• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, May 21, 2018

It’s midnight. You’re trying to put some highly technical drivel about your product into English, then load the result into a newsletter tool. The tool is acting up, you have two more pieces to wade through. You’re hours late. You wonder why you didn’t go to law school.

Welcome to the wonderful world of email newsletters.

Fortunately, there are ways to streamline this process. Dotmailer and eCommerce MasterPlan have outlined them in a white paper titled "14 Ways to Beat Newsletter Block," written by Chloe Thomas.

First, get organized. Create a broadcast calendar and try to work at normal times of day. As Dotmailer notes, “sitting down on a Monday to decide what to send this week is usually the death of creativity.” 

Next, leave your seat in the marketing department and visit the buying and merchandising team. Find out what they've got in the hopper. Then ask your marketing colleagues what’s new. Has anything happened in social media? Has there been any interesting PR?

Look at the metrics. What’s selling? What’s being read on the website? And what worked last year? 

With that in mind, you might create a series or pump up some event, like a seasonal sale.

What kind of emails should you be sending? Dotmailer suggests reviews, and emails that explain what you sell, by each category. Send an email titled “New in! 

Communicate urgency with lines like “Offer ends tomorrow.” Build trust, and remove barriers to purchase.

Have a little time to kill? Do a customer survey to find out why people buy your product. But don’t send the survey by email —it won’t pull. Instead, add the questions as the second stage of your email sign-up, or on your order confirmation page, Dotmailer says.

Are you a true direct marketer? Test your ideas, creating two mails, and send each to half of your list.

Test both content and subject lines. Segment your list and send different versions of your newsletter to different groups. Move into dynamic or personalized content.

Got all that? Finally, watch your competitors to determine what to do — and what not to do. 

Dotmailer makes it sound so easy. But here’s the real key: Relax and try to have fun with it. If you do, so will your readers. And make sure you have an easy-to-use tool.