There are certain rules for good e-newsletters however, many  tend to overlook them. Bearing these tips in mind though will make your e-newsletter stand out and push you further ahead of your competition.

Log-in and log-out
  • Dispatch of e-mails without consent
  • Web: Registration form is hidden
  • Too complex registration pages
  • Unnecessary data request
  • No indicator or anonymous references
  • No index of the expected contents
  • No reference to the frequency of publication
  • No information about data protection
  • No note on data processing
  • No special consent for analysis of personally identifiable information
  • No acknowledgment message on the Web
  • Bad confirmation (for example " System OK, ")
  • No logging of the approval (confirmation mail)
  • No welcome e-mail
  • Complicated log-in process
  • No right of objection indicator (i.e. “cancel")
  • Intricate change of e-mail address process
  • Belated change of registration data not possible
  • Absence of marking duty (imprint)


Sender

  • As sender there is only "newsletter"
  • As sender there is only "John Smith"
  • As sender there is only info@company.com
  • Ensure everything is personalized.

 

Reference

  • Subject is meaningless or always the same ("newsletter ")
  • Dull subject matter without reference to actuality or value


Introduction

  • No individual address
  • Unclear subject
  • Not clear what advantage/benefits the reader / buyer gets
  • Oversized logo at the beginning
  • A lot of empty space at the beginning
  • Long text blocks at the beginning
  • No incentive to read on
  • The first message of the newsletter is immediately advertisement
  • The editorial at the beginning is signed by "your newsletter team " instead of " Yours, Peter Miller”
  • First announcement is the imprint
  • Introduction is  too long and/or without structure


Arrangement

  • No clear structure
  • Single announcements are inadequately separated from each other
  • Unstructured and overloaded text page
  • Waste of free space
  • Weird subject mix
  • Too much continuous text
  • No table of contents or it appears at the end
  • Single announcements have no link back to the above table of contents


Hyperlinks

  • Blue writing is used which is usually associated with hyperlinks
  • No hyperlinks on detailed information
  • Hyperlinks are not recognizable as those (i.e. they should be the common blue, everyone is used to)
  • Hyperlinks only on homepage instead of leading to special sites
  • Not all is "linked": heading, picture and keywords at the end of text


Pictures

  • There are no relevant pictures
  • Unnecessary pictures
  • Order button is too small
  • Weighting: too much picture not enough text


Presentation

  • Dispatch of the virtual newsletter as appendix of an e-mail
  • Writing in capitals which make it indistinct
  • Content does not fit to the reference line
  • Content too ornate
  • Reader / buyer advantage not or only hardly identifiable
  • Long winded wording
  • Misspelling