What I Know About Sending B2B Email Newsletters

In 2017 I started sending an email newsletter for Feature Upvote, my company’s feature request tracking tool.

I first read several articles with tips for sending newsletters. They tended to be vague, wordy, and always with popups demanding my email address if I wanted to keep reading.

So I’m sharing the tips I collated, concisely, and without any popups.

For context, here’s an example email newsletter I recently sent.

Here’s how it typically appears in an inbox:

I’ll explain why I chose this format for subject line, “from” address and name, the contents, and the sign-off.

Write from “You at Your company”.

I use “Steve at Feature Upvote”. It shows the company name in the inbox. This is an important part of helping people decide whether to open the message. It shows my first name, revealing that there is a real person writing and sending this email.

Use an email address that people can reply to.

It can be you@yourcompany, or support@yourcompany. The important thing is that if someone replies to this email, it will actually be read and dealt with.

The subject should be a brief description of the contents.

Don’t put your company name in the subject line — it is already showing in the “From” field. Don’t use “April newsletter” or “What’s new!” Your audience won’t connect with these bland subjects.

Do write a few words that reveal what you are announcing in the newsletter. Even people who don’t open the email will see what the improvements you are describing.

Your email newsletter service provider will offer a “open rate” percentage. It can be tempting to optimise for this. But remember that many people who don’t open the email will read the subject line. There is no way you can measure this but it is still a benefit for you.

Use plain formatting

I don’t mean an old-fashioned “plain text” email. I do mean an email that avoids fancy layouts with multiple columns and big logos. The use of bold, italics, bullet points, and hyperlinks is fine.

Rob Walling the founder of Drip, an email service provider, recommends simple formats unless you are selling something that is associated with high quality images, such as food or travel. For a B2B product, plain formatting is as good as, if not better, than fancy formatting.

Plain formatting makes testing easier too.

Write a few sentences at most.

Get to the point. There’s no need to include a big welcome or a logo in your header. The simpler the contents, the more likely people are to read it.

I typically include two bullet points highlighting recent improvements to Feature Upvote. Each bullet point links to a fuller article or a section of our user guide.

Use a warm sign-off

The sign-off should make people feel they can reply to you directly via email.

It is hard choosing the level of formality in the sign-off. That’s because what’s acceptable is culturally dependent, and your newsletter is almost certainly going to people from many cultures.

I’ve settled on “Cheers”, my first name, a glorified job title, and a link the Feature Upvote’s home page. I’ve avoided having a logo, in order to keep the email format plain.

That describes the appearance of the emails. Here are some high level tips for B2B email newsletters:

Your email newsletter has two purposes

Purpose one is to show your existing customers that your product is under active improvement. This discourages them from churning.

Purpose two is to remind your potential customers about you. These are people who have tried your product, but haven’t committed to a paid subscription yet. They are interested in your product, but are not ready to purchase. An email newsletter regularly appearing in their inbox reminds them that you exist.

Send once a month; not more often and not less often

Here’s why I recommend sending only once a month:

1. It is hard to generate useful content that your will interest your readers. When you try to send more often, your content will be weak.
2. Creating and sending email newsletters takes time. Once a month is a realistic schedule you can stick to.
3. Your audience is probably already awash in email newsletters and promotions. There is no need to add to the noise.

Here’s why you should send every month:

1. Less often than once a month and some recipients will not remember having signed up for your newsletter. They’ll be more likely to mark it as spam.
2. When people receive emails from you at least once a month, they’ll remember who you are and what your product is. If they’ve been assessing your product against others and haven’t yet made a decision, this reminder will help bring you to mind.

You can use just about any email marketing company

Most email marketing companies are pretty good. Don’t fret too much about using the right one. I’ve tried three in recent years; AWeber, MailChimp, and MailerLite. For Feature Upvote newsletter, I’m using MailerLite and I’m happy with them.

By the way, here’s a site to help you choose an email newsletter service.

Write, wait 24 hours, proofread, test, then send

Sending to your list is scary. Once you’ve clicked “Send”, you can’t recall the email if there is a typo or a broken link.

That’s why I always wait overnight before proofreading again. It is also why I always send a test email that I check on several devices before sending to the whole list.