If you think your chamber newsletter is incredibly boring, you need to do something about that right away. Don’t hide behind the idea that all business newsletters are boring. The ones that get opened month after month certainly aren’t.
So what can you do to turn yours around?
You are going to have to make a big deal about this revamping. Pull out all the marketing stops because someone only opens a boring newsletter once or twice. You’ve probably lost a large segment of your audience and your open rates are probably down. That’s when you know there’s trouble.
To get everyone interested again, you’ll need a major re-engagement campaign but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Give them something to get excited about again. Here’s how:
Energize Your Chamber Newsletter with These Tips
- Don’t print entire articles in your e-newsletter. Give teasing snippets and refer them back to the article on your site.
- If you’re sending an e-newsletter. make sure you use the benefits of its electronic format, such as using URLs to add value.
- Use a captivating design.
- Provide information that matters to your audience, not just to you.
- Create a premium content section just for subscribers so that those on your email list get something those who are seeing your newsletter on your site don’t get. This will drive subscriptions.
- Let newsletter subscribers have special benefits, discounts, or access to info first. This creates another reason to sign up for your email list.
- Take a tip from Henry. Henry Florsheim from the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce suggests switching up your newsletter for an email message instead. He said, “I scrapped our e-newsletter years ago. Now I send a weekly message from me about a single topic of interest. Could be something we’re doing, something related to an economic development project, one of our strategic allies and so on. 250 words or less. Our open rate is higher and members reply on a pretty regular basis.”
- Give them a reason to open. This is the most important. You have to give them a reason to click on your newsletter and listing your chamber’s hours for that week isn’t going to do it. A humorous anecdote, a bit of history, whatever works for your audience but it must be about their needs, not the chamber’s.
Learn more about what other chambers are doing here.
