If you are like me and many other busy professionals, you subscribe to several ezines and newsletters. Then, when you open up your Inbox, you quickly scan the titles and subject lines, and hit the delete key. Very few ezines actually get opened up and read.
Ezine open rates are around 25-40%, and that's for the good ones! Of those opened up, only 11% are actually read thoroughly… meaning you have only a few seconds to make a good impression and deliver the promised goods (relevant information)!
What can you do to avoid the delete key? Based on these statistics, you can see the importance of your headline and subtitles. But what about the actual content?
Out of the hundreds of email promotions and newsletters I review each week, here are the six most common errors:
1. The ezine is too personal, informal and friendly, or too formal, too impersonal, and has too much jargon or corporate-speak.
2. There is too much content; the ezine is too long, has too many topics and has multiple "calls to action."
3. The ezine is boring. There is nothing compelling about the content, the subject line or the headline.
4. The author writes about themselves or their company too much, with no regard for what may be of interest to the reader. "What's in it for my readers?" should be your mantra.
5. There is too much hype, too many bold or all-cap words, aggressively calling for action with no real benefit spelled out for readers.
6. Not enough compelling reason to do anything other than scan, read, and delete…in some cases, no call to action whatsoever
Remember, your ezine and emails must inform, educate, entertain, and give something of value to your readers.
Otherwise, you are wasting your readers' valuable time and energy. You can bet they will eventually delete and unsubscribe.
Even if you aren't a great writer, you can have decent ezine content. You don't even have to write it yourself, if you are willing to run other people's content, or interview them, and give them full credit. There are hundreds of ways to create relevant, useful and interesting content. Don't let your ezine become a delete magnet.
