As an email service provider, Admailr cares about its customers’ newsletters and wants to see everyone enjoy a healthy growth rate. Even the most cynical of critics will have to admit that the ESP will benefit if its clients succeed in their business. Naturally, we take steps and conduct studies designed to reveal problems related to newsletters, as well as possible solutions.
This time around, we’re going to point out bad newsletter habits that have a tendency to stunt growth. Most of these are overlooked by people because they tend to be more personal than business-related, but they can be very debilitating and could cause many businesses to stagnate. So if you’re having problems getting your newsletter to take off, you should look inward and see if you have any of the following:
Being Too Self-Centered
We’re not saying that you should be altruistic and care about your subscribers at the cost of your bottomline – that would be silly. Everybody – even your own subscribers – already know that you’re in it to earn a profit, and nobody’s going to hold it against you. When we say self-centered, we mean it in the context that you’re always looking at things from your perspective, never even minding the customers. There is a big difference here, and in order to understand it, you have to think of one simple thing: who buys the products and services you are selling?
The customers. So when running a newsletter, you don’t design, create, or present things based on what would make you buy. You do all of those things while thinking of what would make the readers buy. You treat them well and they give you their business in return. It’s a quid pro quo status that has served as the backbone of business and marketing since the dawn of time. It doesn’t have anything to do with altruism.
So if you want to see growth in your newsletter, widen your vistas and check your ego at the door. You need to serve the interests of the people that’s bringing in money.
Overcomplicating Things
A common problem among stagnating newsletters is that the authors of the email have a tendency to overcomplicate things. They flood the readers with unnecessary specifications, use esoteric jargon, or make the readers jump through hoops just to get to the meat and bones of the email. Sometimes it’s done because the author wants to impress the readers, and sometimes it’s done because the author simply doesn’t know better. Doesn’t matter, they both result in readers being alienated.
The point of a newsletter is to present information and encourage readers to do something. And you want to get from point A to point B as fast as possible and with the least amount of complications. This ties in with the point about narcissism: always keep in mind that you need to help the readers do what you’ve always wanted them to do, there’s no need to hit them over the head with your expertise or knowledge.
Inconsistency
Any kind of business will suffer from inconsistency, but newsletters are particularly vulnerable to this due to their inherent need to “tame” the readers. You have to build familiarity with them and get in their good graces, and you do that by being consistent with schedules. You want to build a rapport in which they know when they can expect to receive the next newsletter. If you’re inconsistent with sending out mails – either because you’re lazy or because you’re not productive enough, you’ll find that the readers won’t warm up to your mails and will most likely treat your content with distrust.
Lastly, Riding the Bandwagon
In marketing, it’s always a race to present readers with valuable information that they have never seen or encountered before. If you have a habit of riding on the bandwagon, chances are you won’t see much success because all you’re doing is presenting something that people have already bought from someone else. It worked for the previous guy because it was new, but by the time you get on with yours it’s going to be yesterday’s news and readers have already moved on to the next big thing.
