Creating an email newsletter requires balancing various factors simultaneously. There are lots of key components that go into making a newsletter, and if you don’t want yours to end up in the junk mail, I suggest you keep reading to find out how to make yours stand out from the rest!
Nowadays, newsletters are the new norm in most companies and offices around the globe.
Newsletters are an easy, quick, and efficient way of getting your point across and communicating information to your employees, colleagues, and target audience.
But how do you make sure that yours doesn’t end up in the spam folder? How do you make people want to read your newsletter and gain something from it?
There are lots of essential steps to creating the perfect newsletter, and here we’ll cover the most important ones, as well as discuss some common mistakes people make and lay out the most effective tools for making a newsletter.
Tips for Creating a Successful Newsletter
Now let’s get to down to business and find out how to create the perfect newsletter people will instantly want to click, as well as which mistakes to avoid in the process!
1. Offer Captivating Content
This one’s pretty obvious, but it’s worth stressing out its importance. Make sure your newsletter offers interesting, captivating, or somewhat shocking content that will keep your subscribers’ attention.
You need to make them want to open that email. Now, adverts are a part of every newsletter, but don’t forget that most people don’t exactly enjoy various adverts popping up as they’re reading the email, so you must provide them with content worth-reading that will glue them to the screen.
Focus on making it about current events, news around the world, or tips and tricks for something that could be useful to them. Know your audience.
Captivating your readers’ attention is essential, so always keep in mind to create and send content worth their attention. That is what will make them want to keep opening your newsletters.
2. Write a Bombastic Headline
I’m sure you’re aware that the number of newsletters people receive weekly is astonishingly substantial. So, it’s extremely easy for it just to end up ignored and overlooked.
But not if you grab their attention with a bombastic headline that they just won’t be able to resist clicking on immediately! You want your readers to read it right away, NOT leave it for later because that means it will never be read.
Make them want to open it within seconds of seeing it with a subject line they’ll simply need to explore that instant. If they think ‘’Oh, this could be interesting, I might click on it later today’’ it means that it’s simply not attention-grabbing enough.
Ask yourself which headlines YOU would want to click right away, and there’s your answer.
3. Be Consistent and Trustworthy
Gain your subscribers’ trust by always being true to your form and consistent in your writing. You want them to know what to expect from you when opening your email. This means no extreme surprises by offering things they won’t find amusing or relevant.
You can always try new stuff and explore new techniques, but don’t do too much, too fast. It might put your audience off.
People like consistency and stability; always bear that in mind.
This means to make sure your subject line isn’t completely different from your body of content. If you manage to keep your content faithful to your subject and always keep it fresh, informative, and intriguing, you’ll have your subscribers’ trust and keep their attention for the foreseeable future.
4. Proofread and Simplify Your Newsletters
Keep in mind that YOU are the expert here, not your readers. Terms, abbreviations, and acronyms regarding your field of expertise that you’re acquainted with are most probably not as familiar to your audience.
Simplify everything, assuming they won’t be able to understand it if you lay it all out using big words and long acronyms. It’s easy to lose yourself in your craft and forget that there are people out there who would struggle to understand half of what you say.
That’s part of any business. And this is why it’s crucial always to offer added explanations and step by step guides to making your readers easily understand what you’re referring to. Carefully proofread your content and avoid assumed understandings.
5. Be Mindful Of the Legal Standpoint
Before you choose to send your newsletter, you need to make sure that you’re good to go with regards to the legal standpoint.
Pay attention to these two important laws before hitting ‘’send’’:
- CAN-SPAM is there to make sure that your email contains a footer with your address on it, and that your newsletter makes it easy for your readers to unsubscribe from the email, should they choose to opt-out of receiving your content.
- GDPR bears some similarities, but it’s a more in-depth law on privacy that was decided on in Europe in 2018. It requires that marketers only send content to those people who have manually chosen receiving it by their own free will. This means that they’re not allowed to mark the ‘’opt-in’’ box for readers in Europe. They are the only ones with permission to mark it for themselves.
6. Keep It Brief and To the Point
People’s schedules are often hectic and draining, and the last thing they have time for is over-crowded newsletters, which make it difficult to find the information they are interested in.
Why make it harder for them than it needs to be? Keep your content brief, light, and easy to understand.
Don’t add tons of unnecessary information just for the sake of adding words. It’s exhausting, and people will immediately stop reading.
Offer actual information at the very beginning and don’t drag. People like to see what they need easily and clearly, and not search for what they need in a crowd of irrelevant information. Be concise, mindful of your readers’ limited time, and give them what they need without making it exhaustingly long and boring.
7. Get the Right Frequency
Figuring out the right amount of time between each newsletter can be tricky. You don’t want to be too frequent and make your readers end up unsubscribing, but at the same time, you don’t want them to forget all about you either.
It’s believed that any amount of time between once a week and once a month is ideal. It’s up to you to figure out what your subscribers want and how often to email them. This is where knowing your audience comes in handy and makes it less challenging to make this decision.
It’s entirely in your hands, and you’re the only one who can get to the bottom of the exact right amount of time. Think carefully about what your readers want to balance it all out to their satisfaction.
Mistakes to Avoid When Creating a Newsletter
Now that we’ve covered the most important tips on creating the perfect newsletter, we’ll focus on common mistakes people make while writing and how to avoid them. Paying attention to these useful tips will ensure creating the best content that is both user-friendly and efficient in its purpose!
8. Forgetting To Use an Email Service Provider (ESP)
When you choose not to use an ESP, you are making your newsletter look way less professional than it needs to be. People often use their email accounts for sending them out, but here’s why that’s a big mistake.
- You will create unnecessary confusion between your readers by accidentally including them all in the ‘’to’’ field instead of using ‘’BBC’’.
- Every reader is entitled to choosing to opt-out of receiving your emails, and it’s so much simpler for them to click ‘’Unsubscribe’’ than replying with an additional email.
- Each email provider might interpret your email in their way, but when using ESP, you’re sorted out!
- Choosing to send from your email account ensures that your emails reach your audience in a much slower manner than with ESP. Meaning, email service provider gets the job done faster and much more efficiently!
9. Neglecting the Importance of Email Design
Never underestimate the importance of a well-designed email.
It’s one of the most important things in keeping the attention of your readers so be mindful of these three issues:
- Don’t overcomplicate it. Stay true to your brand and how you have always presented yourself. Making it too complex will only steer the readers away.
- Remember, this is not an in-depth analysis of a subject, so go easy when deciding on how much text to use. Offer the most interesting and relevant products to your subscribers and don’t add irrelevant stuff that will take up too much space. Show them what they came here for.
- Make skimming a breeze. Create interesting, bolded headings, separate the paragraphs, and don’t forget about adding bullet points. It all adds up to a well-made email.
10. Getting the Time and Frequency Wrong
Being consistent in time spent communicating with your customers is essential. Do you make sure you send your newsletters regularly? Regular communication creates a bond between you and your subscribers that will prove to be useful in future correspondence.
Choosing the exact day of sending your newsletter and finding the perfect time frame between each one can affect your results greatly. It has been proven that sending out two emails per month offers the highest conversation rate and gains the best results.
11. Not Mentioning the Most Important Things First
Let’s face it. Some people simply have a short attention span, and if they don’t see what they like almost immediately, chances are you already lost them. And that’s the last thing you need.
Some marketers make the mistake of badgering on all kinds of information and leaving the most crucial parts for last, which is a grave mistake. People need to see what they want as soon as they open the email; otherwise, their attention will move elsewhere.
Most Effective Tools for Creating a Newsletter
When choosing the ideal tool for creating your newsletter, there are many components you need to keep in mind. Features, availability, and pricing are just some of them, and here you’ll be able to see which tools fit best with your company’s needs. So here are some of the most effective ones that will help you create a newsletter tailor-made for your business!
Benchmark
Benchmark’s highly effective drag-and-drop feature makes it very easy to create visually appealing and beautiful newsletters even for the non-tech-savvy marketers. If you check the template library, you’ll notice a wide range of templates where you’ll easily find one that fits perfectly with your vision. Some of its most prominent features are a detailed analysis of each campaign’s performance, A/B split testing, which takes care of the quality of your email and spam tools that ensure your email is sent right to your readers’ inboxes!
GetResponse
GetResponse offers necessary features as you go along, all the way from starter features to the most encompassing and in-depth ones. The ability to host landing pages will result in keeping your subscribers’ attention. It also offers a drag-and-drop feature, as well as a segment contacts tool, campaign creator, and A/B testing tool.
SendInBlue
With SendInBlue, you don’t need to be a tech expert to create your perfect newsletter. The simple use of the drag-and-drop feature, HTML editor, and a vast gallery of templates will do the work for you! You can even personalize the newsletter by choosing the field for subscribers to opt-in, and its mighty automation pipeline makes it super easy to send different emails as required by your contacts.
Mailjet
Mailjet works best with teams that move promptly, and it’s best used for the needs of big companies. It’s extremely developer-friendly, where engineers will find it easy to set up their platforms using its substantial API solution. The most prominent feature is that it can create personalized content for each reader using nothing but their name and location.
Conclusion
Creating a newsletter that will garner readers’ interest and keep them clicking on your emails is a mighty task. Luckily, here we’ve covered the most important tips and tricks on creating the perfect newsletter and pointed out the mistakes you should avoid at all costs.
Knowing your audience is crucial because it allows you to create content that will fit perfectly with their needs and offer them products they won’t be able to resist. Finding the ideal preferences and remaining consistent is key because the readers want to know what to expect from you.
Additionally, choosing the right tool for creating your newsletter is important as each one offers different choices. It’s up to you to decide which one will be of most use to you, and once you do, simply follow these 11 simple tips and tricks and watch your business thrive!