Newsletters can be a goldmine when done right because, apart from being super cost-effective, they help capture the audience’s attention. The purpose of your newsletter might depend upon your business.
You can use it to share valuable tips and information with customers. You can drive sales through featured products and coupons. Email newsletters can often help boost your social following or traffic to your website.
To make your life easier and help you reach your target audience, use these tips to create an engaging newsletter.
10 Tips to Create an Engaging Newsletter Design
Here are a few tips for creating your newsletter design:
Use an email marketing software
Who said you could use email marketing software only to send emails regularly to your client?
Companies use email marketing and newsletter software to design and create customized newsletters. This software makes it easy for you to send professional-looking emails to hundreds or thousands of subscribers.
Companies can rely on these tools to share news, show off product features, promote new blog posts, and curate content for their subscribers.
While tools such as Mailchimp offer the best services, Mailchimp is costly because it’s list-centric.
So, focus on using cheap Mailchimp substitutes like Flodesk and MailerLite.
Flodesk offers beautifully designed email templates, creates eye-catching templates, and gives you a vast library of newsletter designs.
Interestingly, the software offers customizable color palettes and a proprietary layout to help you control how you want your emails to look and keep them aligned with your brand.
Lay down clear goals
After choosing the right email marketing software, focus on setting understandable goals and the right message for every newsletter. Use the SMART goal approach to create goals that help you impress your target audience.
- Specific: Be precise and concise when writing your newsletter and goals. For example, your goal can be to drive traffic to your website and increase your customer base by X in Y months.
- Measurable: Ensure your goals are measurable, so include metrics and milestones. For example, your goal can be publishing one article per two days to boost website traffic by 15%.
- Attainable: Although you might be inclined to aim high, ensure your goals are attainable. Ensure your long-term and short-term goals are attainable.
- Relevant: Ensure that your goals match the overall business plan and apply to your email marketing campaign.
- Timely: Ensure your goals have a well-defined timeline and avoid creating a sense of urgency as it can decrease the campaign’s effectiveness.
Use catchy subject lines
Your subject line is a crucial element of your email newsletter because it decides the fate of your email newsletter. It influences and encourages the recipient to read your email. Keep your subject line short and limit it to three to five words.
With 47% of email recipients deciding to open an email based on the subject line, a catchy subject line can help your customers and create a positive impression.
When creating a subject line, ensure you are to the point, focus on personalization, include descriptive words, use an active voice, and limit the usage of capitalization, emojis, and punctuations.
Use a better sender name
What will you do if you get an email from someone you have never heard of? Do you open it or mark it as spam without even reading it?
Chances are that you might mark it as spam. With 42% of customers checking the sender’s name before opening an email, using a better sender name can ensure your customers read your newsletter.
If you’re a reputed brand, you can get away with using your brand name as the sender’s name.
Also, avoid using a no-reply or contact-us email address as customers might mark them as spam and it can affect your future email deliverability.
Focus on using pictures
A well-designed newsletter has the right mix of content and images. Usually, people are drawn toward images, and it helps in enhancing the content. However, not every business can use photo-worthy images, where they can use their images.
You can either click photos or consider buying stock images and incorporating them in the newsletter. To make your newsletter attention-grabbing, it is essential to have a clean and organized layout that makes it easy for your readers to understand and digest the information.
As a picture is worth 60,000 words, using pictures in your newsletter can significantly affect your reader’s perception of your brand.
Use the right template
To ensure your newsletter looks elegant and encourages the reader to read your newsletter, you need to follow certain specifications.
You can choose from various email designs using software such as Flodesk and Mailchimp. According to various research, the industry and gold standard for email width is 600px. Anything below this will likely look unprofessional and might not deliver the required results.
These in-built templates have the desired width and can help make a positive impression.
Also, when choosing an email template, choose one that is mobile responsive because more than half of the emails get opened on a mobile device.
A responsive design template that resizes images and text according to the screen size is better at impressing readers and customers.
Use web-safe fonts
Another essential aspect to consider when designing your newsletter is using web-safe fonts. The fonts you choose significantly impact your brand’s perceived value. Focus on having a consistent look across your newsletter by choosing and sticking to web-safe fonts.
You can use different fonts for your headings and subheadings. Use the same font in regular or bold versions of the same font. Irrespective of whatever you choose, keep the font simple and avoid using more than two fonts.
While trying to make your newsletter fancy, don’t reduce its readability. This can make your email newsletter look cluttered and uncoordinated.
Also, use the same font in every newsletter to improve brand recognition.
Be brief and concise
The key to creating interesting and engaging content is ensuring your content is relevant, simple, and exciting. After nailing your subject line, getting subscribers to open your email becomes easier. But ultimately, it’s the content that keeps your readers engaged.
Short sentences can convey meaning.
Common pitfalls to avoid when designing your email newsletter are beating around the bush, injecting unwanted and forced humor, and trying to be witty.
When it comes to your email, being clear is always better than being clever.
The easiest way to reach your audience is by using the most straightforward language.
Maintain brand consistency
Were you aware that 59% of shoppers prefer purchasing products from companies and brands they are familiar with?
That’s why sticking to your brand’s design elements, such as formatting, font, color, and voice is essential. It helps create a powerful impression in your prospect’s minds.
Maintaining brand consistency in your email newsletter increases brand awareness and recognition. It even helps companies create a loyal fan following.
According to research, consistent brand presentation increases a business’s revenue by at least 23%.
With so much on the table, it gives you a reason to start maintaining branding consistency across your newsletters.
Include a call-to-action
Lastly, include a strong CTA in your newsletter templates to direct readers to take the desired action.
You can use your call-to-action to encourage customers to sign up for the account, enter a competition, register for a webinar or course or make a purchase.
A CTA can maximize your newsletter traffic and helps in driving conversations.
Key Takeaways
In the digital world that we live in, email marketing plays a critical role in building a healthy relationship with your existing and potential customers.
It allows you to speak to your clients using one-to-one conversations.
Today, newsletters are an essential part of your email campaign and are a general communication collateral mix. It is a powerful marketing tool that gives you more traction and helps keep your customers engaged.
If you are still in doubt about using email, remember that there is no communication channel, including paid advertisement and social media that allows you to reach your audience as effectively as email.
Your email newsletters let you stay in touch and engage with your audience.
Now that you know the tips for creating a newsletter, start sending one to increase your viewership and readership.
