| How To How to Create a Usable E-mail NewsletterAn E-mail newsletter is a great way to keep in touch with your users. You can use it to keep users informed about the latest news from your company and new features on your website. An E-mail newsletter is also a surefire means of generating traffic to your website. A usable E-mail newsletter is a good reflection of your website and company. Difficulty: Easy Time Required: A couple of hours a week Here's How:Make it easy to sign up: Before anyone can read your newsletter, they have to sign up to receive it. Be sure to put obvious links and open form fields so that your users will know that you offer a newsletter. Tell your users ahead of time how often then will receive the newsletter. Also, you can build trust with your users by assuring them that you will not use their email addresses for any other purposes Send the newsletter at a regular interval and stick to it: To determine the regularity of your newsletter examine the amount of content you have. Can you offer new and exciting news to your readers on a daily basis? If you’re not so sure, consider a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly newsletter. Whatever interval you choose, be sure to send out your newsletter regularly so that your users know what to expect. Keep it short and to the point: If users want in-depth information, they will come to your website. Your E-mail newsletter should be a quick way for your users to stay up to date and it should give them a hint of what your site or company is offering. With the amount of email everyone receives these days, it is unlikely users will read a novel-length newsletter! Don’t use too many images: Images can add tone and personality to your email newsletter but each image adds extra load time. Although Internet connections continue to get faster, not all users have high speed connections. Keep these people in mind when you add images to your newsletter. If it takes too long to download, they may decide they don’t want to download it at all. If your newsletter is long, include a table of contents: Users don’t have the time or patience to read through all the E-mail they receive. If you have a lot of content in your newsletter, it is a good idea to include a linkable table of contents at the top. This allows users to click on the stories that entice them. Make it easy to unsubscribe: Users may change their minds and decide they no longer want to receive your newsletter. Be sure to make the process of unsubscribing just as easy as the subscription process. Include a clear link to unsubscribe in every newsletter. Also, be sure to notify your user if unsubscribing will take some time (in case they receive another newsletter before it goes through). Remember, if you treat your user well on the way out, they are more likely to come back. Be accurate in the “from” and “subject” line: Users will not open an E-mail from a name they don’t know or trust. For that reason, it is imperative that you put your website or company’s name clearly in the “from” line of your E-mail newsletter. Similarly, it’s a good idea to include more than just “newsletter” in the subject line. Give the users a hint of what they’ll find if they open it!
Tips:- Think about preview panes for height and width. Recent research shows that more than 9 of 10 E-mail users have access to a preview pane, and 7 of 10 say they frequently or always use it. Preview panes range from 2 to 4 inches in height so it’s important to get a strong message across at the top of your newsletter.
- Some E-mail programs don’t download images until the user instructs them to do so. For this reason, it is smart to test out how your newsletter looks if the images are disabled.
- Don’t forget text-only E-mail! Be sure to include a link to the newsletter hosted online for users who can’t see all the graphics.
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