How To Make A Newsletter. Read All my Tips Before You Send Email Newsletter

Is this really that important to know how to make a newsletter correctly? Can’t I just learn as I go?

Not so fast. Bare with me and I will tell you exactly why it is dangerous to dive head on without any knowledge.

I will tell you why:

95% of your mail will go to 4 big email addresses and they are:

“Yahoo”, “Gmail”, AOL and “Hotmail” (MSN).

These monsters dedicate large data centres and full-time staff just for filtering out unwanted emails from their system. That is their every day job and their rule is: Shoot first, ask questions later. They can as easily block your domain or IP address and then you are doomed. You will be left in pieces as most of your email won’t be delivered.

Just think about this perspective for a minute.

Now do you think that learning how to make a newsletter the right way is worth your time? I myself made almost all of the mistakes I will be talking about here. I almost lost all my subscribers that took me years to assemble. I don’t want you to repeat these mistakes. So please learn each one of them carefully.

I bet you have a gut feeling of what I am talking about, because you are using email yourself. It is disappointing that a lot of people just don’t know how to make a newsletter and repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Your junk mail folder is a testament to those. Finding a really good newsletter is a bit harder, but I know you saw a few of those examples as well. Let me cover widespread mistakes one by one.

* You MUST have an unsubscribe capability in EACH message you send. I cannot stress this enough. People should have confidence. They must know they can unsubscribe whenever they want. Some even put the unsubscribe notice in the beginning of each message. That’s just inviting people to unsubscribe, I wouldn’t do that. I usually put it at the end. A lot of times people will unsubscribe from your list for no reason. Some people even complain to their provider (using that SPAM button in their mail client). Providers do understand it when it’s small percentage of your list. If it’s too many people that complain you will get banned very fast. When you learn how to make a newsletter, this is the first thing you should automatically include.

* Your return address should always stay the same. Clients like it. SPAM filters like it. Imagine if this were a regular snail mail. Would you like to receive an envelope from different person every time? It is not a good sign. You should always imprint an easily identifiable brand in people’s mind when you send email newsletter. People also add you to their contact list and they might even build filters that filter you to a specific folder based on your name. I am not saying it is absolutely forbidden, but it is not recommended.

* Don’t use HTML if you can help it. If it is at all possible, just write a plain text message (I know it is almost always possible). You can include a link to your jumping, beeping, colourful HTML page that sits on your web site. Your clients will read it there if they like. This in itself has tremendous benefits, such as:

* You will get rather small emails and naturally, they will be faster to send.

* Remember those SPAM messages? They also use a lot of colour to catch your attention and it looks unnatural. Most users are deleting those on autopilot. They won’t even see your message as it takes them a split second to make that decision.

* You will get much more of SPAM filters love, because they give much higher score to messages that contain a lot of HTML formatting.

* Your clients will definitely appreciate it, since it is also easier for them to read.

* ALL email clients can read plain text messages. Even if your clients are Neanderthals that use Pine on UNIX (Yes, I know what that means, I am a geek. If you don’t know what it is, you are SO lucky).

* Most email readers will filter out any flash, Java Script and images from your message, so your newsletter will look weird, with holes in it.

A simple, short plain-text message with a link for more information has a much better chance with your clients. Moreover, a well written plain-text message will more likely get through almost all SPAM filters. Of course, if it is absolutely unavoidable, use HTML with moderation. If you know how to make a newsletter, with experience, you will know how to use HTML in moderation, but before that, my warmest advise to you, use plain text.

* Do not write a boring, technical newsletter. You can hear how after one minute of reading it, a lot of people will start to snore and if you receive some responses after you send email newsletter, you can get things like these:

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This is a sure sign, that somebody’s head just hit the keyboard. It is pushing some random buttons and sending it to you. You do not want this kind of response from your users. When you try and try again, the experience will come and you will know how to make a newsletter almost automatically.