We’ve all heard success stories about companies using email newsletters to keep current customers engaged, reach out to new prospects, and win more business from their target audience. There’s no shortage of these stories, because email newsletters truly are one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to market your business.
Still, millions of individuals and companies have tried email newsletter marketing to no avail. They don’t see the results they were hoping for and end up decreasing their budget or abandoning the strategy altogether.
We implore you not to give up. If your email newsletter is failing, there’s probably a reason for it – and there’s probably a reliable fix that can help you get up and running.
First, we need to define “failure.” What does it mean for an email newsletter to “fail?”
Usually, failure means a problem with one or more of the following:
People simply aren’t opening your email newsletters. Your open rates are abysmal – so you have no way to know whether your body content is any good. Most often, poor open rates are attributable to bad subject lines or poor audience targeting. If it makes you feel better, most email newsletters have very low open rates.
You might also have email recipients who don’t engage with your content; they don’t read your stories, nor do they watch your videos. It’s hard to make a compelling case to someone who simply isn’t paying attention.
Conversions are the ultimate performance metric for email newsletters. Getting someone to visit your site, buy a product, or even just fill out a form is a true victory – so if your conversion rates are poor, you might feel your email newsletter isn’t working.
If your subscribed email recipients are unsubscribing in droves, something is wrong with your content.
Why is your email newsletter content failing?
It could be your subject lines. If your open rates are practically nonexistent, this is likely your biggest problem. If your subject lines aren’t original, they’re going to blend in as white noise. If they’re not concise, they’re going to get ignored. If they’re not interesting or relevant, they’re going to get deleted. If you want to persuade your audience to open your message, you have to give them a short, unique, compelling message – and a reason to open. It’s not easy, but it’s a prerequisite if you want your recipients to engage with you.
Your content might also be too visually unengaging. Most brands use at least some written content in their email newsletters, and that’s okay; in fact, many readers love to see short messages, blog posts, and links to whitepapers in an email newsletter. But if you want to appeal to modern audiences, you need visuals as well. Photos and illustrations are a great start, but it’s even better to offer embedded videos in the body of your email newsletters. Videos are easily accessible and highly engaging, often leading to greater user attention and higher conversion rates.
We all understand that email newsletters are a channel designed to help your business earn more sales. But if your email content is too salesy, people will unsubscribe in record numbers. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of self-promotion, as long as it’s not your dominant focus. Provide value to your readers instead.
Speaking of value, you need to be relevant to your target audience if you want to stand out and succeed. If you’re giving them offers that don’t interest them, or if you’re writing about topics that never crossed their mind, they’re not going to be won over.
Some desperate business owners resort to buying lists of strangers’ email addresses so they can pad their email newsletter mailing list. This is almost always a bad idea. Your subscriber list should be built from scratch, using only people who have specifically requested your content. Otherwise, you shouldn’t be surprised when these strangers unsubscribe and mark your newsletters as spam.
You might have a lot to say on a given subject. Or you might have a ton of new articles to share. But if your email newsletters are consistently bloated with too much content, it’s going to turn people away.
It’s important to be consistent with the frequency of your email newsletters, updating your audience once a week or a few times per month. But if you start spamming your customers, sending them new content every day, eventually, your audience will simply tune out.
On weekends, most people are running errands, spending time with the family, or having fun elsewhere – they’re not opening your emails. It’s much better to send newsletters out on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. If your timing is off, your results will be lackluster.
Today’s audiences can open emails almost anywhere, from laptops, tablets, and smartphones alike. If your emails aren’t optimized to be responsive, certain subscribers are going to have a hard time accessing your content – and eventually, they may unsubscribe out of frustration.
It’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s possible that your email content is simply bad, in one way or another. Maybe it’s poorly written. Maybe it’s inaccurate. Or maybe it’s repetitive and unoriginal. There are dozens of potential problems here, and unfortunately, it’s not always easy to sort them out.
Are you tired of your email newsletter content not working? Are you looking for a way to provide better content and more visually engaging experiences to your target audience? Viewed.video has the solution. Sign up for a free account today to get started or contact us for more information!