Three Best Practices to Improve Newsletter Engagement

Improving newsletter engagement is a critical challenge for many businesses looking to maximize their email marketing efforts. While newsletters can be a powerful tool for connecting with your audience, common issues often hinder their effectiveness, and believe it or not, the use of generative AI is among the biggest issues affecting newsletter creation. Consider this. According to the Content Marketing Institute, “Nearly three-quarters (72%) say they use generative AI, but 61% say their organization lacks guidelines for its use.” This gap underscores the importance of having a clear strategy to address newsletter engagement. It’s not enough to simply make the newsletter; it must tell a story, share insight, and go further than what someone might get from visiting a landing page. They’re also an integral part of email marketing, but they may play into your social media strategy too. 

Meanwhile, it needs to be succinct, clear, and easy to read. It’s a tall order indeed, but understanding the nuances of what makes a newsletter effective can significantly impact your marketing outcomes. Let’s explore the issues and best practices to elevate your newsletter engagement to stay competitive and relevant in today’s fast-paced digital landscape.

Recognizing Low Newsletter Engagement

Understanding the common issues that lead to low newsletter engagement is essential for improving overall performance, but what exactly does low engagement look like? Here are the basics:

• Low open rates often result from unappealing subject lines. If a subject line fails to capture attention immediately, the email is likely to be ignored. For example, using generic or overly promotional language can be a turn-off for recipients.
• High unsubscribe rates can occur when the content is irrelevant to the audience. Subscribers will quickly opt-out if they feel that the content does not meet their expectations or needs. This can be especially true if the frequency of emails is too high or if the content feels spammy.
• Poor click-through rates indicate a lack of interest in the content. This suggests that the newsletter may not be providing enough value or engaging enough to prompt further action.

1. Craft Short, Compelling Subject Lines

Creating attention-grabbing subject lines is the beginning step to increasing open rates and engagement. However, you shouldn’t write your subject line first. Instead, write a broad opener to your newsletter, like a 10–15-word synopsis. Let this guide you with your content creation. 

After you’ve finished the synopsis, create a subject line that’s less than 10 words, and remember that including the recipient’s name in the subject line can make the email feel more personal and relevant. Tailoring the subject line to the recipient’s interests further enhances this effect. 

For instance, referencing past interactions or preferences can make the subject line more appealing and increase the likelihood of the email being opened.

Using time-sensitive language encourages immediate action. Phrases like “limited time offer” or “ending soon” can create a sense of urgency in the B2C world, but in B2B marketing, it’s better to avoid the hype. Rather, highlighting deadlines or exclusive deals, such as coverage with a particular carrier, can prompt recipients to act quickly, thereby increasing open and engagement rates.

2. Deliver Relevant Content

Providing content that aligns with the interests and needs of your audience enables engagement. Understanding what your audience wants can lead to higher engagement, but how do you get that information?

The answer is to ask. Ask your current clients what they want in a newsletter. It’s a 5-minute conversation about what piques their interest in everyday business activities. You may also consider sending out surveys or conducting additional market research on your target audience. 

It’s also important to realize that not all your subscribers will fall neatly into your ideal customer profile. This can be especially true for businesses that serve many industries, so you’ll want to segment your subscriber list. This means creating a unique newsletter for each core group. Plus, grouping subscribers based on their interests and behavior allows for more personalized communication. 

3. Optimize the Send Frequency

Finding the right balance in how often you send newsletters can significantly impact engagement rates. After all, sending an email in the middle of the night isn’t going to be opened immediately and will likely end up buried under a mountain of other communications before someone views it the next morning. However, there isn’t a tried-and-true rule for when to send a newsletter.

Instead, you need to experiment with different send times and frequencies that can help determine the optimal schedule for your audience. This is a form of A/B testing, which allows you to compare the effectiveness of different schedules. Ultimately, you want the data and proof of what times or days work best. This data-driven approach can help you find the best time and frequency to send your newsletters.

Further, adjusting sending frequency based on subscriber behavior ensures that you are not overwhelming your audience. This can help maintain high engagement rates and reduce unsubscribe rates.

Bonus Tip: Leverage LinkedIn Newsletters for Additional Distribution

Expanding your newsletter’s reach through LinkedIn can significantly improve engagement and visibility. LinkedIn is unique as a social media platform because it’s a sure-fire way to reach a professional audience, but you don’t necessarily have all the bells and whistles you might have in a separate, professional newsletter software, like HubSpot Marketing Starter. Yet, the value of sending newsletters on LinkedIn is too great to ignore. Plus, LinkedIn newsletters serve as a means to help drive more followers to your page too, something we’ve actually covered in our social media marketing case study in the past too. 

Through LinkedIn, you can access a professional audience that aligns with your target market and can enhance your newsletter’s reach. LinkedIn also offers built-in distribution to your connections and followers, increasing visibility. Now, you won’t necessarily have the contact information for your newsletter subscribers, but you could always start tracking that information to know when to leverage ads or other media to engage and delight your followers. In turn, they’ll be more likely to become actual leads and eventual customers. 

Above all else, know that LinkedIn can be particularly effective for B2B marketing, but you mustn’t let all other marketing channels fall by the wayside. Instead, use LinkedIn to augment your existing efforts and email campaigns. Sharing valuable content that drives both engagement and interaction can help you reach a broader audience. Additionally, LinkedIn’s analytics can provide insights into how your content is performing, allowing for continuous improvement. But there isn’t a way to know exactly who clicked on certain links in that newsletter, unless you track it with unique UTM codes that were custom created for your Google Analytics account. 

Choose JCI Marketing to Uplift Your Newsletter Engagement

While the above can work wonders for boosting your newsletter engagement, there will always be a need for a birds’ eye-view of your marketing strategy. That’s where working with an expert at JCI Marketing can help you to pick the low-hanging fruit and optimize your demand and lead generation campaigns. Thus, you can ensure that your newsletters reach your audience effectively and timely. Connect with a JCI Marketing B2B growth specialist to get started.