The Perils of Newsletter Personalization
Yesterday I received a Facebook "be my friend" request. It went like this: "$Name$$, Facebook considered you as a friend. I enjoy meeting like minded people, hope you feel the same." Personalization is a wonderful thing. And so is technology. Mix them and you have a powerful cocktail – or a recipe for disaster. +++…
Typical Email Newsletter Open Rates – Two Answers
There are two answers to the question: what’s a typical email open rate? The first is correct but annoying; the second is a ball-park guess. For some reason, people tend to prefer the second. Answer 1: “It Depends” (Told you it was an annoying answer.) The thing is, it depends on who you are sending…
How to Use Newsletters to Bring in New Business
I was asked by a member of my insurance newsletters service last week about the best way to use newsletters to bring in new business. Here’s what I will tell him. Of course, this applies to any business – not just insurance. Why Newsletters Work to Bring in New Business Newsletters are most famously used…
Why Your Newsletter Must Be Relevant to Readers to Succeed
Here I go again: back to rule #1 – write for your readers. An interesting chart came along in the email today from Marketing Sherpa. It’s the results of benchmark survey. Highlight: the biggest reason (cited by 58% of respondents) why they stopped reading or unsubscribed from email newsletters was that they were not relevant to…
This Ain’t the Corporate Newsletter
Not far from where I live in Toronto there’s a bookstore called This Ain’t the Rosedale Library. (Rosedale, for those who aren’t from here, is the city’s most upscale neighborhood.) This Ain’t the Rosedale Library is an alternative bookstore – some of its titles wouldn’t sit comfortably in Rosedale drawing rooms. So think of this:…
Why Quality beats Quantity in Newsletter Subscribers
I was listening to an interesting webinar from Vertical Response (they’re the guys I’ve partnered with for my email newsletter service) today. Several things came out of it worth noting – I’ll blog about them all in the coming days. One of the stand-out points was about list size. The bottom line on list size…
The Best Way to Send Out Email Newsletters
A common question I receive from people interested in my real estate, mortgage and insurance customer newsletters is whether they can send them using their own email software rather than the hosted service I offer. (With a hosted service, you upload your email list to a website, which looks after the design, list management and…
How to Sign Up People for Your Newsletter on Your Website
I was asked yesterday for instructions about how to sign up people for your newsletter using your website. So I figured it would be a good idea to share them on this blog. Why You Need to Sign Up People on Your Website I’m continually surprised by how few people, even those who use my…