How To: Design a Great Email Newsletter

It might be surprising for some to notice that email newsletters, rather than losing popularity, are an effective way of marketing for an organization. By “really effective way,” I mean “the most effective way.” Indeed, as mentioned in a previous blog post “Simple Ways to Get your Website Traffic Up,” email newsletters have the highest portion of users completing a sale. It is also cost-effective compared to other marketing tools and inexpensive.

With the pandemic that overtook the world, business owners and marketers had to shift their means of communications online, thus emails have re-gained popularity. And emails did not disappoint! It is also an effective way to strengthen your relationship with your customers.

If you are on this post, it is maybe because you know all the benefits of an email newsletter. Then, it shouldn’t surprise you that, for success, emails should be attractive to your customers.

Here, I gathered some of, I think, the predominant points of attention when designing an email newsletter.

Before designing your email newsletter

Beginning to write your newsletter without clear goals and a clear target will make it appear messy and unfocused. Thus, before you write the newsletter, set your goals “what do I want to accomplish with the newsletter?” and determine a target “who do I want to reach?”

You can also already draft the email.

Object

When you have a net idea of your newsletter, it is time to begin writing!

With the object being the first thing the recipients see, it is necessary to have an engaging, catchy sentence that will intrigue the users. Of course, people spend a lot of time in their inboxes, but they also receive plenty of emails every day. If you want people to click on your email, you must generate creative titles.

Content

The content is also a big part of the email (if not the biggest). Try to keep it simple, short, and engaging. Research has shown that emails of about 200 words reap the most engagement.

Make sure to include a clear Call-to-Action, so people immediately know what you expect. Include easy ways to opt-in or opt-out of the newsletter and a possibility for feedback, depending on the type of email you sent.

Images and Email Newsletter Design

As the user’s attention span is extremely short, the email design is crucial. Depending on your brand image, the goal of your email, and the target recipients, you should create a great design that will attract the eye. You can use tools such as Canva to create beautiful designs for your email newsletters.

As for images, the recommended number is 3 per email, don’t hesitate to include some animations!

Test Your Newsletter

Before sending your newsletter, test it with people from your company. Check that it looks good on desktops, tablets, and mobile devices. Make sure that there are no spelling, grammar, or syntax mistakes. Finally, seek general feedback about the content when you and your team are satisfied with the result, then you can schedule it for your customers!

Comply with the law

There are some rules framing marketing emails. The most obvious ones are to avoid providing false or misleading information.

You should also give an easy way for people to opt-out from the newsletter and respect their choice (don’t keep sending them emails after).

Put your address in the footer, and identify the message as an ad. If you use a third party to design your email campaigns, you should still monitor them as you are the one responsible in any case of fault.

Things to avoid

However eye-catching you want to be, limit the number of emojis you use in the title to one, as using too much can put your email in the spam section. One emoji is considered ideal. Also don’t overdo it with exclamation points/question marks, again, once is enough.

Also, some words and phrases are more susceptible to triggering spam than others, thus we put for you a great blog on what is susceptible to triggering spam.