Two cues for local news

[Crain’s Chicago Business kindly asked me to contribute some thoughts to its special-edition “Forum on local journalism and the news.” The version posted to Crain’s website omitted the explanatory hyperlinks I included. For the record, here’s my original draft—hyperlinks included.]

By Charlie Meyerson
Publisher, Chicago Public Square

As a mentor to up-and-coming journalists and a consultant to news organizations—legacy or startups, profit or nonprofit—I often cite two priorities for those plotting local news’ future.

1. Growing audience is Job No. 1, and email’s the key.

That means: Gather people’s email addresses. The top of any news website should include an invitation to “Sign up for updates via email.” I’ve gone so far as to recommend one local publisher announce loudly—on front page wraparounds for months—something like “This print edition is going away on [date certain]. If you want to keep getting the news, get us your email address now.” Then shut off the presses, pour all that production and distribution money into digital journalism, and charge advertisers a premium for reaching a community you’ll own like no other.

Email’s ability to connect all manner of content with an audience makes it the logical successor to everything from a daily or weekly newspaper to a nightly or hourly newscast. It can alert subscribers to text, photos, podcasts, video and more. Unlike the ever-flowing rivers of social media or the vagaries of search engine behavior, your email will be seen. And unlike websites, which an audience must remember to visit, your email’s always there, waiting, whenever anyone checks the inbox.

That said: Whether anyone opens that email or not is overwhelmingly a function of the subject line. So the corollary: Make your email great. That means compelling, non-repetitive subject lines, where the most interesting and engaging words come first—and so won’t be obscured on small screens. It also means informative but tight content—a dispatch designed as a satisfying experience in itself but also engaging enough to get readers to tap over to ad-supported web pages.

Bonus: Email can provide unmatched insights into your audience’s priorities.

2. Lose the paywall, put out the tip jar

Paywalls crimp audience growth, and that limits what you can charge advertisers. People won’t share content with friends or colleagues—your potential new readers—if those friends will smash, Wile E. Coyote-style, head-on into a paywall. A better approach: Make your content free for all—as public broadcasting and other media (notably in Chicago, the Sun-Times and the Reader) have done—but ask that growing audience to support your free content voluntarily. Maybe just 10% or 15% of your audience will kick in, but 10% of a growing number is … a growing number. (Compromise: A generous “gift link” program for paid readers.)

The mission’s vital

The plague of local government corruption, school and library book bans and election skulduggery with national consequences has made the importance of vibrant and engaging community news clearer than ever.

As a growing number of Americans get their news not on paper, but via phones and computers, the news business needs to meet them where they are. Email’s ideal for that—and for persuading them news is worth supporting.
_____

After 20 years in Chicago radio news—including WXRT-FM—Charlie Meyerson joined the Chicago Tribune in 1998 to launch its pioneering email newsletters, including Daywatch. Since 2017, he’s applied the principles above daily in “Chicago’s new front page,” the free, reader-supported Chicago Public Square email newsletter. He’s also vice president of editorial for award-winning podcast production company Rivet360. (Photo credit: Steve Ewert.)

Want to podcast? Create a gripping open.

(Adapted from my “Four Keys to Creating a Great Audio Interview” for the Orbit Media Studios blog.)

No one gets to the end—or even the middle—of your podcast without listening to the beginning. And a long, wordy, boring open is one of the best ways to ensure people don’t stick around for long.

One key to engaging listeners—especially people new to your podcast (and who doesn’t want a steady flow of them, huh?)—is to open your show with some of the most interesting words from what’s to come.

Here’s a great way to craft a compelling intro for a typical podcast interview:

1. A one- or two-sentence preview, beginning with the most compelling words you can muster, leading into …

2. A short (20-30-second) excerpt from your guest or guests—the most exciting, emotionally powerful cut in the whole show.

3. An ID for the guest(s), yourself, your show and your underwriter or sponsor—mixed, if you must, with theme music (which, based on Rivet360’s groundbreaking data, often will prove a tuneout; keep it short if you use it at all).

Here’s a sample (click to hear audio):

Here are more examples:

■ Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! host Peter Sagal tells his not-favorite things

■ Barack Obama’s 1st biographer, David Mendell: Michelle didn't care for the book

■ Music journalist Jim DeRogatis: ‘Every system in this city failed … to protect these young black girls’

Tip: You can save yourself and your team production work by crafting your “live” intro (the one you read while you’re sitting with your subject), to include a brief pause where you can later insert a cut. The key is to write an intro that alludes to a question you’re sure you’ll be asking. If a stronger cut emerges, you can recut your first few opening words to match that clip and let the rest of your original recording flow from there.

Example: An interview with two veterans of the Second City comedy organization, Tom Yorton and Kelly Leonard. (Photo credit: Charlie Meyerson.)

Tip: Spare your listeners the waste of time that is “Thank you for joining us” or “Thanks for being here” at the opening. That just brings things to a halt. (Because we all know what comes next: “Great to be here.” Or “Thanks for having me.” And then a brief, awkward pause.) Thank your guests as profusely as you like—before and after your recorded segment. If you must thank guests—it is hard to resist—don’t wait for an answer; just move directly to your first question. Keep it moving, start to finish. 

How best to open a podcast

I haven’t posted much here lately about my work with the talented team I helped assemble a decade ago at Rivet (now formally known as Rivet360)—mostly in secret at the beginning.

That’s partly because, as I’ve shifted focus since 2017 to my award-winning Chicago Public Square email news briefing (subscribe free!), I’ve eased into a role as Rivet’s Vice President of Editorial and Development—or, as I call myself, Nagger-in-Chief.

And it’s partly because the company’s shifted its focus from journalism to become an innovative podcast consultancy—producing audio for others as well as shows of its own.

One of those shows, PodWell—a guide to becoming better podcasters—is hosted by my friend and colleague Terri Lydon, who was kind enough to share the mic with me in her June 6 edition (recorded May 3, 2023, when I was just getting over a cold or something else that really wasn’t COVID-19).

That gave me nine minutes or so to nag on one of my favorite topics: How best to open a podcast.

If you like this, check out more of my podcast guidance on Rivet’s website and elsewhere on this blog.

And hear more of my conversations with thought-leaders through the years on this website, in Apple Music, on Pandora or Spotify, via your favorite podcast player and at Chicago Public Square.

(Meyerson headshot: Steve Ewert.)

Chicago Public Square: I built it for free, and you can do the same

On Sept. 22, 2022, I was invited to talk to members of the Oak Park Temple B’nai Abraham Zion congregation via Zoom about the story behind the story of the creation of Chicago Public Square. The thrust of my message was this: Virtually for free, I created this email newsletter for people who live in and care about the Chicago region, and you—or anyone you know—can do the same for any subject matter about which you’re passionate.

You can see edited video excerpts here or read the rough transcript below.

Effective email communication in times of crisis

“Times of crisis” pretty much describes this era for all of us, all the time, these days.

Ironically, as I mulled the Publicity Club of Chicago’s request that I speak on “Effective Email Communication in Times of Crisis,” I realized that that challenge isn’t all that different now from times of non-crisis.

Job One remains the same: Not taking the attention of your audience—any audience—for granted.

Presented here by popular demand (well, a couple of people asked): Slides and video from my virtual appearance before the Publicity Club, June 17, 2020.

Here’s the video.


And here are the slides.

Tips for appearing on TV via computer

Are you a reporter or an interviewee planning a remote appearance on TV in the era of the coronavirus? Or are you a producer counseling a reporter or interviewee? Or are you just hangin’ remotely with friends, coworkers or family? With the help of video whiz Jim Parks, here are a few tips for making the best TV you can:

• Look at the camera. If you have more than one screen, avoid looking like you’re staring off into the distance—at an extra screen. Make sure the window connecting you to the anchor is positioned as close as possible to the camera on your computer—not on an auxiliary screen. For most laptops, that means dragging the Google Hangouts / Skype / FaceTime window to the top of your computer screen. (Consider shrinking it to a size that forces you to stare at it right under the camera.)

• Make sure your camera’s level with your eyes. Unless you think viewers enjoy looking up your nostrils, prop up your laptop (or whatever) on a dictionary or two so you’re looking at it levelly—not up or down.

• Position yourself for the best lighting available. Avoid sitting with a bright window at your back. Better: Locate yourself so you’re illuminated by the window. If you’re in a room with no daylight, position yourself so the available light is on you and not behind you. Move lamps as necessary so your face isn't in shadow.

• Sound as good as you can. Ideally, connect your computer to a high-quality microphone or headset; that becomes necessary to avoid feedback if you and another person are on separate devices in the same room. Try to use a room that has carpeting or rugs to suppress echoes. If you have no time to run tests before you go live, at least do what you can to position your mouth as close as practical to your computer’s onboard microphone. The further away you are, the more echoey and thin you’ll sound.

Have other suggestions? Share them in the comments below or email me (as Jim Parks did): Charlie@MeyersonStrategy.com.

P.S. Or you can just do what my friend and colleague Stuart Hughes has done.

Tips for podcasters

Snappy answers to frequently asked questions:

What makes a great podcast?

Your answer’s as good as mine. Probably better. Depends on the interview’s goal. If you’re a funny TV host, and your goal is at least partly to entertain, it’s great interplay between the guest and the host, with lots of laughs or emotion along the way. But most of us aren’t Stephen Colbert; our goal is to connect our audience seamlessly with our guest and his or her insight. To that end, the less of us and the more of the guest and the guest’s wisdom the better. Some of the best interviews I’ve done have been those in which I just ask a little question and let the guests run with it. I get the first words (the words that explain why the guest is interesting or important) and the last words (to say whatever I want); I don’t feel compelled to be anything more than just a low-profile instigator along the way.


What’s the best way to structure an interview?

Depends on your intent: Do you want a full interview segment, or just soundbites? (I recommend going for the full interview, so you have that option even if you just wind up using soundbites.) Ideally, you script a strong intro and a strong close and insert well-scripted questions in between. Here’s a piece I wrote with four tips for creating a great audio interview. Here’s slightly more basic advice, created mainly for students.


How important is it that I not interrupt someone?
Very important. Makes editing harder. If you’re interviewing someone in person or on Skype, you can prep them in advance to watch for your hand gestures, like the raised finger to indicate you’d like to interrupt; or the “wind it up” motion to indicate you have all you need and it’s almost time to close or move on to the next subject. If you have a sense of how much you need from your guest, or how longwinded she or he is, you can coach them beforehand with guidance like “Hey, we have a lot to cover in a little time. Do me a favor and think in terms of (2-, 3-, 4-, whatever)-sentence answers, OK? If I need more on a subject, I’ll ask a followup question.”


What kind of questions should I avoid?

Yes-or-no questions. And plain statements that aren’t questions. (See my interview tips above.)

I can only interview someone by phone. How do I get great sound?

Each of you can record your voices using a smartphone as you talk over a landline. (Clap a few times at a recording’s start to create marks for syncing.) Then your guest can email or otherwise share with you the audio he or she has recorded at that end for melding with your voice. Key to doing this right: Make sure the phone is about 5-6 inches from the speaker’s mouth, preferably pointed at the corner of the mouth so as to avoid popping Ps and blowing Bs. Note: Some phones (early iPhones, among others; newer ones are more flexible) aren’t able to send long recordings. If you’re not sure, you’ll want to test or record in short increments (8-10 minutes) and so each segment’s not too big. Or give each user software that has no limits. (I use Twisted Wave.) Failing this—for instance, if timeliness is more essential than quality—you can use Google Voice, which records both ends of the conversation at phone-quality.

I’m interviewing someone by Skype. What should I do?

Use the best microphone available, ideally a nice USB mic attached to the computer. These don’t have to be expensive; the Blue Snowball, for instance, can be had for under $50 and it works fine. Failing that, an iPhone or other smartphone headset can be better than a computer’s onboard mic. But the onboard mic on most desktop and laptop computers can work reasonably well, too. The key is figuring out where the mic is located on a computer and getting yourself and your guest to sit as close to your computers’ mics as possible. It’s not always intuitive; the mic on some computers is in back of the screen, for instance. On some MacBooks, it’s along the edge—a couple of pinholes next to the headphone jack.

How do I get the best sound when I’m not recording in a studio?

Regardless of the tech you use to record, minimizing echoes is the biggest key to a professional sound. (Clap and listen carefully and you’ll get a sense of how much echo a space has. It’s often a lot more than we realize in everyday life.) For someone using a smartphone to record, simply draping a coat over one’s head can (look stupid, yes; but also) improve the professional sound of the recording tremendously, eliminating the sound of one’s voice bouncing off a nearby wall, mirror or computer screen. Another option: Unmake the bed and get under some pillows or a blanket. Or make a fort out of couch cushions.

How can I make the interview more conversational and casual to get good information?

If you're aiming for a talk-show vibe, you can achieve a lot by constructing and ordering your questions thoughtfully. As I explain here, it’s not an easy thing to write a script (or questions) so that, when read, they don’t sound like they were written and they don’t sound like they’re being read. Note: This isn't so important when you're in the hunt mainly for soundbites or quotes; in that case, your goal is to get your listeners useful, actionable information as frictionlessly as possible. They’re not listening for small talk. Either way, reduce the noise: The “uh-huhs” and the statements that repeat or foreshadow exactly the things your guests have said or will say.

Bonus tips:

• Avoid the urge to make statements, like, “So, that works pretty well for you, then.”
  
• Avoid the old reporter’s trick of seeming to agree with your interviewee to get him or her to keep talking. This is fine if you’re just taking notes, but it makes lame (momentum-killing) listening and difficult editing if you punctuate interviewees’ answers with things like “Huh” or “That’s great” or “Yeah.”
  
• Bite your tongue. Your job is to be a question-asking machine. Ask questions and then get out of the way. The easiest way to do that is to write out your questions in advance. You can always ad-lib, but do so knowingly. If you have nothing substantial to say or add, just move on efficiently to the next question.

More questions? Need hands-on help?
Drop me an email.

[Adapted from advice to a Meyerson Strategy client; originally published January 15, 2017, and updated in 2019.]

Newspaper editorial boards: Cracking the code

How do you get the attention of newspaper editorial boards? How do you get them to see things your way? Are editorials as valuable as they used to be?

Every once in a while, the Publicity Club of Chicago takes me up on my motto, “Will Moderate for Food,” and invites me to lead a panel discussion to address important questions like those.

And so it was Sept. 12, 2018, as I joined three of the Chicago area’s most influential journalists—Chicago Tribune editorial board member Michael Lev, Sun-Times editorial page editor Tom McNamee and Daily Herald editor John Lampinen—for a session media critic Robert Feder called “thoughtful and enlightening.”

Hear the panel’s answers to those questions above—and much more—here …



… or on iTunes or via your favorite podcast player.

And while you’re at it, check out my other interviews with thought-leaders through the years here and here. (L-r: Meyerson, Lev, Lampinen, McNamee. Photo: Matt Smith.)

Podcasting do’s and don’ts

If you don’t know the work of the multitalented Dometi Pongo, you should. He’s a radio journalist, a podcaster and a newspaper reporter—not to mention a spoken word artist.

How would you caption this photo of Dometi and me by Cody Bahn?

So it was a privilege to team up with him at the Society of Professional Journalists Region 5 Conference in Chicago, April 7, 2018, to share what we’ve learned about audio production and podcasting.

Among the stuff we covered:

• Podcasting basics.
• Equipment do’s.
• Editing do’s and don’ts.
• Interviewing do’s and don’ts.
• Recording do’s and don’ts.
• Scripting do’s and don’ts.
• How to publish.

The PowerPoint presentation embedded below won’t capture all the fun we had—especially since it’s been converted from the original Apple Keynote to a less-excitingly animated PowerPoint file for sharing here. But if you’re just entering the podcast biz, or if you’re already into it and hoping to get better, this will be of some help.

Podcasting do’s and don’ts from Charlie Meyerson

Press release strategy tips

A glimpse of my inbox.

I get this question a lot: What makes a good press release? A friend sought that advice today, and in case you might find my counsel useful, here’s an adaptation:

Should I send it as an attachment? No. Attachments are a problem. Many reporters who get email with an attachment may never take that extra step of clicking to open the attachment, and some may delete it without opening it—especially when their inboxes are flirting with “full.” You don’t want it to wind up labeled as a “BIG File,” which is what happens with attachments. Format your message so it looks great copied and pasted into the body of your email, with links (not attachments) to anything (photos, etc.) that would make the email big.

You don’t want to wind up here.

How should I format it? Your subject line determines whether anyone opens your email. A great, irresistible one will lead with its most interesting words first, because, on tiny smartphone screens, they may be all that shows up. (So, for instance, do not make the words “Press Release” the first words of your subject line. You might just as well write “Dump this in the trash before opening.”) Especially if you hope your email will be opened by people unfamiliar with your organization—people to whom your organization name will therefore not be interesting—your organization name likely isn’t the most interesting word, and may not belong in the subject line at all—or at least not at the beginning. (See “A tough question,” below.)

Should I include a short or long note about the very subject the release discusses? The whole thing should read like a note. Formatting it like a news release can be counterproductive. Depending on your audience, formatting it more like a personal note may yield higher engagement—especially if you actually personalize it to indicate you’re familiar with the work of the reporter you’re courting. Further, if it looks like a news release, reporters may rightfully conclude, “This is a mass-mailed news release. Lots of reporters are getting it, so why should I spend time on it? I’ll be just one of many reporters with the same story.” For the same reason—and counterintuitively—you might not want to include all the details in your news release, because a reporter who has no questions has no reason to contact you and no reason to assume he or she will be able to write a story unlike any other. Irony: Avoid the phrase “news release.” It’s an oxymoron for reporters who think real news isn’t released.

Is there a best time to send? Depends on your audience. If you’re going after doughnut makers, early morning might be better. If you’re targeting night security workers, evenings could be best. As MailChimp explains, “There’s no one answer. Ideal sending times vary by industry, day of the week, and your specific subscriber list.” If you’re really conscientious, you’ll learn the deadlines of every news organization you hope to reach and then send at a time that (a) gives a reporter time to craft a story and (b) won’t make your story seem old by publication or broadcast time. All that said, my general advice for reaching an audience of white-collar workers in an office or newsroom environment (based on more than a decade of sending email to a general news audience) is that you could do worse than send midday weekdays. (My Chicago Public Square email newsletter goes out at 10 a.m. and gets a 40+% open rate.)

Where should I send my releases? Where—in which publications or media—would you most like or expect to see your story? Where have you seen similar stories? (And if you haven’t seen similar stories, is there a reason?)

A tough question to ask before you work up a news release. Who cares? What’s in this for a reporter—or, more important, a reporter’s readers, viewers or listeners? Do you offer a payoff for the audience? A call to action? What will someone who learns your story gain—or be able to contribute? The answers to that will shape your subject line, and your subject line will shape the body of your communication.

Don’t be fake.

Bonus tips:

■ Don’t do this.→

■ From 2016: A podcast in which Chicago reporters affiliated with national news organizations explain what not to do when pitching them.

■ Avoid “press release.” Say “news release.” Broadcast and digital reporters bristle at the print-centric word “press.” (And, yes, I did it in the headline here; but that was just to get the attention of people who, unlike you now, don’t know better.)

Writing about writing: My favorites (so far)

My friend Brad Farris wrote me earlier this month* to share small-business consultant John Jantsch’s list of the best books on writing. Brad flattered me with a challenge to put together my own list.

I can’t say this is a list of the best, because I have yet to get to so many no-doubt wonderful books about writing, including Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, which I need to get around to. [Update, Nov. 6. 2017: I’ve now read it, and it’s great. The only book on writing that has brought me to tears. Highly recommended, even though King's core advice echoes the essentials of The Elements of Style.]

But here’s a brief rundown of the writing about writing I’ve found most influential:

The Elements of Style
by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

Since high school, when I first encountered White’s revision of his old English professor Strunk’s guide to writing well, it’s shaped everything I’ve written — in print, on air, online. Along with the AP Stylebook, it’s the one text I require for my journalism students at Roosevelt University. White’s description of Strunk’s philosophy has helped me see the writer’s job as similar to a lifeguard’s: “Will felt that the reader was in serious trouble most of the time, floundering in a swamp, and that it was the duty of anyone attempting to write English to drain this swamp quickly and get the reader up on dry ground or at least to throw a rope.”

On Writing Well
by William Zinsser

Zinsser applies Strunk and White’s work directly to journalism, with rigor and enthusiasm: “The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what — these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence.”

Zinsser’s follow-up 1983 guide, Writing with a Word Processor, helped a lot of writers learn to stop worrying and love the computer. And Roger Ebert’s brief 2002 essay for Yahoo Internet Life magazine, “In Cyberspace, Writing is a Performance,” remains central to the way I teach journalism: “In some imaginary sense, you are reading this right now, even as I write it. I have keyboarded in so many e-mails, so many forum messages, so many arguments and replies, that I instinctively think of this activity as a conversation. ... To write it on a monitor is somehow to create it publicly.”

Writing Broadcast News — Shorter, Sharper Stronger
by Mervin Block

Block’s ruthless, sarcastic and funny directives for getting to the point — forged in the fires of broadcast news, where every second and every syllable count — are all the more useful now, when almost everyone is in essence, as Ebert notes, writing broadcast news. Every newsroom should bake into its culture Block’s “Dozen Deadly Don’ts,” including this one: “Don’t start by saying someone ... is in the news. ... Go ahead and tell the news. That’s what a newscast is for. That’s why they call it a newscast. Everyone who’s mentioned in a newscast is ‘making’ news. So when writers say someone ‘is making news,’ ... they’re wasting time.”

What are your favorite books about writing? Please comment below.

* Originally posted Jan. 11, 2014.

2 places to see me next week, and 1 place to hear me right now

1. Tuesday, Sept. 26, I’ll be lecturing at the Downers Grove Public Library on the dangers—or not—of “fake news.” It’s free and walk-ins are welcome, but the library hopes you’ll register in advance.

2. Wednesday, Sept. 27, I’ll join a distinguished panel to discuss “Truth and Ethics Across Earned and Paid Channels” before the Chicago chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. That one’s not free.


Bonus: Can’t wait that long? Hear my Sept. 6 interview with President Obama’s strategist David Axelrod in podcast format anytime right here.

Turning a live event into a podcast: A case study

Last week, I interviewed my former neighbor, Obama chief strategist David Axelrod, on stage. A sellout crowd of 1,000 people paid to see it, and many more told me they wished they’d been there. So I made arrangements to turn it into a podcast.

Photo: Alexa Rogals, Wednesday Journal

Our hosts at Dominican University, which recorded the event, shared the audio with me. In broad outline, here’s what happened next:

1. I opened the audio in the free Audacity audio-editing software.
2. I edited the audio lightly. The mics were too loud in a few instances, and they dropped out in a few other instances. Fortunately, I recorded the whole thing on an iPhone inconspicuously set on the small table between David and me, so I was able to patch the troubled spots with almost-as-good audio. (Can you hear the patches?)
3. Once the edits were complete, I ran the whole file through Audacity’s Compressor function—raising the soft passages and lowering the loud spots.
4. I wrote an intro and a close, and recorded them on an iPhone—being careful to isolate my voice by putting a blanket over my head.
5. I edited those onto the event audio.
6. I uploaded the completed audio to the free Archive.org website, whose goal is to “provide universal access to all knowledge.”
7. I embedded the Archive.org audio player on ChicagoPublicSquare.com. (The player’s also embedded at the bottom of this page.)
8. Then I shared the link widely on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Do you have an event whose audio would make great listening? Let’s talk.

Launching an email newsletter? 14 tips.

Poynter’s Kristen Hare has honored my Chicago Public Square project with a look at what makes it work.

I hope you’ll give it a read.

At her request, I shared 14 tips for launching an email newsletter. And here they are.

Do’s

1. Have a clear idea of your mission.
   One of the joys of email is that it can be as long as you’d like. Knowing early on what fits and what doesn’t helps establish your brand—and provides useful boundaries to keep you from going nuts.
2. Make sure your From field is clear and compelling.
   It determines whether anyone opens your email.
3. Put your most interesting words at the start of your Subject (headline) field.
   If your subject line’s boring, all the work that follows may go for naught.
4. Include multiple links in each dispatch.
   Even—maybe especially—if you’re sending readers to off-site content, the relative popularity of those links gives you valuable intel.
5. Track your metrics religiously—at least daily.
   Don’t let fresh and unique intel go to waste.
6. Watch for engagement patterns within individual issues.
   For instance:
   • If one link is highly clicked within a cluster of poorly-clicked links, your audience is telling you that either the subject’s of greater interest than you expected, or you did a less-than-optimal job of presenting the surrounding material.
   • Or if one link is poorly clicked within a cluster of highly-clicked links, your audience is telling you either the subject’s of lesser interest than you expected, or you did a less-than-optimal job of presenting that material.
7. Use social media shamelessly to drive signups.
   Your roster of Facebook friends is especially valuable in building a core audience.
8. Stick to one responsive-design column.
   Smartphones render multicolumn email illegible.
   

   Don’ts
9. Don’t duplicate your From field in your Subject field.
10. Don’t waste Subject field space with the date.
    Email software tells your subscribers when you pressed Send.
11. Don’t capitalize every word in your subject line.
    Engaging, concrete words—proper nouns—get lost that way.
12. Don’t give away the whole story within your email.
    Approach each item like a long headline. Aim to give readers enough to make the email itself a satisfying experience while also giving them reason (a “curiosity gap”) to click to learn more.
13. Don’t worry about dispatch frequency.
    One of the joys of email is that it arrives when it arrives. Because everyone checks an email inbox all the way back to the last time, your email will be seen. More important: Make sure every issue is rewarding.
14. Don’t use images for images’ sake.
    If they’re not vivid and compelling at smartphone screen resolution, they just waste space and push down more actionable content. So lose that hulking masthead or logo at the top of your email; people don’t open email if they don’t know who sent it, and your From field will have made that clear. Don’t make readers scroll any more than necessary to get to the good stuff.

If you’d like help improving your email presence, drop me a line.