Getting people engaged with your emails and newsletters

How can we get people engaged with our emails and newsletter?

A common problem: people seldom reply, and people sometimes unsubscribe altogether because they get so many emails and rarely have time to read them.

A few suggestions:

1. Make your emails so short, people don't mind deleting them but staying subscribed

The idea here is that people won't mind missing your emails, because they are short. Try to make them feel like you can ignore them, or save them, or read them — but it's all lightweight.

These are NOT long essays that make you feel GUILTY or feel FOMO for not reading.

2. Ask for replies

Mind-blowing, I know, but if you want replies, you will do well to ask for them. And you're more likely to get them if your emails are short enough that people actually reach the part where you ask.

3. Create a communal conversation

Something that Jonathan Stark does really well (he sends almost daily newsletters) is that he often builds a conversation around reader replies. His newsletter therefore becomes a communal conversation.

4. Make the headers themselves the main points, that can be skimmed

Most people skim readily. By making your headers the point, you help people get the idea of what you're talking about, even if they only glance and delete.

By reading these four headers, you know what this email is about at a quick glance.

A lot of this comes from an idea I learned from church: "Don't preach them full, preach them hungry." Give people enough to want more, not so much that they choke on the volume.