5 Practical Email Newsletter Tips for Better Deliverability and Readability

While content is king, creating an effective email newsletter is about more than just writing. To encourage your readers to open your emails, there are some technical best practices to consider that can help improve your results.

5 practical email newsletter tips for better deliverability and readability:

1. Keep it short. An email newsletter shouldn't contain the full article, especially if you include multiple articles in your newsletter. You want your readers to be able to easily scan the newsletter for articles that interest them. Provide them with easily absorbed fragments of information in the form of headlines and short article introductory paragraphs that link to the full article on your website.
2. Include a table of contents. A simple way to improve the scanability of your email newsletter is to place a table of contents at the top of the newsletter. The table of contents should include article titles and anchors linking to the articles' introductory paragraphs further down in the newsletter.
3. Provide your newsletter in HTML and plain text versions. While HTML is the version you'd prefer everyone to see because it's more visually attractive, not everyone will be able to view it because of firewalls and filters. If you don't have a plain text version of your newsletter, those who can't view HTML won't be able to see your newsletter at all.
4. Use a minimum of graphics. Emails with a large number of graphic images are often marked as spam and never reach the reader. Also, the majority of email clients turn off images by default so readers won't even see the graphics unless they turn them on. Keeping the pictures to a compelling few combined with your relevant content is best, as long as the email design isn't dependent on them.
5. Test test test. Email clients are not created equal. What looks great in one doesn't always look great in another. Send tests of your email to the major email clients - Outlook, Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail - to review your email in the various settings and prevent any blunders.

A well-designed template combined with relevant, informational content can have a great impact on the deliverability and readership levels of your email newsletters. To learn more email marketing tips and tricks read the AgencyBuzz blog.

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7 Tips of Effective Email Marketing Campaigns

It takes time to follow up on individual prospects and give your customers the personal attention they want. But time is a limited resource in a busy insurance agency.

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to consistently communicate with many prospects and customers at one time. When done well, it develops more meaningful, longer-lasting relationships and open, two-way communication so customers can share their pain points and you can demonstrate your expertise. Email marketing also increases the likelihood of future purchases and gathers information that can be used for improving customer service and retention.

Here are 7 tips you can use to create high quality, effective emails that will positively impact your agency growth.

1. Ask for emails. To drive subscription, you need to be asking for your customers’ email addresses at every touch point – on your website, over the phone, in your office, etc.
2. Be consistent. Emailing your customers on a regular basis will keep your agency at the top of their minds. Be careful not to overload them with constant messages. A good rule of thumb is no more often than once every 2-3 weeks. Less than that and it might be difficult for them to remember you. More than that and they might be tempted to hit the spam or unsubscribe button.
3. Relevant content. It doesn’t matter if they gave you their email address and you’re only sending messages every three weeks. If your subscribers don’t find your content interesting, they’re not going to read it. We recommend implementing a mix of insurance specific content with general interest articles, such as tips to reduce gas mileage while driving or to make easy home improvements.
4. Be yourself. People do business with people they like. Your customers already like you so don’t change your writing style because it’s an email. Keep the same style and tone as if the customer was sitting across from you in your office.
5. Segmentation. It’s easy to create a general newsletter that appeals to most customers. However, specific messages sent to specific groups can foster even deeper relationships and make more sales as segmented emails are more likely to be opened and acted upon. Producing different email messages for different groups may be more work, but it is worth the extra effort.
6. Track your results. You’ll never know which email messages are successful and which ones aren’t unless you’re tracking your results. Before you start an email marketing program, determine what your objectives are. They can be as straightforward (an open rate for driving brand awareness) or as complicated (tracking conversions and ROI) as you want. Just make sure to check your results against your objectives to determine your success.
7. Be CAN-SPAM compliant. CAN-SPAM is the law. Violating it can subject your agency to criminal penalties. You are required to include clear instructions for how subscribers can opt out of future email and unsubscribe readers promptly. Also, don’t steal email addresses and don’t be misleading.

Email is an incredibly cost-effective channel of communication for driving new sales and retaining current customers. Once you begin gathering emails, don’t wait to get started. Launch your insurance email marketing campaign as soon as possible.

Additional Resources

• Best Practices For Bulletproof E-Mail Delivery
• 31 content tips and ideas for your B2B email newsletter
• To learn more email marketing tips and tricks read the AgencyBuzz blog.

New Features for Insurance Website Builder

We've added new features to IWB.

Complete integration with our new product: AgencyBuzz

• You configure AgencyBuzz within IWB here: http://www.insurancewebsitebuilder.com/Admin/agencybuzz.aspx
• Whenever the site is configured with AgencyBuzz, any submissions will also be auto inserted into AgencyBuzz from the website. The user has the ability to configure whether they want the submissions entered for Quotes, Service Requests or Newsletters.
• Normal newsletter screen on IWB : http://www.sampleinsurancewebsite.com/newsletter.aspx
• Newsletter screen when integrated with AgencyBuzz : http://www.freedemowebsite.com/newsletter.aspx

QR Codes on the employee directory for easy downloads of Contact Information

• http://www.sampleinsurancewebsite.com/contact/Patricia_Morris.aspx

Blog Comments have been enabled and can be moderated

• http://www.sampleinsurancewebsite.com/blog/Basic_Blog_Post.aspx

IWB now has a mobile version that includes the following features at no cost to the agent and is available on all plans. (If you don’t have a mobile device then you can still view a sample of it here: http://www.sampleinsurancewebsite.com/m/)

• Automatic Mobile Device Detection
• Quote Forms
• Manage My Policy Forms
• Report a Claim Form (all forms are mobile friendly forms)
• Line of Business Pages
• About Us Page
• Locations
• Click to Map (using the built in mapping app of the device)
• Employees
• Click to Call
• Click to E-mail
• Click to Download vCard (not supported by iPhone)
• Contact Us Page
• Blog
• FAQs
• Important Links
• Important Files
• View Full Site
• Privacy Policy
• Integration with Submission Manager and AgencyBuzz
• Mobile Sitemap (the same as the Google Sitemap but designed for mobile)
• A VERY good looking interface

We hope you enjoy all your new features!

Contact us at 1-800-383-3482 for more information about these exciting new features.