Posted by Adam T. Sutton in Email Marketing Tips	October 1, 2007

How easy is it to interact with your email newsletter?

By Adam T. Sutton, Managing Editor, Mequoda Group, LLC

Marketers can get carried away with email. Some will hide the unsubscribe link with tiny text. Others will use more calls to action than a drill sergeant. These marketers forget that people, not cash machines, are reading the email, and they should be treated well.

Part of respecting your audience is designing an email newsletter that is usable. That means it should read well, link to a webpage of the article, and yes, even allow readers to unsubscribe easily.

An Email Insider article by Loren McDonald features a good list of email newsletter features that your readers would appreciate:

• Unsubscribe links

• Links to email preferences/update profile page

• Links to ask about a purchase, company policy or content in the message

• Links to comment on a story/provide feedback

• Listing your email address to be whitelisted

• Links to back issues or other offers, as appropriate

• Links to Web version of articles

• Phone, email or mail contact information for newsletter staff or related departments, such as ad sales or customer service

• Links to privacy policy

• Forward to a friend links

• Links to related information or offers, products or services at your website

• Description or links to shipping and return policies

It's easy to understand why you wouldn't offer some of these features. Maybe you're busy and don't want to be contacted by your audience. Maybe your shipping rates are terrible and you want to conceal them. Maybe your website can't add comments to articles.

Your readers, however, want these features, and they want them in obvious and easy-to-use ways. Design an email newsletter that they enjoy using and your company will earn trust. Disregard too many features and you'll risk being branded a difficult, or even sketchy, newsletter that people will gladly bash to their friends and colleagues.