I have a confession to make. I am not a marketing expert. So what presumption causes me to write an article about email marketing? First of all, I get slammed by marketing emails daily and have a reasonably good idea about what works for me. And I also subscribe to a number of very helpful newsletters.As a consumer of both good and bad marketing email, I have experience. As an architect of such systems for customers, I have understanding of system requirements. And there are a number of common sense practices about this subject. Consider the following and see if you don’t agree.
Sending an email newsletter is one of the most cost effective ways of reaching an audience. Once configured, it costs virtually nothing to send and if created with some artistic consideration, can be a welcome addition to the mindless advertising that prevails in your subscriber’s inbox. And if managed properly, your electronic newsletter can be self-supporting. Subscribers can add, remove, and modify their email and choose the format of your message.
So what is the difference between a helpful email newsletter and mindless email advertising?
I would boil it down to three simple ideas. You might want to conduct an internal review. Of course your own situation will depend on your intended audience, but develop your email newsletter with these concepts in mind:
- Permission
- Content
- Frequency
The most important principle that you should observe is permission, as in having it. There is nothing more annoying than to receive unsolicited email, which is primarily advertising, that pretends to be an informative newsletter. Well, there is something more annoying, getting the same message several times at once (duplicate emails) or repetitively (too frequently).
So as you think about permission, please be considerate. There are wide ranging audiences for your electronic communication. Some may not know you at all, and have little interest. Others may be deeply connected to your organization and be very interested in your messaging. Most will be somewhere in between.
Be sure to have permission to send, in the case of familiar contacts; and a very easy and reliable unsubscribe feature for messages sent to those who may not have interest at the present time. It is important to note that there are laws on the books of some states requiring that your unsolicited email messages contain an “Unsubscribe” link in them. Regardless of the law, this is always a good idea.
The surest method of obtaining permission is to provide a sign-up link on your website (or in an email) for subscribing to your content. You may also gather email addresses from referrals, printed media, or word of mouth. In the world of commerce, it is very common to buy lists of potential recipients of your newsletter, but that may not be practical in the real world of Charter Schools.
Content is King
Much like your website, prospective students (and parents) will read your message for content. So find a good balance between too little and too much. I have seen entire newsletters that only amount to three solid sentences of information, and I have seen multipage tomes that require a serious read. You ought to be somewhere comfortably in the middle
A common format for electronic newsletters is to publish an introductory paragraph with a catchy headline and solid, well written introductory paragraph. And then include a “Read More” link for the remainder of the article.
This allows your readers to hit the highlights, and then expand on the articles of interest. This will save space, allowing a full set of articles on a single page. Be sure to dress up your email newsletter with some nice imagery, but don’t overdo it and ensure your images are formatted for the web.
More advanced newsletter solutions will allow you to accommodate both html and text based email messages. If you don’t understand the difference, html is better if you want graphics to accompany your words. Text is, well… text only, no pictures provided.
And one last thing, don’t embed music in your electronic newsletter. That can be highly embarrassing and/or annoying. Imagine sitting quietly, catching up on your email, waiting for a meeting or event to start while reviewing an email newsletter just received. Then without warning, Bon Jovi begins blaring out of your computer speakers when you open the email from one of your favorite organizations. That’s a sure way to get an unsubscribe request, at a minimum.
Frequency
Finally, be sure to keep the frequency and consistency of your email newsletter at a reasonable level. And be sure that your system has the capacity to detect duplicate recipients, one good email newsletter is good – but more (of the same newsletter) is not better!
Be careful as you determine a publishing schedule for your email newsletter. Remember that it takes time and effort to create useful and interesting content. And consistency is important if you want to build/maintain an engaged readership. Don’t overcommit yourself to creating content, or you may find yourself trying to be creative and dilute your purpose.
Frequency is a function of content and audience. If your newsletter is to highlight this week’s events at your school, then a monthly newsletter may not be sufficient. If it is a monthly Board Report, then weekly won’t quite work either.
Summary
Periodic newsletters to your community can be a very engaging and helpful service, but do this purposefully and with planning. There are open source (free) software solutions that will provide the functionality you need, assuming your website has been designed properly. So paying for a service such as Constant Contact may not be necessary. However, if the budget allows, commercial services may be easier for you to manage. Either way, obtain permission from your recipients directly or indirectly, produce good content, and publish your newsletter at a frequency that you and your audience can maintain.
If you need guidance on which email newsletter solution is best for you, please contact us. We are always eager to help.
