At MaxGen we often find that business owners are thinking about their website the wrong way. So I usually offer them this example:

Consider a regular retail store. A roadside trading house where people enter and empty their wallets. Now realise that your website is a digital version of that – but instead of bricks and mortar you have binary and megabytes. The same principles apply to both when attracting customers of any form, whether they’re virtual or in-shop.

To get those customers, you advertise. You promote promote yourself on TV, over the radio and through print. Through these expensive, old-world ways in the hope to get recognised. But how do you measure success? How do you know where your money went?

Explaining a website in this way generally makes people see their website in a slightly different light. And the next point of discussion is obvious – email marketing.

But setting up an email marketing system is the easy part. How should business owners go about preparing the newsletter itself?

This article at smashingmagazine.com provides some goods suggestions and examples. To summarise a couple of good points:

Tell users why they should sign up

“Subscribe Here” is rarely enough. People receive plenty of marketing material in their inboxes already – so why yours? Will they be getting regular discounts, will it enrol them into competitions or will they get news that actually helps their business? You need to quell your visitors’ fears that by subscribing they’re just growing your database. Remember: they are giving you their email address in the hope of getting something out of it as well.

Reward them for doing so

In the case of an online store, why not give them an automatic gift voucher to entice a purchase? If your email newsletter system supports it, add all new subscribers to a separate list and send them a deal straight off the bat. What’s the likelihood of them ever unsubscribing if they know from day 1 that it was worth their time to sign up?

Write enticing subject lines

When your customers are scrolling through their inbox at 9AM, you want them to click on the unread message from you first. A punchy, to the point subject will do that. Is it just a sale? Or is it a 20% off sale? Don’t be coy – let them know. People don’t have time to scroll though pages of text to get to the money. Which leads on to…

Content, Content, Content

Pretty much as above. Your subscribers will have expectations of what they will be getting in your email newsletters – and as the business owner its your job to exceed them. Whether with targeted promotions or expert advice, it comes down to the content to determine if your mailing lists grow or shrink.

Keep it simple

Make sure your email newsletters are tidy and readable. Get them professionally designed, and cater for your audience. If your marketing to an older crowd, don’t use a size 6 font. Follow our usability guide and ensure people can get the gist of your email just from skimming. Because that’s all they’ll be doing.