SCUBA Business Email Newsletter Review: Urban Dive

It looks like my persistence with telling people to get an email newsletter is paying off. In case you’re still not convinced, here are a few more reasons to get one.

If you’re like many people, you may have taken that advice, but been completely overwhelmed when you started designing your email newsletter for your SCUBA business. Fear not, you don’t need to be a graphic designer to publish an effective newsletter.

Marc (@AdventureDiveSA) asked me if I could provide some feedback on his newsletter and agreed to allow me to use it here to point out what’s good and what could use some changes.

While this may sound like it’s just for Urban Dive, these suggestions are best practices that every SCUBA business can implement in their email marketing.

I subscribe to quite a few dive center email newsletters, but only provide feedback when asked. If you’d like feedback, just contact me.

Some Things I Like

Overall, I’m very impressed. Some of the less obvious items were included in this email newsletter.

A good email service provider (ESP). MailChimp has so many features and is constantly integrating with other incredible services (plus it has a free plan), there’s no reason not to consider them.
Consistent branding. The email newsletter header is identical to that of his blog and the font and turtle (is it still honu in South Africa?). Branding is an important tool to help you differentiate yourself, so this is excellent.
Links to other resources. The use of off-newsletter links is incredibly valuable because it allows you to see what people click on. People click on things they’re interested in, so by tracking these clicks, we can better fine-tune our future content.
It’s short. People get so much email, we need to get to the point quickly.

Some Areas to Improve

While this email could be sent as is and would get decent open and click-through rates, here are a few suggestions.

Add pictures. While many email programs are now blocking images, people still want to see the underwater world. Underwater photography sells diving, so be sure to include some.
Include a subscription reminder at the beginning of your email. With so much spam, if your newsletter is new or irregularly sent, people will question why they’re receiving it. A quick note explaining how you got their email can help prevent an unsubscribe.
Make the header a link. The first thing I did was click on the header so I could see the related web site, but it wasn’t a link. Make it easy for people to find you everywhere.
Keep fonts consistent. In this case, the left column has different line heights than the rest of the newsletter, it makes it look like something is wrong. I’d also align the text to the top of the columns.
Increase the font size. People are frequently reading on mobile devices (and our industry is typically a little bit on the older side), but nobody will be upset with slightly larger font sizes.
Add your contact information. When I’m done reading the email, I may be so excited I want to pick up the phone and book a class/trip right that moment. The only option here is to hit the reply button.