10 Best Practice Tips for Newsletters: Complete Guide
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Email marketing continues to drive the highest return on investment for businesses. To get the most out of your email marketing and/or internal communications, it’s good to know some helpful tips for newsletters.
We’re going to look at how to write a newsletter and show you what it takes to create the best email newsletters.
A newsletter is an email that provides an external or internal audience with useful information, updates, content, and promotions. An email newsletter can be sent the same way you send your everyday emails, if you have the right tools in place.
For example, you can use an intuitive email builder to design professional and engaging email newsletters and send them out using your preferred email service provider, given the integrations.
Email newsletters are a relatively low effort to gain a big reward. They are of great value because they provide:
Newsletters are easy to engage with as they appear right in your recipients’ inbox, which is a place they often check, even when they are on the go. And, since newsletters require opt-in, customers choose whether or not to be contacted at their own volition.
A newsletter can spark the difference between someone being a prospective customer and a lifetime supporter. Plus, once a potential customer becomes a buyer, you can keep them engaged and reminded of your company or product.
It takes multiple touchpoints to convert a sale, and an email newsletter offers another way to get in touch with clients and customers without being intrusive.
Writing an email newsletter requires intention, for starters. Looking at good newsletter examples is a great place to begin to gain inspiration, but ultimately, your business goals will determine what and when you send your communications.
Here are a few tips for newsletters when you’re gearing up to write them:
Begin by determining the purpose of your newsletter. This will not only help you to achieve your business goals, but it will also help you to focus your content.
Plus, if (and when) you use an email builder to design your newsletter, you’ll be able to quickly sift through an array of pre-built templates to find one suited for your cause.
To exemplify, you can choose from internal communications templates, event promotion, new employee spotlights, and more.
Since your recipients are undoubtedly being bombarded with many emails per day, many of which are content-heavy, it’s a good idea to break up your content with design elements.
As a result, your email not only becomes more visually appealing, but it also helps your reader to quickly find what they are looking for.
Email builders have all the resources you need built-in, including image editors, a multimedia content library, and brand kit.
Plus, given the drag-and-drop functionality, anyone can use it without having to be a coder or designer. There are hundreds of professional templates to choose from that are designed with email best practices to optimize engagement.
With all the communication flooding inboxes, a little creativity can go a long way to help your message stand out.
All the creativity begins with a strong, concise, and eye-catching subject line. This is the first thing your reader will see in their inbox, and quite frankly, it can make or break their decision to open or delete your email.
To drive conversions and the next step for an engaging email, a call-to-action is necessary. From a design standpoint, this looks like a button. The text should be straightforward and to-the-point so it’s clear as to what the reader's next step will be.
Rather than having to worry about how to properly balance design and copy, an email builder can do the heavy lifting for you.
Email builders feature drag-and-drop functionality and allow you to choose from templates that are ready to customize on demand. There’s no need for coders or designers! You get to save time and rest assured that all the best practices for engaging newsletters are enacted.
When you are writing an email newsletter, the opportunities of what to include are virtually limitless. Sometimes, having all the freedom to include anything can actually bog you down from knowing what to include in the first place.
A few ideas for useful content and information include:
For a long list of newsletter content ideas, check out this guide.
Since newsletter opportunities are bottomless, the tips for newsletters are extensive, as well. We’re going to share some of our favorite and most impactful recommendations to keep in mind when you embark on your newsletter creation and execution journey.
Before crafting or sending an email newsletter, think about your audience and the content you are sending. Is the information of value and useful to those who will receive it?
If the answer is yes, then send it away. If you’re unsure, consider refining the information. If only a portion of people will find it useful, be sure to tailor your message to your audience specifically by segmenting your recipient list.
The majority of emails are opened and read on mobile devices. As such, it’s incredibly necessary for your emails to display properly across device sizes, which is known as mobile responsiveness.
Rather than having to test your email newsletter across plenty of device sizes, you can leverage an email builder that has already been tested across all the device sizes to ensure your newsletter displays as you wish.
Email newsletters and their success doesn’t have to be a guessing game. In fact, every time you send a newsletter, you have the opportunity to improve upon the last. But, that’s only if you know how your email newsletters are performing.
An email builder equipped with detailed analytics will provide you with open rates, click-through rates, and a heatmap to see where your content has been most engaging for your audience.
Your communications should come off as professional and recognizable. To achieve this, you’ll want to include your branding in your emails, such as your logo, color palette, and typography.
With email builders, you can save your brand kit so that it gets automatically loaded into each new email you design.
Emails move in and out of inboxes very quickly, so you want to be sure that you send timely and relevant content when it matters most.
To be able to do so, you can’t be spending countless hours and days designing your email. Instead, an email builder cuts your time so you can focus on the content that matters.
As you break up your email with copy and design, headlines help lead readers and organize the content down the page. Headlines should quickly explain what content lies underneath it, as well as be thoughtful in their word choice.
Personalized content performs better than generic content that everyone receives. As much as you can, personalize content. This can happen by including names and merge tags, as well as by segmenting your audience and writing specific content based on their needs, desires, and customer journey.
Less is more when it comes to emails. There are a lot of bells and whistles you can add, and it’s good to add multimedia content. But, there’s a balance. If you add a whole page of GIFs, it will be distracting. If you have an entire newsletter of just plain text, it will go overlooked.
To maximize your engagement, solicit feedback from your audience. This is especially true when you are sending internal communications newsletters to your employees. Include their thoughts and feedback in your efforts to optimize your email newsletters.
Review your analytics and performance in order to determine the best frequency at which to send your email newsletters. For some companies, monthly emails will cut it. For others, weekly is more necessary. It really will depend on your purpose, goals, and business type.
For any email newsletters that you will send, there are a few essential components that you should remember to include, namely:
These tips for newsletters will hopefully provide you with a clear starting point and guide to continue optimizing your newsletters along the way.
For any business, with or without coders and designers on staff, you can make use of an email builder to simplify your newsletter creation and sending process. This way, you can save time and ensure you’re sending engaging emails with each click!
