7 Annoying Things to Eliminate From Your Email Newsletter

An email newsletter can be a great way to really connect with your target audience if you do it correctly. We have a very successful weekly online marketing newsletter that has a readership that grows on a daily basis, and we attribute that to the fact that we provide solid information. Many companies fail when it comes to their newsletter because they are all over the place and try to include too much information, failing to appeal to their target market.

You don’t need to have a newsletter packed full of information in order for it to be a success. Some of the most successful and effective email newsletters are not long at all, they just contain useful information and they know what their readers want. We recently touched on some mistakes responsible for poor email marketing performance, so use that information along with these seven things to eliminate from your newsletter and improve your email marketing performance.

1. Covering several target audiences in one newsletter

In order to retain your subscriber list and prevent recipients from unsubscribing you need to make sure that they are receiving content that is relevant to what they subscribed to. If your website caters to multiple audiences then you need to create separate email newsletters for each segment. This is incredibly easy to do with the majority of email marketing platforms.

If you create just one large generic email list and send them a newsletter that features multiple subjects you will see a high percentage unsubscribe because they don’t feel that it is relevant to what they signed up for. For instance if your business is an online e-commerce website that sells sports equipment someone that signed up for your baseball equipment newsletter isn’t going to be interested in a newsletter that discusses the newest golf clubs. Break your list into targeted groups to be effective and maintain your subscribers.

2. Multiple calls-to-action and outbound links

Your email newsletter shouldn’t be filled with multiple outbound links and calls-to-action. When you are putting together your newsletter put in all of the calls-to-action and links that you want, but then read through your newsletter several times, putting yourself in the shoes of your reader. What calls-to-action and links will they most likely to click on and what ones are they likely to pass over?

Think about it for a moment…your newsletter gives you the opportunity to present information to a huge audience of potential customers as well as current customers. You have their full attention, so don’t confuse them with multiple links and CTAs.

3. Bland subject lines

We recently touched on how to create effective email subject lines, and they play such an important role in your open rate. We split test several different email subject lines every week for our newsletter and creative subject lines always receive a much higher open rate than a generic subject line.

You need to create a value within that small space, enough to trigger a response from your recipient. If the title grabs their attention and peaks their curiosity you will get an open. if not, your email will be sent to the trash without even being looked at. Split-test multiple titles and see what style your audience responds to better.

4. Blatant promotion and sales pitches

Your email newsletter should be packed full of useful information and very little self promotion for your company. Your subscribers don’t want to read a newsletter about how your product or service is the best out there. They already have an interest in your brand, hence the reason they signed up for your newsletter.

Use your newsletter as a way to build additional trust by providing your subscribers with useful content. If your newsletter turns into one big advertisement expect your unsubscribe rate to shoot through the roof. You can use your newsletter as a tool to drive your subscribers back to your website with a single call-to-action and link.

5. Boring business tone

Use your newsletter as a way to connect with your audience and show them that your brand is fun and has a sense of humor. We have split test our newsletter several times using sarcastic headlines and introductions and they will always result in more click through activity when compared to the versions without that element of “fun” included.

6. Long drawn out newsletter length

Some people hear the word newsletter and automatically assume that they need to create a very long email, which is not the case at all. Focus on providing value and do not worry about the length. The goal of your newsletter is to connect your subscribers to your brand, build trust, and get them to repeat purchase or become first time customers.

If we are creating a call-to-action within our newsletter to point the reader to a piece of content we will sometimes just write a simple sentence intro and direct them to the link. Short and sweet will often produce great results.

7. Worthless newsletter content

If your readers think to themselves, “so what?” when they read through your newsletter it is time to make a change before you lose your entire subscriber base. It is important that you include relevant and current information in your newsletter, always asking yourself if the audience will find the information helpful and interesting.

Every business is going to have different markets, and each audience is going to have a different view of what is interesting and useful. If you are ever struggling to think of good newsletter content simply seek out some large online outlets in your industry and read their news section. You can always intro their content and link to it if you are really struggling to come up with solid newsletter content. The last thing you want to do is provide your readers with boring information that they have little to no interest in reading about.

Take these tips into account when your are creating your newsletter and don’t forget to test everything. Every business has a different target market, and they all respond differently. Study your audience and adapt to provide them with what they want.

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