TOPIC:

We've started publishing a club newsletter. This newsletter contains the topic of our next meeting and highlights the featured speaker.

This club meets once per month and has officer position (current or former) as a prerequisite. The idea of this newsletter is to reach our target audience of officers in our area. Being a monthly club makes getting the newsletter out a bit easier.

Our meetings are normally one topic. The newsletter has a teaser of this topic and highlights the featured speaker. This club is a bit different in we discuss ways to make our home clubs better. Bringing real-world practical ideas back to our club is the goal hence the 'heroes happen here' tagline.


Homepage Content
Some newsletter links point back to our homepage which contains a welcome video. This video helps reinforce a reason to come visit us. Our homepage currently has two main elements:

• Welcome video
• Newsletter signup form

Yes that's right. Visitors can signup for our newsletter right from the FreeToastHost page. WooHoo!

Notice the homepage content is aimed solely toward visitors.
By the way you may find our directions page a bit amusing. Some of our visitors said they really liked it.


Be Nosy
Want our newsletter just to check it out and such? Go ahead and signup.

Unsubscribe whenever. No worries.


Results So Far
So far the results have been promising. We've done two newsletters and had seven visitors. All visitors said they came because of the newsletter content.

My goal of the first newsletter was primarily aimed at minimizing unsubscribes. Between both newsletters we've had 3 unsubscribes and 1 addition.

Newsletters let you see certain stats which bring me such geeky joy. Here are the secret stats from our second newsletter:

• 218 recipients
• 51 opens (23.6%)
• 72 total times opened
• 2 clicks (0.9%)
• 165 Unopened (75.7%)
• 2 bounce (0.9%)

MailChimp says our open rate is 9.2% higher than the industry average (non-profits). That indeed is an encouraging sign.

So if we have 3.5 visitors per meeting from 51 opens that means we get one visitor for every 14 opens. At least that's one way to look at it.


When to Send
We send the newsletter for our monthly meeting on a fixed schedule since timing matters:

• First newsletter
  Sent Monday one-week prior our meeting time at 6:30 PM.
  Subject line is strictly topic-focused.
  Timing idea here is if they are available at this time on a Monday one-week prior then they likely will be available the following Monday.
• Second newsletter
  Sent Saturday prior to our Monday meeting at 7:AM.
  Subject line is the topic with "Next Monday" appended to the beginning of the subject line.
  This subject line change reinforces the timing reminder of the first newsletter.

Visitors have said they had the one-week in the back of their minds and the Saturday newsletter firmed up their Monday evening plans. When choosing your timing keep in mind recipients do not necessarily open a newsletter right away. So far our timing seems to be working well granted it is a small sample.

Below are screenshots of our current homepage and the most recent newsletter.
In the newsletter notice how my name, Brad, is sprinkled throughout the content. It makes it more personable to the recipient.


Open Question (that means everyone)
Who else uses a newsletter and what's been your experience?


Club homepage with welcome video and newsletter signup form: 929635.toastmastersclubs.org/
View the newsletter online us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=a70bff76027...831fd83&e=11187c5194