Tips & Tricks For Creating An Effective Email Newsletter

If you managed to step over a first big obstacle, getting people to subscribe to your newsletter, you sure don’t want to make them run away with your boring or too pushy newsletter content. If a person liked your product/service enough to click “yes” on your subscription letter, you should “award” him/her with some added value from which they can benefit. So, how to create an email newsletter which will be effective and help you achieve better business results? 

Think of a newsletter as a digital publication which company sends out to their list of subscribers. The themes of your newsletter can vary. They can include any content that you think might spark interest among people on your subscription list.  

Find out tips & tricks on creating an effective newsletter.

#1 Short and sweet

One thing needs to be clear. Considering the number of emails the average person receives every day (including spam) your messages have to stand out. You should always keep in mind that most people nowadays don’t have much time while checking emails.

Generally, they spend just a few seconds reading the subject line of an email to get an idea of what that content might be. So, if it’s not relevant enough for them, the big possibility is they will just put it in the trash or spam folder.

#2 Keep the reader in mind

Think about it. Do you have that one friend who has the best stories and everyone just loves to listen to them? Well, think of your newsletter as interacting with your company’s best friends. Each month you’re catching up with all the fun and interesting things which happened over that period. Just like you’d do with your actual best friends. So, if your monthly email looks like a newsletter, but doesn’t have valuable and educational content, then it doesn’t really serve its purpose.

Some of the interesting content which you can include in a newsletter is relevant blog posts, tips/how-to’s/tutorials, industry news, upcoming events/dates to remember, reviews, infographics/webinars as a part of educational content and more engaging content like UGC, company photos/videos, etc.

When using images make sure that they complement the information you’re giving out. People are visual creatures and often times we remember more what we see than what we read. But that doesn’t mean you should throw in there any picture or a video just to fill up your newsletter with some content. The content included needs to be elaborated and serve its purpose and that is to further explain or show what you’re talking about in the textual part of a newsletter.

Be the interesting “friend” who knows how to tell the story of its brand.

#3 Don’t push sales

It is extremely important that you don’t treat your newsletter as a sales channel and constantly push offers and special prices onto your subscribers. It is a sure way of losing them. Although people love to be informed about sales, this should never become a focus of your newsletter.

That kind of promotion emails should be exactly that. Not titled as a newsletter. As we already said, your subscribers expect valuable content from your newsletter. And they will easily get bored of constant promo bombing.

So, if you do happen to have a certain promotion, just mention it in a short and simple sentence with a link attached for further information. Those who will want to know more will click on it and find the information easily. Others who are not interested in your “sales” at the moment won’t mind a single sentence at the end of an interesting newsletter.

For more information about creating high-quality content, read our blog post: Content Marketing VOL. 1 – I wish I knew this when I started with content marketing. 

#4 Build a relationship 

As we already said, a newsletter should be a form of a digital friendship with your brand’s followers. But if you’re investing your time into creating a valuable newsletter you should certainly get something in return out of it.

In order to lead a part of your newsletter subscribers to your web, make sure to organize the layout as clear and straight-forward possible. What does that mean?

Use bullets, screenshots, arrange text into content blocks and always include CAT buttons like “Learn more” or “Watch the video”. These buttons are a great way of encouraging readers to click on them and go to your web. Because of their design, they are prone to be more visually appealing and user friendly. Because of that, many people notice them easier and click on them more compared to clicking on a link that is implemented into the text of the newsletter. 

In short, use your newsletter wisely and build a strong relationship with your audience. Give just enough information for them to seek more on your blog, webpage or social media accounts.

Use the newsletter as a tool for building a strong relationship with your customers. 

 #5 Be consistent and clear

We cannot stress enough how important is to be consistent. It really is one of the main attributes of success. Naturally, it implies creating a successful newsletter too. If you tell your subscribers they will receive your newsletter monthly, stick to it!

People love to look forward to something. Why shouldn’t that something wouldn’t be your newsletter? According to the Nielsen Norman Group, “69 percent of users said that they look forward to receiving at least one newsletter, and most users said a newsletter had become part of their routine. Very few other promotional efforts can claim this degree of customer buy-in.”

#6 Let go with grace

No, we’re not talking about your relationship status here. According to the Nielsen Norman Group, the biggest mistake companies do when creating a newsletter is to hide the unsubscribe button or make the process of unsubscribing too complicated. If a person is not interested in your newsletter content and doesn’t want to receive it anymore, they should be able to do that easily.

A newsletter is meant for those and only those who are genuinely interested in your company and field of work. Forcing content on someone who doesn’t want to see it will not bring you any results. It can only be contra productive and drive the person further away from your company. Or as it often ends, throwing your newsletter to the spam folder. 

If you need some help on how to write a post about stuff you don’t really know that much about read our blog.

Last update: July 30th 2020