7 Tips And Tricks For Creating an Email Newsletter People Will Actually Open - And Read!
Email newsletters are a great tool for branding and marketing. They give us a great chance to communicate with our clients directly and keep them up to date.
It’s not just about the content anymore! Modern newsletters should have a catchy subject line, a focused call-to-action, provide value, and an aesthetic design.
With that in mind, we would like to share 7 best practices that’ll elevate your newsletters, add real value to your customers’ inboxes and help you create really effective email marketing campaigns. For other awesome content marketing ideas take a free 14-day trial with our online flipbook maker!
Our best email newsletter tips and tricks:
1. Keep it simple (use the K.I.S.S. principle)
A successful newsletter must include a short and straightforward copy. In fact, if your email is longer than it should be, your subscribers won't read it. Customers have a short attention span, thus the majority of readers are unlikely to read a newsletter that takes more than a few minutes. Make sure to stick to the KISS (Keep It Short and Simple) concept, a design principle which states that designs and/or systems should be as simple as possible, when you're writing material of any kind. Keep in mind that you want your email newsletter to act as a starting point that grabs the interest of your readers and motivates them to act. For instance, include a brief teaser from your most recent blog post and send subscribers to your blog to read the full article. Finally, concise language will make it easier for readers to skim through your newsletter and will leave them wanting more.
2. Pick one call-to-action
There may be several call-to-actions (CTAs) in your email, but that doesn't mean they should all have the same priority in your newsletter. Then how do you do it? Decide exactly what your most important CTA should be. That’s the main thing you want your subscribers to do. You need to be clear about what you want your subscribers to achieve, whether it's just a quick click through to a blog post, or a sales-based goal. Then outline what your other CTAs are - all of those ought to be "just in case" possibilities.
3. Write a catchy email subject line
Catchy email subject line
Your email newsletter headline is everything. Your newsletter subject line will depend on whether your audience even opens the newsletter. Even if your subscribers subscribe to receive your emails, there is no guarantee that they will read them once they pop up in their inbox.
To ensure that their audience remembers the email when it appears in their inbox, many marketers and companies strive to keep consistent with their headlines.
Try switching it up and being inventive. It will be difficult at first to come up with a catchy email subject line, and it may take a lot of throwing ideas at the board until something sticks.
To find out what hits your audience, experiment with alternative subject lines (funny subject lines versus serious topic lines). You can run A/B tests with several subject lines using an email marketing software like ActiveCampaign or Hubspot to discover which ones your audience responds to the best. When in doubt, stick to the K.I.S.S. concept by telling them “exactly what you need to tell them" in the subject line.
4. Don’t try to sell too much
Selling products/services
How often have you received an email newsletter in your inbox just to discover that it is simply a sales pitch from a business? Many brands will start an email newsletter hoping to push out offers, discounts, and other special campaigns to attract clients. But sending your clients too many sales related emails will tire them out.
Your potential customers might start to ignore your emails, unsubscribe, and worst of all, the offers might stop being worthwhile. (If you’re always running a sale, how special is it, anyways?)
Instead, make an effort to balance the content of your email newsletters and add value to the daily lives of your subscribers. Send emails with informative content, contests, and other informational content, keep sales emails for offers that are actually excellent. A great rule of thumb for which type of emails you should be sending, and how often, is that 90% should be educational and only 10% should be promotional!
5. Give your subscribers a choice!
Giving subscribers the chance to customise their preferences will significantly increase your open rate. Customers are more likely to open emails when they may choose how frequently they receive them.
Also, don't forget to add an unsubscribe option. Trying to find a way to opt out is the most annoying thing a client can experience. At the end of the day, you want your users to have a positive experience.
When it comes to customer preferences, be as specific as you can. Tell potential readers how often they may expect to hear from you and what each email newsletter will contain. Even the subscription landing page allows you to accomplish this. Another excellent technique to let potential subscribers know what to expect is to provide a link to a recent newsletter preview!
6. Improve your email newsletter design
Think on the design when creating your email newsletter. The layout must be well-organised and easy to read while still being attractive to the eye and consistent with your brand's aesthetic. Can people skim your newsletter with ease? Have you got any call-to-action buttons? Does the email have a logical flow? The way your email looks affects how readers perceive your information and how much time they’re spending reading it.
7. Add interactivity to your email newsletter
Did you know you can create an interactive version of your online newsletter and embed it into your email? With Paperturn you can add pop-ups, add extra information about a product, show off additional pictures, insert links that let your readers jump directly to purchase sites and much more! There are so many ways to use Paperturn's features and add an additional layer of interactive content to your email newsletters that your customers will love
A newsletter example to inspire you:
Consider adding these few suggestions to your email newsletter:
Subject headings and lines.
Call to action buttons when appropriate.
To make content more readable, use bold text for keywords.
Use unique graphics and branding components.
Pro tip: even though you want to improve your design, avoid cluttering your wireframe!
Make sure to keep some active white space in the design.
Wrap Up
A cost-effective method of reaching your current and potential clients is through email newsletters. A fantastic email newsletter may also accelerate the sales process and help you build stronger relationships with your clients, which makes it an extremely valuable element of your total marketing strategy!
