Erica

Ian

Thanks for sharing. You make a good point about testing. My philosophy is there really is no one general best practice that will work for every firm. To find your own set of ‘best practices’ you must test. You can use others’ practices and tips to come up with a starting point and baseline, but the only way you’ll find what works best for you is to constantly try new things and set a goal for each send to do better than the last.

One thing I’ve seen work well to promote services within newsletters is it to cross link from each article / content piece to the related service. Or flow the newsletter content is such a way that one flows into the other. For example you may write an article outlining the challenges a particular services solves and then segue into copy about that service.

Erica

On the headline front: yes, do great headlines for the headlines on the content pieces. but in terms of the subject of the email, a number of tests have shown that you get the highest open rates when the subject starts with the title of the newsletter. I guess it’s a familiarity thing. They subscribed to the newsletter and they’re expecting it, so they’ll open it (especially if it’s been good before). Whereas the typical “How to… or “Have you made these 6 mistakes…” headlines might work better in normal circumstances vs a one-off email, but against a newsletter name they lose. Probably it’s because they don’t have that ring of familiarity. They could be headlines on a sales email, spam or anything. So people click less on them.

Of course, everyone should do their own testing. And the best solution is probably a newsletter name followed by an intriguing title (which is a good reason to have a short newsletter title).

On the “don’t write about your new services” side – I think a little news is OK. I’d never do more than 10-20% of a newsletter content about your services or offers. But your newsletter subscribers really should be interested a bit in your services. If not, then you have a mismatch between your services and what you’re writing about in your newsletter.

You absolutely mustn’t be too self promotional – but at the end of the day, the reason you’re doing a newsletter is to (eventually) win clients. If a reader gets upset or put off because of a small mention of your new service, or an offer you make to them then they’re unlikely to ever become a client or a referrer – so you’re probably better off without them on your list.

Ian