• Much less probability that your message will be caught by spam filter, because they are train to attribute more spam score to HTML messages.
• Much easier to read for your clients.
• Wider acceptance with email reading programs. I mean, I don't know an email reader, that will not let you read plain text!
• Most email readers will filter out any flash, javascript and images from your message, so your newsletter will look weird, with holes in it.

A simple short plain-text message with a link for more information has a much better chance with your clients. Moreover, a well written plain-text message will more likely get through almost all spam filters. Of course, if it is absolutely unavoidable, use HTML with moderation. If you know how to make a newsletter, with experience, you will know how to use HTML in moderation, but before that, my warmest advise to you, use plain text.

Do not write a boring, technical newsletter.

You can hear how after one minute of reading it, a lot of people will start to snore and if you receive some responses after you send email newsletter, you can get things like these:

"hgdgggggggggggggggggggggggggggg"

That means, somebody's head fell on his keyboard and pushed a few random buttons. It is good that you are becoming a catalyst for rest and relaxation among your clients, however, it doesn't do you any good and that is not your initial point, right? When talking about how to make a newsletter, the first and most important thing is make it simple. Do not bore your readers with terminology they might not understand. You never know who is reading your newsletters and why. By sprinkling jargon and terminology in your article, you narrow down your audience dramatically.