10 Tips for Getting Your Artist Newsletter Opened
Is Your Artist Newsletter in Good Health?
A lot of artists have a hard time writing their artist email every couple of weeks or every month, despite the fact that it’s one of the best ways to generate income and foster a closer relationship with your community. And many of the artists who do write the newsletter are even more afraid to look at the analytics to see their open rates. It can be disappointing to see a low open rate, but there are lots of things you can do to increase your open rate—which can help increase your confidence and your enthusiasm for writing your newsletter. After all, it feels good to write to people who want to read your words, right?
Here are ten good ideas for ways to increase your artist email open rate. Take a look and see if there are any you can apply to your newsletter!
1. Clean Up Your List
Are there subscribers on your list who’ve been languishing there for years without ever opening your emails? Chances are, they never will—and perhaps they’ve moved you to their spam folder, which really hurts your delivery rate (it tells the email systems that you are sending spam). Either purge these old subscribers outright or send them a friendly email letting them know that you’ll be doing so and inviting them to resubscribe if they’re interested.
2. Segment Your List
You may have different types of email subscribers, such as collectors who have purchased from you, random interested people who signed up via your website, people who signed up at in-person sales events, and students who have taken classes with you. By creating segments and sending emails tailored directly to these groups with their interests and needs in mind, you are likely to see your open rates climb.
3. Avoid Spam Filter Triggers
Be sure that your emails don’t accidentally trigger spam filters. This can be as simple as ensuring that your name is in the “from” line of the emails and that your address populates in the “reply to” field.
4. Find the Perfect Send Time
If you’re struggling with your open rate, it may be worth experimenting with your timing. Perhaps you chose a time that experts said was ideal, but you’re wondering if your subscribers are actually getting slammed with work and sales emails during that time. Try a different day and time and see if you can catch your subscribers at an opportune moment.
5. Scrutinize Your Subject Lines
Take a look at the subject lines you’ve been using. Could it be that they haven’t been compelling enough to make subscribers open the emails? You don’t want to be clickbaity or misleading, but a punchy or clever subject line can get someone’s attention and spark interest.
6. Are You Speaking to a Friend?
Next, it’s time to analyze your newsletter copy. Does it sound like you’re chatting with a friend, or is it a bit stiff and formal? You want to sound natural, upbeat, and friendly, allowing your personality to shine.
7. That’s One Specific Friend—Not “All Y’all”
Your emails are a direct communication between you and each recipient. Hopefully you learn their name upon signup and can use it, but even if you don’t, you should not be writing as if you are addressing a group. Make sure it reads like a one-to-one conversation, not a “hey you guys” conversation.
8. Deliver Quality
While a casual tone can be appropriate, your email needs to deliver value (something of interest, such as photos of new work, news of your art career or activities, or even unrelated things such as links to articles, recipes, blogs, or more). It also has to look professional. I find that Flodesk makes it simple to make a gorgeous artist email (and with my Flodesk affiliate link, you can get a 50% discount!)
Be sure that your email is thoroughly proofread, and send yourself a test email to make sure all your images and links are working perfectly before you send out your email!
9. Optimize Your Emails for Mobile
The vast majority of people will be viewing your newsletter on their mobile device, so be sure to optimize for that as you design it. It’s all too easy to optimize for laptop/desktop viewing as you create it on your laptop or desktop, but that doesn’t reflect the true recipient viewing experience.
10. Grow Your List Naturally
It can be tempting to buy a list—as you know, businesses do it all the time. However, adding subscribers in this way will tank your open rate. These people didn’t sign up for your newsletter! Nobody should be added to your email list without their express permission. They should want to be there!
Spiff Up Your Email Newsletter and Build That Relationship!
Your artist newsletter is one of the best ways to build a relationship with collectors, art lovers, art students, and other supporters. With email marketing, you have so much more control than in social media. No professional artist should neglect to create a quality artist newsletter and to optimize it with the 10 strategies listed above.
I recommend Flodesk for artist newsletters, and I use it for mine (and I’d love you to join my email newsletter!). By using my affiliate link, you can take a free 30-day test drive of Flodesk, and get 50% off a Flodesk subscription after that! I wish you lots of success with your newsletter.