Email newsletters are a marketing powerhouse for solo preneurs and large corporations alike.
Both types of businesses have to work hard to create and send newsletters that work for their audience and brand.
How do you create a newsletter that you know will work? > Good writing. Good design. Good analytics.
In this post, we’ll walk you through six things to keep in mind in order to create a newsletter that not only looks great, but also makes you click and convert, whether they’re visiting your website, donating to a good cause, or buying one Product.
Six basics for newsletters that convert
1. Design a newsletter that people want to read.
When designing a newsletter, you shouldn’t just choose the first one that looks appealing. Think about what people want from your brand.
If you’re planning on communicating from a top global financial brand, known for their long history and industry expertise, your audience probably isn’t expecting fancy and eye-catching newsletters full of GIFs and downloadable files.
You might expect HTML emails, but more formal, that are definitely in line with your brand and logo, to signal that it is from your organization.
When you run a startup, your followers may expect something more original, innovative, and personal.
If you’re a solo freelancer, followers may have a lot more understanding of less formality but place more emphasis on authenticity.
Take the Wishpond marketing platform’s newsletter gallery, which shows the wide variety of forms a newsletter can take, especially when optimized for industry and purpose:
2. Your copy is part of your design.
Your design also means text and sound – both should be consistent in your newsletters.
Is your copy purely informative? Playful? Disrespectful?
Imagine your reader in your head and what you want to convey to them. Use words and design to get them there.
Take a look at content pro Ann Handley’s newsletters, which are a masterful example of combining first-person tone and feel with industry information.
Handley’s newsletter is formatted to reflect a warm, caring, and fun personality who nonetheless shows their considerable expertise.
After the newsletter itself, which is a first-person thought leader, Handley uses emojis as bullet points. “Tools” are useful apps from the Internet for practitioners. ‘Love Letters’ are a subtle way for Handley to present their featured texts from the Internet. And ‘public events’ are invitations where she will speak.
The images add a pop of color to your email while the powerful content balances it out. This is a fantastic example of design and copy working together.
3. Write subject lines that people want to click on.
Subject lines are the gatekeepers to your emails. The good news is that copywriters and marketers have studied the art of a good subject line from all angles.
There are a few things to keep in mind when considering subject lines:
Number of characters
Number of characters counts! If the content of your email subject line is cut off by browser viewing restrictions, it doesn’t matter how brilliant your copy is: your readers won’t be able to see it. It is advisable to use around 30 characters in the subject lines of your email.
Urgency or value
Remember, most of your viewers are just as busy (or busier) as you and are likely to forget your email if they don’t click on it within the day it receives it.
Wondering what reason you gave them to click once they see the push notification on their phone or the subject line in their inbox? An irresistible offer? A time limit? A question you want answered?
personalization
Email subject lines that mention your recipient’s name are more likely to be clicked. To do this, you need to collect data about your leads and need their permission to do so.
4. Create email lists that suit the interests of the audience.
Segmentation is the key. It’s one of the easiest things to do in your email marketing strategy for the most dramatic results.
It filters unnecessary emails from your audience’s inboxes, increases your open and click rates, lowers your unsubscribe rates, and makes your subscribers feel like your company is serving them.
To optimize your recipient’s experience as well as your business results, here are some best practices for segmentation:
Be specific, but not too specific.
If your email group is very small when you send it, you probably shouldn’t be targeting that group. Each list should be as large as possible without deviating too far from the core characteristics of the group.
Make your lists distinguishable.
No email marketing strategy is one size fits all. By dividing your e-mail database into clearly defined groups and segments, you can communicate with your different markets and target groups with tailor-made campaigns and strategies.
Optimize your data collection.
Good data depends on three key points: trust, accuracy, and integrity. Your team needs to ethically and sensibly collect the data you need to create effective segments while maintaining the trust of your contacts.
When a contact opts for email communication and goes through your marketing funnel, make sure their data – including their opt-in status – is synced with the right apps.
For example, you can sync your email marketing app and CRM after a contact has been marked as a “customer”.
Measure your results.
Make sure you can measure the success of your newsletter campaigns. For the best results, go beyond just open and click-through rates to understand exactly how your newsletters are affecting your customer acquisition.
Set up tracking to understand how many customers lead to conversions as a direct result of clicking on your newsletter and how many customers are indirectly supported by conversions.
5. Help readers find your newsletter.
Just as selling tickets is an integral part of show business, an important part of newsletters is getting people to subscribe.
Getting people to sign up for your newsletter should be a serious consideration in your strategy.
There are numerous ways to promote your newsletter. You could:
- Add pop-ups to your blog and website, especially for visitors who seem particularly engaged.
- Add a subscription option to your footer.
- Promote your newsletter on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
- Offer a free sample of your newsletter. See how the popular Daily Pnut newsletter proves its worth to potential readers by sharing its archive online:
6. Stay consistent and relevant.
No matter how often you choose to send out your newsletter – once a month, once a week, or even daily – make sure your audience can rely on it.
At the same time, just because your timing is predictable, your content shouldn’t be predictable.
Keep things fresh for your audience. The worst thing you can do is make your audience feel like your email is the same tired information that ends up in their inbox and clogging up their storage space day after day. This is an easy way to get readers to unsubscribe and lose hard-earned leads.
Instead, mix your content. Throw in informational posts with offers and contests, make sure it’s not just text, add some gifs and photos, send out surveys, and most importantly, ask for feedback.
