How To Improve Your Newsletter Open Rate | Web Design Relief

Sending an email newsletter to your subscriber list is a great way to keep your followers engaged and updated about your writing projects, publications, and upcoming events. But even when you spend hours writing, editing, and adding useful links to your author newsletter, there’s no guarantee that your subscribers will even open and read it. How do you ensure your newsletter doesn’t end up unopened and deleted? The marketing experts at Web Design Relief have some great tips on how to improve your newsletter open rate so you can?reach more readers?with your content.

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6 Ways To Improve Your Newsletter Open Rate

Include A Reader Magnet.?Your newsletter should offer your subscribers value. One way to do that is to offer an exclusive piece of content called a “reader magnet.” A reader magnet?is something you give subscribers for free?in exchange for them doing something for you, like signing up for the newsletter. It can be a short story centered on a character from your book, an unreleased poem, or some other piece of content that would encourage your readers to stay subscribed to your list.

Use An Effective Subject Line.?Pay special attention to your subject line—it’s the first thing your readers will see when your email arrives in their inboxes. Effective subject lines can lead to higher open rates, and the?best subject lines make a “promise”?that the newsletter then delivers. Be sure your newsletter follows up on the promise made in your subject line so that your subscribers are more likely to open and read your emails.

Encourage Whitelisting.?Your readers may not realize that the emails you’ve worked so hard to create aren’t actually making it into their inbox! To avoid ending up in the spam folder, let your readers know?how to whitelist you. Whitelisting means adding an email address to an approved sender list in a subscriber’s email provider. This ensures your newsletter won’t default into the receiver’s spam folder. You should also review your Sender name to see if it’s recognizable at a glance. If your subscribers can’t tell an email is from you, they may hit delete without ever opening it.

Mail On A Consistent Schedule.?Whether it’s twice a week or once a month or something in between,?find the frequency that works for you?so that you are sending out interesting content on a regular schedule. You should also experiment and find the optimal time of day to send out your newsletter emails. If your subscribers know what day and time your newsletter usually arrives, they’ll be more likely to watch for it, open it, and read it.

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Sign Up To Your Own List.?While you may feel like you know your content inside out, it’s important to subscribe to your newsletter so you can experience it as a subscriber would. See how it looks in your inbox and read it from the point of view of an interested follower. Click on any links to confirm they work properly.

Your newsletter should be formatted so that it looks good on a mobile device, since nowadays most people do their reading on their cell phones. By evaluating your email newsletter from the reader’s perspective, you can discover if there are any aspects that need to be improved.

Ask Your Subscribers Questions.?A great way to engage your readers is to simply ask for their opinions. If you ask the right questions and interact with your readers, you can develop a back-and-forth that can be as valuable to them as it to you. The responses you get could also help you tweak your newsletter so that it continues to appeal to your followers. Consider inviting subscribers to email you, go to your website, or contact you over social media.

Improving your newsletter open rate requires careful attention to every aspect of your email. By following these tips and writing engaging content, you’ll encourage more subscribers to open and read your emails.