Writing Email Newsletters As Your Audience Actually Wants to Read
Email is a game-changer for marketers. It's a powerful tool with great returns, so it's a must-have in your marketing strategy.But, just sending any old content now and then won't cut it. To make the most of email marketing, you need to know what makes a newsletter shine.Your newsletter is a goldmine for marketing. So, it's crucial to treat it as such. We've gathered tips from leading email marketing experts to help you level up your newsletter game. Stick around to learn how to make your emails stand out!
what is newsletter marketing
In today’s digital world, businesses are constantly looking for ways to engage their audience, build relationships, and drive conversions. One of the most effective strategies for achieving this is newsletter marketing. But what exactly is it, and why should you consider it for your business?
Understanding Newsletter Marketing
Newsletter marketing is a form of email marketing where businesses send regular emails to subscribers who have opted in to receive updates, promotions, or valuable content. These newsletters can contain anything from company news, industry insights, blog updates, product promotions, and special offers.
Why is Newsletter Marketing Important?
Direct Communication with Your Audience
Unlike social media, where algorithms determine reach, email newsletters land directly in subscribers' inboxes, ensuring better visibility.Builds Stronger Customer Relationships
Sending valuable content consistently helps establish trust and loyalty among subscribers, making them more likely to engage with your brand.Boosts Website Traffic
Newsletters can drive traffic to your blog, website, or landing pages by linking to relevant articles, new products, or promotions.Increases Sales and Conversions
With a well-crafted email campaign, businesses can promote products, offer discounts, and encourage purchases through targeted calls-to-action.Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy
Compared to paid ads and traditional marketing, email marketing is affordable and delivers a high return on investment (ROI).
How to Create an Effective Newsletter?
Build a Quality Email List
Grow your list organically by offering incentives like free resources, discounts, or exclusive content in exchange for sign-ups.Write Engaging Subject Lines
Your subject line determines whether subscribers open your email. Make it clear, concise, and enticing.Provide Valuable Content
Avoid making every email a sales pitch. Instead, focus on delivering useful content, such as tips, guides, or industry updates.Use a Visually Appealing Design
A clean and mobile-friendly email design improves readability and engagement.Include a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)
Whether it’s reading a blog, making a purchase, or signing up for an event, guide your readers toward the next step.Analyze and Optimize
Track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to refine your strategy over time.
How to Write a Perfect Newsletter
1. Review successful newsletter examples.
Before you start crafting your own email newsletter, take a peek at some examples from your industry and beyond. We've rounded up a bunch of our favorite newsletters in an ultimate lookbook. It's a great way to get inspired and see what works well. Checking out what others are doing can give you ideas and help you figure out what you might want to include in your own newsletter.
2. Determine if an email newsletter is essential for you.
Standing up to a work assignment from your boss can be incredibly intimidating, particularly if it involves something like developing an email newsletter. But if it won't work with your marketing plan, don't waste time, and energy on it.
Start by conducting research. Research successful email newsletters in your industry and make notes of their contents. Assess your available resources — budget, time, and support — to see if you could find success.
Next, ask yourself about your business goals. Is it to generate more leads, qualify your leads better, close more deals, or better retain your customers? If an email newsletter doesn’t meet these goals or isn’t preferred in your industry, get your efforts elsewhere—like establishing a lead nurturing e-mail workflow or writing a blog.
If you have data and an action plan in hand, engage your boss. Even if you don’t see eye-to-eye on going for an email newsletter your boss will appreciate that you’ve come in with ideas on how to achieve that success.
3. Figure out what kind of newsletter you want to send.
With email newsletters, we tend to make them too cluttered and try to stuff entire businesses into one email: product updates, PR stories, blog posts, event recaps. To avoid this, you need a theme to hold the newsletter together.
One strategy here is to become more targeted on a specific subject. Instead of attempting to cover your whole company, focus a newsletter on a single vertical or theme. BuzzFeed, for example, has a weekly newsletter for cat content, “This Week in Cats.” BuzzFeed gets a lot of heat for being the go-to website for irrelevant trivia and list-style articles covering things from politics to sexual orientation, and yet it has managed to identify a niche population that is receptive of quirky cat news as each newsletter is dedicated solely to cats, even though it covers a range of different topics. Due to the nature and specific focus of its coverage, the newsletter experiences considerably higher engagement rates than a potentially across-the-board newsletter covering various aspects of the website.
4. Your newsletter content to be more educational and less promotional.
Likewise, your email newsletter subscribers likely do not want to hear about your products and services all the time. They like to hear from you, however it does not take long to get used to always receiving sales offers.
For example, consider my experience with a shoe company. I am a fan of their shoes and freely subscribed to their email list. Now they inundate my inbox (literally) with anywhere from 2-3 sales emails daily, and honestly, it's too much. Instead of always marketing its product, it could offer educational content about up-and-coming shoe trends or how to style them with clothes. If they provided useful information instead of just pitch after pitch, I would be more inclined to read their emails.
Avoid being that company. Create email newsletters where the focus is on educational, niche, and relevant information, while saving the product or service promotion until you have something really exciting to share!
5. Do creative with email subject lines.
While subscribers may sign up for your emails, there's no guarantee they'll actually open them once they land in their inbox. Some marketers attempt to boost familiarity by using the same subject line each time they send out an email—whether it's daily, weekly, or monthly.
But this strategy can backfire. Subscribers get tired of similar subject lines very fast — they provide no immediate benefit to entice a user to click on that specific email. Alternatively, you want to write unique, creative, and engaging subject lines for every newsletter you send. This maintains subscriber interest and leads to higher open rates.
6. Simplify your design and copy.
To achieve a clean and uncluttered magazine look for your newsletter, focus on the following two elements: concise copy and white space in design.
Why is concise copy important though We don’t want to make our subscribers waste too much time reading our email. Rather give them a snippet of your content to help them decide to visit your web or blog to read the entire piece. This is how you get people to click and engage.
In the case of email newsletters, white space is more than just a blank space; it is a crucial element of design that diminishes the visual clutter and increases the readability. Functionality: Sufficient white space, particularly on mobile devices, makes it simpler for recipients to scroll through and click on whatever links they require.
7. Include alt text with clear descriptions for all images.
Considering that visual content is critical to your general marketing campaign, this makes sense! But email poses a special problem. By default, the recipients will have images not enabled. That’s where alt text is important.
For images in emails, alt text (alternative text) is important. It acts as an alternative to images when those images cannot load. Mind you, this is especially important for the visual representations of your calls-to-action (CTAs). Alternative text allows recipients to comprehend and act on your email content, no matter where they disable images.
8. Make it easy for individuals to unsubscribe from your emails.
It does feel counterintuitive but is an important part of keeping your subscriber list active and engaging. Keep your language straight forward, ‘Change how we you communicating with you’ is confusing, and do not hide the unsubscribe button behind an image without alt text. A clear unsubscribe process also contributes towards preventing your emails from getting marked as spam before they reach the rest of your subscribers’ inboxes, in addition to keeping your list healthy.
9. Pick one primary call-to-action.
Although newsletters can hold several contents with different calls-to-action (CTAs), usually, there is one CTA that is more important than the others, and that needs to be prioritized. This primary call-to-action should serve as the “head honcho” signifying the top action you want your subscribers to take. Other calls-to-action can be supplementary, giving subscribers other options to explore in case they have more time or interest. Whether you want them to read a blog post or share the email with a friend, it is essential to make it simple for subscribers to take the desired action.
10. Keep the Content Relevant
The most important thing is sticking to the subject and being consistent with your brand. For example, if you own a professional website design company or gaming company, emailing your subscribers about recent sporting events, politics, or local weather is off-brand and won’t rattle the cages of your subscribers.
Have your audience select their interests to make sure you send content that is worth their time. Give them the option to choose what they read about, and how often they want to receive emails. Customizing Options in the Sign-Up Process Giving the option of customization during sign-up your audience allows them to filter out what interests them.
FAQ: Writing Email Newsletters That Your Audience Actually Wants to Read
1. What is an email newsletter?
An email newsletter is an email that is sent regularly giving updates, news, or useful content about a brand, product, or industry.
2. How frequently should I send email newsletters?
But it varies with your audience and content. Weekly or monthly newsletters are great, just don’t bombard subscribers with too many emails.
3. How to make my newsletter interesting?
Send interesting and relevant content instead of promotion, use creative subject lines, opt for plain design, and add a crystal clear CTA.
4. What to put in my email subject lines?
Package it in a way that is original, short, and captivating. Do not repeat the subject line, as it lowers open rates.
5. How can I stop my emails from going to spam?
Email-only to those who subscribed, do not use excessive promotional language, and always give an obvious unsubscribe option.
6. Can I add images to my newsletters?
Yes, but always include alt text, so the user knows what is in the image even if it doesn’t load.
