I’ve recently attended a great webinar where I learned a lot about newsletter trends for 2010 and beyond. So I thought I’d share my learning with you and here are some points that you can implement now to get more business throughout the rest of 2010!

Testing is important

Use your open and click rates to determine the potential strengths and weaknesses of your own campaigns. From the results you can identify areas to test to improve performance. Try split-testing subject lines, FROM name, newsletter title. Research and surveys show that email marketing spend is expected to grow and expand to $2 billion in the US by 2014. The other increase in Marketers’ budgets was in Social Media. This means that if you are not using newsletters yet – don’t miss a chance to get started before it’s no longer a “purple cow” of marketing.

Correct use of Subject line

It’s a myth that you can’t use the word ‘free’ both in the body and subject line. Fact: along with ‘newsletter’, ‘free’, ‘news’, ‘event’ and ‘update’ are some of the top one hundred words that are used in the subject line. Length: research shows open rates of 52% and upwards for a subject line of 35 characters or less and a click rate 69% higher. The effort spent converting your subject line to 35 characters or less is worth it and will help the reader discover what’s in it for them by concentrating on your dialogue. Be clear, be precise but make sure the subject line truly represents the contents of the newsletter so that your email doesn’t get spammed.

Best day to send – Sunday.

According to the research people are getting ready for their week and they are looking ahead, they have the time to read. During 2009 CTR was the highest on Sunday (4.1%) and Saturday (4.0%). Open rates show a peak on Sunday, with Tuesday and Saturday 12.6%  & 12% respectively. However, open rates declined during 2009 as part of the trend over the last 3-4 years. Similarly click rate is also declining. Some reasons for that:

• Image blocking – if the mail program blocks images the ‘open’ may not be counted. More people are reading in preview mode.
• Increased use of mobile devices.
• List fatigue – too many newsletters subscribed to so readers unsubscribe.
• The smaller lists have better open rates, probably because you have a closer relationship with readers.

To evaluate how well your own marketing is doing compare your different campaigns to see if your campaigns follow this trend.

Frequency – more is MORE!

Send more frequently – once every 3 months doesn’t work. Try once a month at least or even every other week. Schedule your emails for a regular day/time, so that people know they can receive and use the information during the working week.

Stay relevant.

Newsletters are changing, the format, how we use them, what we do with them. But nevertheless newsletters are about relationship building.

So think about the following questions:

1. What works for my audience?
2. What does my audience want to read?
3. How do they want to read what I have to say?
4. How often do they want to read it?

Good luck! And please share with us what works for your newsletters and how you test them to get even better!