8 Tips for Value-Packed Newsletters

When you’re flipping through TV channels, value makes you stop and watch something. Entertainment value, learning value, interest value… and this value-meter is personal to you.

Your newsletter needs personal value, too. Value encourages the recipient to stop and read. You might be sending a newsletter to 100,000 people, but it’s time to stop worrying if everyone will open it. What you should worry about is if Mary will open it. Will Bob? Will Jim? Without appealing to individuals, your newsletter will only add to the clutter.

These eight tips can help pack your newsletter with value so that it stands out:

1. Find the individual within the masses. Trying to please everyone can seem like a good idea, but this approach usually means bland and generic. Your prospects have already deleted hundreds of these newsletters. Show readers you know them by being specific. Instead of trying to appeal to your audience as whole, try to appeal to each member more directly.
2. Use subjects that say “read me.” Many people never get past the subject line, so make it good. Pack this statement with power, and demonstrate the goodies inside.
3. Enhance lives. Offering something is a way to create immediate value. Give a discount, a bonus, a relevant piece of information, or a transformative tip.
4. Bring the outside in. What’s going on in the world? Your industry? Be timely and relevant with your newsletter. Sometimes that means looking out instead of in.
5. Be scandalous. No, I don’t want you to spout gossip, but topics that are edgy or invoke thought get noticed. Don’t ruffle feathers, but if a topic will capture interest (and lines up with your goals and audience), don’t be afraid to take what’s normally a 7 on the buzz-o-meter to a 10.
6. Get better, be better, do better. Your readers want to know how to improve their lives and businesses. Help them.
7. Integrate technology. I love words, but technology enhances them. Include audio, video and relevant images to give your reader a dynamic experience.
8. Show someone like them. Don’t talk about how a certain product or service helped hundreds of people. Talk about how, exactly, it helped one. Demonstrating how somebody in their position benefited makes value real instead of abstract.

Before you send out 100,000 pieces of clutter, ask yourself: Where’s the value? If your newsletter is value packed, Mary, Bob and Jim will look forward to reading it whenever it pops up in their inbox. And the other 99,997 people just might feel the same.

Which are your favorite newsletters and why? Please share below. (Feel free to include your own.)

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