SmallBusinessNewz

As long as I'm breaking down the elements of a successful email marketing campaign, why stop at avoiding spam filters and the importance of the subject line?

Let's talk about the content. While there are varying types of content that can be used in email marketing campaigns, I am going to talk about the traditional email newsletter, such as our own.

Audience

The absolute most important thing to consider when it comes to content is the audience. They've subscribed to your newsletter, so they are probably interested in what you have to say, but it is up to you to keep it interesting.

As I said in our latest issue, think about why they would have signed up in the first place. Are you continuously providing them with something that will be of use to them? It is up to you to make sure that every issue is up to quality standards, otherwise, people will have no hesitation to unsubscribe.

Keep it Interesting

This is the information age, and that information is available everywhere in many forms, whether it be Google searches, RSS feeds, or email newsletters. If you are not providing interesting content, you turn into a hassle, and there is already enough of that associated with email in general.

Consistently delivering quality content is not only just good business, it is going to be the only thing keeping people on your list.

Don't Be Misleading

Perhaps, this point would've been better suited for the subject line article, but make sure your content lives up to your subject line. In other words, don't mislead your readers with a catchy subject line only to give them content inside that has nothing to do with or is a blatant misrepresentation of that subject.

This will not make your readers happy, and as soon as they figure out they've been had, they are likely to close the message, and possibly unsubscribe from your list.

The subject line is what is going to hook them in. The content is what is going to keep them coming back. If it's not up to snuff, than it equates to nothing but wasted time for all parties involved.

Appeal

Of course, quality content to some may not be so quality to others, and depending on how large your readership is, it is possible that you can't appeal to everyone.

Try to envision all of the different types of people that are reading your newsletter. If you knowingly can't appeal to all of them at the same time, mix it up a little. Send something appealing to one group, and then target the other group next time. Or you could feature different sections in one newsletter that appeal to different groups.

You're always going to win some and lose some, but if you stay focused on keeping quality content in your newsletter, your general audience will likely stick around for a long time.