How to Set Goals That Increase the Value of Your Email Newsletter

Identify Your Marketing Communication Goals What impact are your marketing and communication efforts expected to bring to your organization? If youre the chief marketer as well as the owner then what is your purpose for writing this email newsletter?

Some possible higher level goals include (but are not limited to):

1) develop your long-term relationship with readers
2) increase sales (or other business-related conversion) through up-sell and cross-sell
3) increase event participation

Give These Goals Articulated Specifics Its important to have your goals firmly in mind as you create content for your newsletter, but the broader goals wont help you much until you identify and articulate the specifics of these goals. For example, if one of your marketing communications goals is to increase event participation and youve got 1000 email readers then set a goal of incentivizing 50 subscribers to attend.

Here are the above-mentioned goals with some more detailed, articulated specifics:

1) develop long-term relationship with readers
a) increase open rates by 10% and click throughs by 25% in three months. reduce unsubscribe rates by 50% over six months. Increase instances of send-to-a-friend by 5 per issue. Increase email responses from readers to 10 per issue.
2) increase sales through up-sell and cross-sell
a) push email-driven sales up 5% in your next issue. Move 3 readers along to the next stage in your sales cycle.

3) increase event participation
a) increase event attendance at your next event by 50 people.

Identify How Your Email Newsletter Will Affect These Specific Goals So youve done the work of identifying your broad goals and the specifics of the related goals. You know that without these specific goals youll be unable to reach your broader goals, which are really more like ideals than goals anyway. Now its time for the fun part: identifying how youre going to start achieving these specifics while still serving the readers of your newsletter.

1) Im going to first focus on developing long term relationships with readers as measured by increasing open rates by 10% and content click throughs by 25 % in 3 months. There are several ways to affect this metric.

a) Ask Your Readers What Theyd Like to Read
Of course you have an agenda - you need to let people know of the successes your company has and all the events that readers can attend. You could find that you significantly increase your target metrics by adding a quick note in your newsletter to ask folks what theyd like to see more or less of. If your readers arent responsive then consider calling up specific subscribers who you know personally. Ask them directly what kinds of stuff would get them to open up your newsletter. Find a way to add a bit of what they requested and then track your metrics over the next several months to see what happens.

b) Grow the Conversation
Anytime you get an email response figure out how to work it into your newsletter. Show the subscribers that there is a readership community that has an impact on the newsletter and even your organization as a whole. Surveys are great for those readerships who arent vocal by nature - you can also work in phone calls if you rarely get email responses. Anything to show that youre listening and responding. You will see the open rate metric creep up over time as you train readers to expect more interaction from others like them.

2) Now lets look at increasing cross-sales and upselling by 5% in your next issue. Here are a few strategies to consider:

a) Reader-Targeted Offer
Now that youve spent time tuning up your content by asking readers what they want to read you should have a better idea of how to write to them and what theyre looking to read. This will give you clues towards messaging, what kind of incentive will get them moving (price drop vs. special gift), and even an idea of where to place the offer. The more you know the better your aim.

b) Testimonials in Your Newsletter
If youre a service company there may be a way to make these testimonials into case studies. Either way, showing the effects of affiliating with your organization could be a deciding factor for those readers who are on the fence about giving you their money.

c) Specialized Landing Pages
If youre serious about converting readers to your offers you should consider creating more customized landing pages where they can learn more about what youre selling. An added benefit is that you can use these pages as paid search landing pages as well.

3) So if youre working to drive attendance to local events youre going to have to get a little more creative with your efforts, and it may be tough to separate out people who you incented to attend versus the folks who would have gone anyways. Here are a couple of quick ideas though for tracking and increasing event attendance.

a) Drink (or other gift) Coupons/Code in the Email Newsletter
If your list is small enough you could consider a printable coupon for your subscribers. If you can, be at the booth where you hand out the gifts so that you can capture new newsletter subscribers. Consider giving away your prize to folks who sign up for your newsletter too.

b) Photograph and Briefly Interview the Event Attendees
Ask your readers to come and introduce themselves to you at the next event so that you can put their picture in the next issue. This isnt going to appeal to everyone, but for a few it will be a big deal, and nothing gets folks opening up an email newsletter like the chance to see their own smiling face next to their name and the name of their organization.

Measure Reader Response and Adjust Accordingly
Your email newsletter improvement loop closes with the measurement of your efforts. By benchmarking and following the metrics that relate to your goals youll be able to see how your efforts are affecting your organizations overall goals. Its vital that you have patience though - especially if you publish monthly - as it often takes several months before you start to see an increase in your target metrics.

Garrett French builds links through creative communications that include blogging, article distribution and email newsletters. Read his link development blog at http://www.GarrettFrench.com and his email marketing blog for the company Contactology.

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