How to create a newsletter

Sending out email newsletters is an excellent method for maintaining engagement with your audience—be it subscribers, customers, or employees. This approach is particularly effective for sharing company news, promotional deals, and information on new offerings. However, to truly capture your audience’s attention, it’s crucial that your newsletters are both visually appealing and engagingly written.

Crafting an impactful newsletter that yields positive outcomes is more straightforward than it might seem. In this guide, I’m going to simplify the process into 10 easy-to-follow steps, equipping you with the skills to become an expert in newsletter creation swiftly.

We will explore the advantages of utilizing newsletters, identify the essential components for their success, and offer advice on design, including the use of convenient newsletter templates. Prepare to engage your audience confidently with the effectiveness of email marketing!

What is an email newsletter?

Newsletters are a form of email communication that organizations utilize to disseminate information to a specific audience. These emails are dispatched regularly and can be directed outwardly to subscribers and customers, or inwardly to employees, offering a vast range of topics and content possibilities.

There are lots of purposes for which newsletters can be used, including:

  1. Showcasing new products and services
  2. Promoting special offers, sales, and discounts
  3. Highlighting forthcoming events with easy “add to calendar” options
  4. Sharing organizational news and updates
  5. Providing educational material, such as industry insights, articles, and tips
  6. Cultivating relationships with subscribers and customers

By offering valuable content, they not only enhance brand recognition but also engage individuals directly in their email inboxes.

Whether it’s for conveying company news, encouraging purchases, managing remote teams, or keeping everyone informed, well-crafted digital newsletters are an effective tool for achieving desired outcomes.

Crafting an email marketing strategy

A successful email marketing strategy excels in certain areas but distinguishes itself by aligning with your brand and resonating with your target audience. It involves establishing essential components for your newsletters that not only meet industry standards but also echo your unique brand voice and message.

For an effective strategy, consider incorporating these elements:

Objectives: Define your aims, whether it’s to increase traffic to your social media platforms or website, or to achieve another goal related to gaining attention.

Email frequency: While a monthly newsletter is common among various organizations, you might find a different frequency more suitable for your campaign.

Audience segmentation: Develop detailed customer profiles and segment them to cater to the diverse groups within your audience.

Brand consistency: Ensure all your newsletters reflect your brand’s core values and maintain consistency in presentation.

Tools and software: Utilize the appropriate email marketing tools to streamline your process, enhance efficiency, and glean insights into what’s working.

Templates: Choose templates that guide content creators on the structure, tone, and source of information, also influencing the overall format of your email newsletters.

Optimal send times: Identify and target the most effective times for sending out emails to increase the likelihood of them being opened and read.

While this list is not exhaustive, it serves as a solid foundation for developing a robust newsletter strategy, putting you a step ahead of your competitors. Additionally, integrating Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and campaign metrics into your strategy could provide valuable insights into its effectiveness.

Select a tool for creating email newsletters.

When choosing the right tools for enhancing your marketing efforts, it’s crucial to prioritize options that fit within your budget and offer ease of use and seamless integration with your current processes. The ideal solution should not only cater to your specific needs through a rich set of features but also provide insightful and actionable analytics. Equally important is the level of customer support available, ensuring you have access to assistance whenever needed, as well as the capability for the solution to evolve through constant updates to meet your future requirements.

Such tools can significantly alleviate the workload, allowing you to focus more on delivering exceptional value to your customers and maintaining your unique selling proposition. It’s essential to start with a tool that matches your financial constraints, marketing objectives, and technical comfort level.

Adopting a user-friendly platform can streamline the process of creating engaging and effective newsletters. Look for solutions that are straightforward and intuitive, even for those with no prior experience in using similar tools. This approach can help you quickly get up to speed and begin leveraging these tools to your advantage, potentially starting with no upfront cost.

Select a suitable template and email design

At this stage, it’s time to pick a template that aligns with your email marketing objectives (refer to Step 1). This includes determining the most effective email design for your purposes.

The term “email design” encompasses the overall visual presentation and aesthetic feel of your email, including its color scheme, typography, stylistic elements, contrast, and use of space. Furthermore, it involves arranging your content in a way that enhances readability and engagement.

For a streamlined reading experience that guides the recipient through the content in a natural, top-to-bottom manner, a single-column layout is ideal.

Insert your content and customize for personalization and accessibility

After selecting your newsletter template, the next phase involves two key actions: inserting your specific content and customizing the design to reflect your personal or brand style.

Typically, this customization process includes:

  1. Replacing the default text, images/illustrations, and buttons in the template with your content.
  2. Adjusting the layout and size of different sections according to your preferences.
  3. Applying your brand’s color scheme.
  4. Updating or adding new icons.
  5. Adding hyperlinks to calls-to-action (CTAs) and buttons.
  6. Ensuring your newsletter is accessible to all audiences.

To illustrate, let’s use a hypothetical scenario where the Human Resources department needs to inform the staff about an upcoming resignation. Starting with a company announcement newsletter template, the initial step involves updating the placeholder text with the actual message. Following this, you might want to personalize the font style and size to better match your communication style.

Next, focus on tailoring the design elements. For instance, if the primary graphic aligns with your message, keep it but add elements that incorporate your brand identity, like logos and color schemes.

An example of further customization could include adjusting the background color to fit your brand palette and overlaying an image from your stock library, modifying its opacity to achieve a cohesive look. Tools like brand kits can automate these branding elements, making customization easier.

Adding visual elements such as icons can enhance the newsletter’s appeal. Ensure every CTA or button is linked correctly, enabling readers to take desired actions seamlessly when your design is exported to HTML.

Customization also extends to making your newsletter accessible. It’s essential to design with all users in mind, considering those with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive disabilities. Accessibility can be improved by using high-contrast colors, providing alt text for images, and employing straightforward language and navigation. Some editing tools offer built-in features to help check and improve accessibility.

Don’t overlook the importance of responsive design, ensuring your newsletter adjusts to various screen sizes and devices. This consideration is crucial as a significant portion of emails are accessed via mobile devices.

By focusing on these aspects, you create not only a highly personalized and brand-consistent newsletter but also one that’s inclusive and accessible to all your subscribers, demonstrating a commitment to an equitable email experience.

Craft your subject line

The subject line is the first element your recipients encounter, so dedicating effort to devising engaging and compelling subject lines is crucial.

Example on crafting effective newsletter subject lines:

Here are several strategies for crafting outstanding subject lines for your newsletter:

  1. Brevity is key: Aim for subject lines that are concise (no more than 60 characters) to prevent them from being truncated.
  2. Personal touch: Whenever possible, incorporate the recipient’s name or other personal details to create a more intimate and tailored experience.
  3. Urgency and incentive: For newsletters focusing on products and sales, employ language that motivates urgency and prompt action, such as “limited time offer”, “last chance”, or “hurry, 24 hours only”.
  4. Pre-header insight: Utilize the pre-header text as a sneak peek into the email’s content, encouraging recipients to open the email.
  5. Experiment with A/B Testing: Divide your mailing list and test various subject lines to identify which ones resonate most effectively with your audience.
  6. Creativity wins: Stand out in crowded inboxes by using emojis, posing questions, incorporating numbers, or employing clever wordplay to catch the eye of your subscribers.
  7. Adhere to email etiquette: Steer clear of words that might trigger spam filters, and ensure your subject lines accurately reflect the content of your email to maintain trust and avoid being marked as spam.

Conduct a test of your newsletter

Implementing tests for your newsletter across different email clients, devices, and platforms is a critical best practice. This is especially true for the email services most frequently used by your target audience.

Employing an email testing service is crucial for verifying that your design is accessible and comprehensible to your audience. This step is fundamental in ensuring your newsletter not only reaches your audience but also effectively engages them and drives conversions.

Additionally, it’s essential to rigorously check all the links in your newsletter. Ensuring every link works as intended guarantees your confidence in delivering successful email campaigns consistently.

Analyze your email performance metrics

  • Analyzing your email performance metrics shortly after dispatch is a crucial phase in the process of newsletter creation. It enables you to gauge the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts and base your decisions on solid data to refine future campaigns.

Key Email Metrics to Monitor:

  1. Open Rate (OR): This metric shows the percentage of recipients who open your newsletter. A lower-than-expected OR may suggest that your subject lines lack appeal, or the content does not resonate with your audience.

  2. Click-Through Rate (CTR): This figure represents the ratio of subscribers clicking on links within your newsletter to the total number of subscribers who opened the email. A low CTR could indicate that the newsletter’s content is not sufficiently engaging or relevant to your audience.

  3. Unsubscribe Rate (UR): Paying attention to your UR is important, as a high rate might signal that your content is not providing value, or perhaps you’re sending emails too frequently

By continually analyzing and adapting your approach based on performance metrics, you position yourself to achieve more impactful email marketing results over time.

Email Newsletter Best Practices

When assembling your newsletter, it’s important to adhere to the previously mentioned steps. Here are some key practices to consider, no matter the format of your newsletter:

  1. Aim for brevity: Keep your newsletter concise. Avoid bombarding your readers with excessive text or visuals. Strive for a balance, and even in a newsletter without images, ensure your message is succinct and engaging from start to finish.

  2. Deliver value in your content: Your subscribers don’t just want a barrage of ads. Enrich your newsletters with insightful advice, useful tips, and informative blog posts. This approach helps your readers gain something from each email, enhancing the perceived value of your subscription.

  3. Conduct thorough testing: To avoid the faux pas of broken links or awkward design elements, always send test emails to yourself and a trusted colleague for feedback. Verify the appearance on both desktop and mobile platforms to ensure your newsletter looks great on any device.

  4. Utilize A/B Testing: Beyond basic email tests, engage in A/B testing to fine-tune your understanding of what resonates best with your audience. This can range from experimenting with different call-to-action placements to other nuanced elements within your emails.

  5. Ensure mobile compatibility: Given the prevalence of mobile email checking, creating a mobile-friendly newsletter is crucial. It’s noted that around 60% of emails are opened on mobile devices.

  6. Watch your email frequency: Be mindful of the number and frequency of emails you send. Overloading your subscribers’ inboxes can lead to higher unsubscribe rates.

By following these guidelines, you can create newsletters that are not only engaging and informative but also respectful of your audience’s preferences and inbox space.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Email Newsletter

Below, you’ll find answers to the questions we frequently encounter about newsletter creation.

1. How do I design an email newsletter?

Begin by selecting an email service provider. Choose a template provided by the service, and personalize it to fit your brand. This includes crafting a captivating subject line, writing your content, selecting appropriate images, incorporating your logo and brand colors, and creating a compelling call-to-action (CTA).

2. What’s a good name for a newsletter?

A distinctive name enhances brand recognition and helps connect with your audience. Your newsletter’s name should be concise and easy to remember. Consider incorporating terms related to your content, employing wordplay, or indicating the newsletter’s frequency (for example, “The Monthly Brief”).

3. What’s the optimal time to send a newsletter?

Data shows that sending newsletters between 9 and 11 am can be most effective. Another effective time is between 1 and 2 pm, aligning with many people’s lunch hours.

4. Which day is best for sending out a newsletter?

Thursday is the prime day for newsletter dispatch, with Tuesday being a close alternative. Generally, mid-week days tend to achieve higher open rates for email newsletters.

5. Are newsletters still effective?

Absolutely, email newsletters remain a vital tool for personalized communication. They provide a direct way to deliver curated content to consumers precisely when they need it, catering to the growing expectation for personalized experiences.