Send a newsletter only when it carries one thing a customer can use, put that thing in the subject line, and time it for when customers actually decide rather than for the first day of spring.

Spring is here, says the subject line

The subject line says Spring Newsletter. Inside is a photograph of tulips, a paragraph about longer days, a reminder of the services the business offers, and an invitation to get in touch with any questions.

It went out because the calendar said spring, and because the last one went out in the autumn.

Nothing in it is wrong. Nothing in it is useful either, and the people receiving it can tell from the subject line alone.

What an empty newsletter costs

Each send asks a customer for a few seconds of attention. Spend them on nothing and the customer learns that your emails are safe to ignore.

That lesson sticks. The next email, the one with something genuinely worth reading, arrives already filed in the reader's mind as the kind they delete.

Some will unsubscribe, which is their right and no great loss. The costlier ones stay on the list and stop opening, so the list looks like an audience and behaves like an empty room.

A few will press the spam button instead, which teaches their email provider to file your future messages away from the inbox.

The usual contents

The third is the hardest to see from the inside. A new van, a renovated reception or a staff anniversary is real news to the people who lived it, and of little use to a customer planning Saturday.

One useful thing per send

A useful newsletter carries at least one thing the reader can act on, or would be glad to know.

A date: when the bedding plants arrive, when spring appointments open, when the price list changes.

A deadline the reader might otherwise miss. A specific tip from someone who does the work every day. An offer with a reason and an end.

One is enough. A newsletter with one clear item gets read; a newsletter with seven gets skimmed, and the important one sits at number five.

If there is nothing useful this month, do not send. Silence costs less than a forgettable email.

A reason to open

For most recipients, the subject line is the whole newsletter. They read it, with the line of preview text beside it, and decide in a second.

Spring Newsletter tells them nothing the date did not. Tomato plants arrive Friday tells them something, and gives them a reason to open.

Write the subject line from the useful thing, not from the season, and use the preview text to add a detail rather than repeat the business name.

In Gmail, newsletters often land in the Promotions tab, among dozens of others. A specific subject line is what stands out there.

Timing that suits the decision

Customers decide on their own schedule, not the calendar's. The email should arrive shortly before they decide.

A feed store's customers plan the weekend's chores on Thursday evening. An accountant's clients start worrying a few weeks before the end of April.

A heating and cooling company's customers think about air conditioning on the first hot day, which is too late to book a service quickly.

So the useful question is not when spring starts, but when your customers make this particular decision, and how far ahead of it the email should land.

A worked example

A farm supply and feed store on the highway just outside town had sent a spring newsletter every March for six years: a welcome to the season, a photograph from the previous summer, and the opening hours.

It went out on a Monday in early March, weeks before most customers were ordering chicks or seed, and nobody could point to a single thing it had prompted a customer to do.

This year the store is sending short emails instead, each built around one fact: the day spring chick orders open, the week seed potatoes come in, the Saturday fencing goes on sale.

Each goes out on a Thursday evening, with the fact in the subject line. Each runs to about a hundred and fifty words, with one photograph taken in the store that week.

More sends than before, each of them shorter, and each with a reason to exist.

Short enough to keep doing

A long seasonal newsletter takes a day to assemble, which is why it happens four times a year at most, and sometimes not at all.

A short email built around one fact takes half an hour. It can be written the week the fact becomes true, which is also the week it is most useful.

Readers who skimmed past a quarterly roundup are more likely to read a short, specific note, because it respects their time.

The list behind it

All of this assumes the people on the list asked to be there, or bought from you recently enough to count.

Under Canada's anti-spam law, a purchase gives implied consent to email for two years, and an enquiry for six months. After that, you need their express permission to keep writing.

Every send also needs your business's name and contact details, and a working unsubscribe link honoured within ten business days. A useful newsletter does not change those rules; it just gives fewer people a reason to use the link.

The counter-case

Sometimes the seasonal reminder is the useful thing.

An irrigation company reminding customers to book the spring start-up, or a tire shop announcing that changeover appointments are open, is sending a date and an action, and the season is the reason.

A business with a small list of loyal customers can also send a chattier note, because those readers want to hear from you.

Even then, the rule holds: one thing they can use, said in the subject line, sent shortly before they decide.

Before the next send

  1. Name the one useful thing in this email.
  2. Cancel the send if there is none.
  3. Write the subject line from that thing.
  4. Time it before customers decide, not after.
  5. Use your own photograph, taken this week.
  6. Keep it short enough to read standing up.
  7. Check consent for everyone on the list.

Step two is the hardest and the most valuable. Every empty email spends a little of the attention the next useful one will need, and not sending is the only way to save it.

Where a list should and should not come from is covered in the email list somebody offered to sell you.

Frequently asked questions

What is wrong with a seasonal newsletter?

Nothing, if it carries something useful. One sent only because it is spring teaches readers that your emails are safe to ignore, including the next useful one.

What counts as one useful thing?

Something the reader can act on or would be glad to know: a date, a deadline, a specific tip from someone who does the work, or an offer with a reason and an end.

What should the subject line say?

The useful thing itself. Spring Newsletter says nothing the date did not, while a specific fact gives the reader a reason to open the email.

When should a newsletter go out?

Shortly before your customers make the decision it concerns, such as a Thursday evening before a weekend, rather than on the first day of a season.

Should I send when there is nothing to say?

No. Silence costs less than a forgettable email, which spends some of the attention the next useful message will need.

How long does consent last in Canada?

Under the anti-spam law, a purchase gives implied consent for two years and an enquiry for six months. After that, you need express permission to keep emailing.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Spring newsletter drafted with nothing in it?

Send it to us before it goes out. We will find the one useful thing, or suggest holding it.

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