Top Five Reasons Why Your E-newsletter isn’t Getting Responses

E-newsletters can be a great way to drive traffic to your website and increase sales of your products and/or services. But if you're sending out regular e-newsletters and not getting results, you may need to take a look at what's working and what's not. Following are five reasons why you might not be getting responses from your e-newsletter.

1. Your e-newsletter doesn't have the right readers. Sorry to break it to you, but your e-newsletter list is about quality more than quantity. Having 100 e-newsletter subscribers that are genuinely interested in your products and services in much better than having 1,000 e-newsletter subscribers who never read your e-newsletters and/or take any action.

2. Your e-newsletter's subject line is boring or not specific enough to incite immediate action. "ABC Company's e-newsletter - episode 30" isn't going to send most of your readers clamoring to read your e-newsletter. Your message is probably competing with dozens, possibly hundreds, of other emails for the reader's limited time, so your subject line has to give them a taste of what's inside the e-newsletter and leave them wanting to learn more. The use of mystery and/or excitement is fine (ie. "Want to learn the secrets of millionaire minds?") but be careful not to mislead readers. Which leads us to our next point...

3. Your e-newsletter's subject line is misleading. Don't promise anything in your subject line that you can't (or won't) deliver in the body of the e-newsletter. If you're a business coach who works with business owners to create business growth and financial success, don't deliver an e-newsletter with a eye-catching subject line that reads, "Learn how to get rich quick!" and then go on to promote your workshop that helps business owners create a long-term wealth-building plan. Most of your e-newsletter readers will feel tricked and betrayed, and they'll likely either unsubscribe from your mailing list or ignore your future e-newsletters.

4. You're tight-lipped in your e-newsletter communications. There is a commonly-held belief that if service providers give information away, they'll never get anyone to buy their services. While it's true that you might lose some do-it-yourselfers, you're actually more likely to shed some light on just how involved the service in question is, and your potential client will realize that they don't have the time, desire, and/or expertise to do it themselves. The trick is to give away enough information in your e-newsletter to whet their appetites and make them realize that they need your service - and that you're the only one who can solve their need.

5. You're not building relationships with your e-newsletter readers. This goes along with #4; if all you try to do is sell your products and services in your e-newsletter, you're missing out on some prime relationship-building opportunities. The thing that makes e-newsletters so great is that you get to use them to help clients get to know you and - more importantly - trust you. The more they know and like you, the more likely they are to shell out their hard-earned cash for whatever it is you're selling - by now, they trust you to make good on your promises to help them with their problems.

You don't have to implement all five e-newsletter tips at once, but make a point to put at least a few of these techniques in action over the next few weeks and watch your e-newsletter responses improve.