E-newsletters: How To Make One That Gets Read

To increase readership, look at how easy it is to scan your newsletter quickly.

You may have a better chance of getting through to prospects and customers with an e-mail newsletter than with any other media. But if you make people feel like they're reading, not scanning, you'll lose readers in the click of a finger. They'll put you in the "to do" pile and you'll never get read says a study of b2b and consumer newsletters by Jakob Nielsen. He found informative, convenient and timely e-mail newsletters were often preferred to any other media. But most were too long and too hard to read. As a result, only 11% of newsletters were read thoroughly. That was half the number he found two years ago.

Other findings you can use:

• Do anything to help them opt out

  Here's a very scary reason to make opting out as easy as opting in: Many business buyers found opting out too hard. So when they tired of reading a newsletter, they told their spam blocker that the newsletter was spam. Implication: Legitimate publications could get blacklisted as spam by ISPs.

• Get even shorter, even punchier

  You may want to do more to boost scannability with more bullet points, shorter paragraphs and catchy headlines. The most frequent complaints from readers were that newsletters came too often and were too long. And when asked what they wanted, they said: "Keep it brief." As a result, 57% only skimmed, 22% "never read" and 10% "saved for later."

• Focus on the here and now

  Save your "think" pieces or essays for your hard copy publications. Two thirds of readers said they wanted up-to-date information that was convenient and timely.