Engagement in your newsletter is a marathon not a sprint

katie Oconnell | 10 September 2021
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In the world of modern technology, newspapers are long gone. People are more likely to sit down and scroll through their mobile phones to catch up on the latest news through sources such as; newsletters. An email newsletter’s engagement is a marathon not a sprint, there is no quick way of gaining lots of engaged subscribers overnight.

Here are some important things to know:

Content is critical to your email newsletter strategy

The quality of the content you produce is critical to the audience. The subject line can make the difference of someone opening or not opening your email. However, the content quality will determine whether readers will continue to open your emails after the first.

It is all about trial and error and seeing what works for your newsletter, this could include the layout, design, tone, length, links, and personalisation.

Also avoiding spam looking subject lines may allow you to see a greater open rate on that particular day, leading to a more interested audience.

Email open rates are a positive feedback loop

It is very important to note that open rates are a positive feedback loop, the higher your open rate the more it will rise in future. This is a very underappreciated fact in the email space.

To make sure that your email lands in your recipient’s main inbox, the email provider will assign a reputation to your IP address and email. As long as the reputation improves it will land in your recipient’s main inbox. However, if it worsens it will move to spam and junk.

How do you improve the reputation?

A first step which is important is to only send the email to people who love your content and open and click on your email regularly.

Over time inbox providers will trust you more therefore your open rate will increase as the email will be placed in the main inbox more regularly.

Scaling your email newsletter

Word of mouth can be one of the best ways to grow your audience, whether this is through social media or face to face. However, the word of mouth was backed by strong and consistent content.

Creating ads and sponsors on social media is another way to reach new audiences with your newsletter and create a larger following.

Having your newsletter and brand introduced by a trusted source such as word of mouth and sometimes promotions will outperform retargeting ads with little to no context.