Where email newsletters go to die.

I was cleaning out my inbox folders today and rediscovered my “to read later” folder, which is supposedly the handy organizational device that lets me “catch up” on “important” emails when I have “time.” I should probably rename it the email graveyard, because it’s where emails go to die. I don’t have to unsubscribe. I don’t have to delete it. I can just “file” it like a responsible subscriber and tell myself that I really will scroll through fifteen inches of articles later. When I have time. Uh huh. Sure.

In fact, most all the emails in my “to read later” folder shared a common trend of being really long and text-heavy, with no good introduction to what was inside. And I understand that some organizations – universities and non-profits, typically – will often have longer articles that they want to put in front of their subscribers. But if sending a novel is going to land your email newsletter in the email graveyard, what’s an email marketer to do?

Use landing pages. That way, you can tease articles with a blurb, then link your readers to the full article hosted on your site. It keeps your email short, sweet and tidy – plus, it directs traffic to your website (always a good thing). And if you’re checking your response results (you are checking those, right?) you can use the link tracking to see which articles garnered the most interest.

We actually just got an email from the stylish Emma users at Haverford College that’s a perfect example of the landing page newsletter done well. Check it out here, won’t you?

[tags] email marketing, email newsletters, landing pages, Haverford College, myemma.com[/tags]