The Correction Email After a Newsletter Mistake

An hour after the newsletter went out

A restaurant's newsletter announces its fall tasting dinner. An hour after it goes out, a regular replies to say the date and the day of the week do not match.

A second reader writes that the button to reserve a seat opens an error page. The manager's first instinct is to send everyone a correction at once.

That instinct is worth slowing down. A second email to the whole list repeats the mistake in every inbox, including those of readers who never noticed it.

What a second email costs

Many readers never opened the first newsletter, and many who did skimmed past the date. A correction tells all of them that something went wrong.

It also adds a message to every inbox. Each extra email gives readers another chance to unsubscribe or to mark the sender as spam, which affects whether later newsletters arrive at all.

None of that rules out a correction. It means a correction should go where it changes something.

Fix the landing page first

The page the newsletter links to will keep receiving clicks for days. Fix it before anything else, so every reader who clicks lands on the right details.

If the link was broken, publish the page at the address the email used, or redirect that address to the right page. Then test it by clicking from the email itself.

Put the correct date at the top of the page, with one line noting that the newsletter had it wrong. Readers who click will find the right details whether or not they see a correction.

If the mailing service keeps a web copy of the newsletter, correct that copy too, where the service allows it.

Deciding whether a correction is worth sending

A few questions settle whether to send anything at all, and to whom.

• Whether anyone could act on it, by arriving on the wrong day or planning around the wrong time.
• Who has clicked, which the mailing service's report shows by address.
• Who has booked, since they need a personal note rather than a bulk email.
• When the next newsletter goes, since a line in it may be enough.
• Whether the error is cosmetic, such as a typo that changes nothing.

The first decides most cases. A wrong date for an event people will travel to needs a correction; a misspelled dish on the menu does not.

Sending it only to the people who need it

Mailing services report who opened and who clicked. Readers who clicked saw the mistake and may have acted on it, so they are the ones a correction should reach.

People who booked deserve a personal message or a call. A bulk correction sent to someone holding a reservation feels careless, however polite it is.

Everyone else will find the right details on the page, and a line in the next newsletter covers anyone still unsure.

Two lines are enough

A correction should be short. The subject line says what is being corrected, and the body gives the right detail and the link, nothing more.

For example: Correction, the tasting dinner is on Saturday, October 18. Our last email had the wrong date, and seats can still be reserved at the same link.

Leave out long apologies, jokes about the mistake and a resend of the whole newsletter. Send it from the same address, with the same sender name and the usual unsubscribe link.

A worked example

A hot springs resort in the Kootenays sends a monthly newsletter to past guests. Its September issue announced a harvest dinner in the resort's dining room, with a button to reserve a seat.

The issue said Saturday, October 17, but the 17th is a Friday and the dinner was on the Saturday. The button pointed at the draft address of the booking page, which visitors could not open.

The front desk noticed within the hour. The web developer published the booking page at the address the email used, and the manager added a line at the top giving the correct date.

The mailing service's report showed which readers had clicked. They received a two-line correction that afternoon, and the four guests who had phoned to book were called back.

Nobody else on the list was emailed. The October newsletter, due in two weeks, will give the dinner's date again in its first line.

The resort now sends every issue to two staff members who did not write it, and nothing goes to the list until both have clicked every link.

The checks that would have caught it

Many newsletter mistakes are caught by a test send that someone other than the writer reads. Send the test to two people and give them ten quiet minutes.

Ask them to check every date against a calendar, including the day of the week, and to click every link and button on a phone and on a computer.

Links to pages that are not yet published are a common trap. Publish the page first, then copy its address into the email.

Keep the checklist with the newsletter template, so the checks happen every month rather than only after the next mistake.

When only the link was wrong

A broken link alone rarely needs a correction email. Once the page works at that address, every reader who clicks from then on reaches it.

Readers who met the error page earlier are the exception. If the report shows a good number of them, a short note with the working link is a courtesy.

The counter-case

Sometimes the whole list should hear. A wrong date for a seasonal closure, or for a sale people will drive across town for, can cost readers time and money.

Then a correction to everyone is right, sent promptly and worded just as plainly. Repeating the mistake in every inbox is a smaller cost than a wasted trip.

And if seats remain at the dinner, a short reminder with the right date can read as an invitation rather than an apology.

Putting the mistake right

1. Fix the landing page before anything else.
2. Note the correction at the top of that page.
3. Check who clicked and who booked.
4. Call or write to anyone holding a booking.
5. Send two lines to the readers who clicked.
6. Add a line to the next newsletter.
7. Send every issue to two readers before the list.

Step seven is what spares you the next correction. A test read by two people who did not write the newsletter catches wrong dates and dead links before any customer sees them.

Sending one message to the wrong person, rather than the wrong details to everyone, is covered in the wrong customer in the To line.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.