How to Make Your E-Newsletter More User-Friendly
What are the goals of sending out an e-newsletter?
- Reach your target audience
- Give them valuable content
- Expand your subscriber’s list
- Get your name in front your readers
- Drive traffic to your website
To measure this, e-newsletter senders check their insights & analytics including: unsubscribe rate, bounce-back, etc. But, perhaps one of the most important analytics to understand and monitor your e-newsletter is your click through rate.
Click through rate is defined as:
“A way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign for a particular website as well as the effectiveness of an email campaign by the number of users that clicked on a specific link.” (via Wikipedia)
So, how do you improve click through rate and reach your goal of driving traffic to your website via your e-newsletter?
Make it user friendly!
In your e-newsletter, you are most likely including images, recent blog articles, upcoming events, promotions, and contact information. Although all of these parts make for a good e-newsletter, a great and effective e-newsletter goes one step further by incorporating links.
Where should you add links?
- Photos: Alongside your blog articles, e-newsletter distributors will add a photo that is relative to the blog topic included. Link the image to the original blog post on your website or a social platform that the image was taken from such as Facebook.
- Titles: E-newsletters are broken up into sections and each section has a new title. Link the title to whatever you are discussing in that the section: a blog title should be linked back to the original blog on your website, “follow us on (insert social platform) should link to the social platform, etc.
- “Read more” and other calls to action: To avoid creating a lengthy e-newsletter, calls to action are included at the end of a section such as “click here” or “read more.” Make sure you link these to the rest of the content you want them to read.
- Social platforms: If your e-newsletter includes social icons or mentions of your social media platforms, link directly to your business’ Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ site. Eliminate the work your readers have to do in order to find you online.
- Events: E-newsletters are a great place to promote upcoming events. When discussing the event, link to the event’s sign-up or informational page.
- Email address: If you provide your email address anywhere on your e-newsletter, make sure it is a mail: to link. Make it easy for your readers to contact you in one easy step!
Adding links in your e-newsletter is one great way to improve your content and make it user-friendly. An e-newsletter that is user-friendly is more apt to creating loyal readers, which could lead to an increase in your subscription list as they refer their coworkers, friends, and family to your site.
–Jamie
