When was the last time you remember opening an email newsletter from one of the subscriptions you subscribed to on your own? Let’s accept the fact: Mostly all email newsletters are either marked read, deleted or ignored in total.
Though, when created optimally, they can get hold of audience attention, raise site traffic, drive more sales, form your credibility as an expert in your niche and grow your community of subscribers.
In this blog post, we discuss the email newsletter best practices to increase your open rates and permit you to achieve all possible benefits.
But before doing that, let’s define email newsletters and their significance.
What Is An Email Newsletter?
An email marketing newsletter comprises updates, news and vital information about your business. These emails are sent to individuals who chose to receive them – typically regular website visitors, customers, fans, and followers. As you’re only sending these emails to a fixed group, email marketing can be more cost-effective as compared to other methods when used appropriately.
Having said that, it does necessitate you to do your due persistence and perform extensive market research – something an email marketing agency can support you with if you don’t have the time or resources.
Why Email Marketing Is Essential
Before you learn how to write an email newsletter, you must understand why email marketing is significant and worth the effort in the first place.
There’s a motive so many businesses currently leverage email content. An email marketing newsletter usually has a high success rate, making it a feasible strategy to nurture your business and cherish loyal followers.
Think through this: Social media may be the more apparent marketing channel, but only 17 percent of people choose to receive promotional content via Facebook and other social media.
As compared to that, the average for email marketing is at 72 percent, which suggests most people expect – and welcome – promotional content by means of an email.
Must read: Making Email Personal Is More Than Just Business
How To Produce An Email Newsletter That People Actually Want To Read
When creating newsletters, the aim is to raise visibility, inspire interaction with your readers and make individuals want more. Here are valuable tips that line up with email newsletter best practices:
1. Use Creative Subject Lines
Your subject lines are your lure to make readers click your email. Resist using the same old formats over and over again. Put efforts into being creative and altering things up with each newsletter email blast.
Avoid spammy words such as “free,” “limited time,” “reminder” and “act now.” Rather, use action words or verbs that inculcate excitement without appearing pushy. For instance, based upon your industry and intent, words like “enjoy,” “learn,” “save” and “improve” promise something positive without sounding demanding.
Next, personalize subject lines and make use of suitable target keywords. And lastly, edit for brevity. Consulting with skilled email marketing services providers assists you with research and personalization.
2. Format Newsletters for Mobile Users
The best email newsletters are optimized for mobile. Oberlo informs that the online traffic share of mobile devices improved from 6 percent in 2011 to an enormous 56 percent in 2021. Best practices command making the most of a single-column layout. Keep the design clean and streamlined, so individuals know where to focus their eyes.
- Use more prominent visuals
Try using bigger fonts and other visual features so that your readers can still sight your content even if they’re using phones with smaller screens.
- Leverage responsive design
Go for a responsive design that is scalable so that the content can fit various screen sizes. Use short copy and avoid vast blocks of text. Stop making use of image-only emails – a whopping 33 percent of users have images turned off on their phones by default. As an alternative, figure out how to make an email newsletter for mobile screens with the help of targeted email marketing services.
- Test before you email blast
Always test user experience (UX) prior to sending out an email blast. Recipients should be in a position to work with interactive elements, like contact forms, expanding certain sections, and tapping essential links. Preview your content on diverse devices before sending it.
3. Compose Text Like Art
Recall the eight-second attention span of your readers. Keep the sentences in your email copy at 20 words or lesser so that readers stay hooked. Every email drive content should be straightforward and dedicated to one topic only as much as possible.
- Keep a check on text length
Keep in mind that people usually have to sort through 80-plus emails daily. They don’t have time to go through 500 words of copy. Data from HubSpot reveals that keeping email lengths at 200 words or fewer offers the most desirable results. This is the apt length for the best email newsletters.
- Form a visual hierarchy
Use big fonts, so your text looks fab no matter what screen size your readers are using. Don’t stuff the page with text (or images, for that matter). Rather, construct your text so readers can scan the information they want quickly.
- Maximize whitespace
Use whitespace tactically. Create whitespace around important parts of your email newsletter you want people to recall. Think along the lines of the minimalist principle “less is more.”
- Be keen on fonts
Research advises Arial and Helvetica are the ideal fonts for email newsletters. They’re simple to read on any device, and they’re the most generally used fonts on the web. However, some fonts may help draw attention to specific parts of your message.
4. Use Color To Impact Emotions
Enhance colorful elements to make your newsletters inspiring. Colors produce emotions and feelings in readers. For example, research reveals that blue elicits feelings of trust and loyalty. Orange is linked with fun. And green makes you think about money, growth, and freshness. Get help from a professional email newsletter service to identify which colors work best for your brand.
5. Manage Pictures and Visual Elements
Pictures and visual elements help in keeping your readers engaged. Though, they shouldn’t cover 30 percent (or more) of your newsletter’s available space. Else, they can appear as spam.
Bear in mind these tips:
- Embed GIFs and video as required
- Use GIFs cleverly for product announcements
- Add an infographic to make information more palatable
The tips that we have offered here will enhance your email open rates. But that’s merely half of the work. You also need to work on spam filters, list segmentation, and keeping your email list fresh.
Partnering with our email marketing agency has a proven track record that keeps you on top of all of these tasks. It empowers you to ramp up your email open rates, time your emails and grow your email list.