7 Tips on Creating Newsletters that Subscribers will Love
While we’re pretty sure if you’re reading this, you know what a marketing newsletter is, the real trick is creating newsletters that subscribers will love.
As far as marketing techniques go, email is still incredibly valuable.
Not only are its returns easy to track and measure as well as incredibly affordable but it’s a fantastic way to build brand awareness. Just take a look at some of the stats below if you don’t believe in the power of email marketing.
* 86% of consumers prefer marketing communication as emails rather than Facebook ads or TV commercials
* Email marketing techniques have a 4400% ROI
* Per dollar spent, you can expect a $36 return on average
* Newsletters greatly influence customers’ decisions in terms of buying by as much as 50.7%
So the last thing you want is to spend hours meticulously crafting your newsletters or sourcing your mailing list only for them to be ignored, put in junk folders, or marked as spam. Or just as bad, result in your subscribers unsubscribing, wasting a valuable potential lead.
You might assume that this is done with nifty design tricks or costly software, but the truth is a lot simpler. Take a look at our list of 7 Tips on Creating Newsletters that Subscribers will Love.
7 Tips on Creating Newsletters that Subscribers will Love
Good marketing is all about producing content and interactions that your target audience finds useful and enjoys engaging with. If they don’t, the odds of them wanting your product or service are not very high. It’s the same with email marketing and creating newsletters that your subscribers will love. So for some great tips on just how to do that, read ahead!
1) Offer helpful, relevant, and engaging content
Creating engaging content is incredibly important, whatever field it is. Even more so in an era where people’s inboxes are often inundated with dozens of emails trying to sell them something.
Your newsletter should be goal-oriented, informative, and engaging. If it’s not relevant to a subscriber, not only can they ignore that specific newsletter, but they can associate uninformative, wasteful content with your brand. And that’s the last thing you want.
A great way to ensure you’re offering great content is to put yourself in your subscriber’s shoes. Ask yourself whether you, as a subscriber, would find value in your newsletter.
Some go-to tips to make sure your newsletter is of value are:
* Avoid jargon. It causes readers to lose interest and feel your content isn’t for them, which can cause them to unsubscribe
* Don’t be too “salesy”. The feeling of someone trying to sell you something can be the exact reason you don’t buy it
* Keep it short and sweet. People want emails they can easily scan and read, so having short, readable, informative and to the point can go a long way.
Using skills like a writer’s inverted pyramid can greatly help you get the reader’s attention as soon as possible. It also means your most important information is seen first, which in today’s fast past, short attention span having era is essential.
2) Promote your brand
Branding your email newsletter headers is a great way to gain brand recognition and announce your quality with every email. Consistent, quality branding has been shown to increase revenue by as much as 23%.
Branded newsletter headers, for example, are a great place to begin because they impact subscribers’ first impression of your brand. They usually contain everything from a company’s logo, and name and can include eye-catching images or illustrations.
That being said, it doesn’t always have to be busy or complex. Like this one from London-based Sweaty Betty.
When you’re a small business, this is incredibly important if you want to stand out from the pack. A clear brand identity allows you to develop a relationship with your customers that you can build on.
Enough interactions and your style, consistency, quality, and brand come to mind instantaneously when subscribers see an email from you. This gives you a fantastic platform to boost your conversion rates and from there: sales.
3) Hook subscribers using effective subject lines
Even before you have a chance to read the contents of an email, the subject line is where you determine its relevance.
It’s based on the subject line that you, almost instantaneously, determine whether or not the email is of value. Having a great, alluring subject line is essential when it comes to creating a great newsletter.
That’s because the chance of your newsletter being opened is 1 in 4 at best. To appear on the right side of this ratio, some useful tips to note include:
Promote your value. If you’ve got something to offer, don’t waffle, tell the reader from the get-go
Be wary of emojis. If you’ve got an emoji-filled subject line, no one will take you seriously and you may be seen as spam
Don’t overdo punctuation. Doubled exclamation marks or question marks may grab attention at first, but they rarely lead to conversions
Personalization is key. Don’t be creepy, but using the client’s name here and there can make them feel valued and assume a direct, human-to-human interaction is taking pace
Create a sense of urgency. Buy Now, while stocks last etc. when used appropriately can help increase conversion rates
Put simply, the reason subject lines are important when it comes to creating newsletters your subscribers will love, is because first impressions matter.
4) Use a compelling Call-to-Action
Always, always, always use a Call-To-Action (CTA) in your emails. Without one, your chances of success are about as good as if you’d never sent one.
Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but it may well be true. Studies show that emails that have at least one CTA generate as much as 371% more clicks than emails that don’t have any.
Calls-to-action should be concise, compelling, and appealing to the eye. Buttons can be a great option to include in this regard. A button that stands out can really make it easy and appealing for subscribers rather than just some hyperlinked text within your email text. Like this one from Dropbox:
It’s equally important to make sure that you don’t overdo it and try to stick to one CTA per email. There’s a time and place for two, but using more CTAs can often be confusing and discourage those click-throughs that you’re looking for.
Ps. Avoid using overused, dull phrases like click here and rather use ones like “Get started” or “Start your journey”.
5) Personalize your newsletter
Nobody likes a “by-the-numbers” email. Making your subscribers feel like just another number is a sure-fire way to get them to unsubscribe.
You can use software to add in the name of each person who receives your newsletter, add their name manually, or include it in the subject line or intro. Either way, personalization is a great way to build a sense of familiarity with your subscribers.
This familiarity can often lead to conversions or brand loyalty. Just don’t overdo it and use their name in every second sentence.
That’s just creepy.
6) Offer discounts and giveaways
This is probably one of the more obvious points, but that’s just because of how true it is.
Discounts, giveaways, and promotions are all great examples of providing value.
Newsletters that are consistently offering services or products that your subscribers find to be of value lead to increased conversion rates. In fact, according to Marketing Sherpa, as much as 60% of consumers subscribe to a mailing list just to get promotional messages.
If you’re targeting the right people or have an option to filter those who want news updates from those who want promotional offers, you can increase your conversion rates. It also means your brand doesn’t appear spammy which can only ever be a good thing.
7) Be creative, not distracting
In any field of marketing, creativity is, and should always be, encouraged.
Contrary to popular belief, email newsletters don’t have to always be, and actually shouldn’t be a dull affair. They’re a great opportunity to use your creativity to stand out from the crowd and create unique, eye-catching, subscriber-friendly newsletters that show off what your brand has to offer.
Your brand should always look fantastic and your creative flair is what’ll help it shine.
Just remember to not go overboard.
There’s a difference between creative and distracting or cluttered. Keep in mind your brand colors, logo, and style to make sure that as creative as you’re being, you’re still representing your brand.
Final Thoughts
While email marketing may have lost a bit of its shine to social media, pay-per-click advertising, SEO, and a host of other newer techniques, it’s still around for a reason.
It works.
You only need to take a look at your inbox to see that. Everyone from major companies around the world to your favorite blogger relies on newsletters to reach and communicate with their subscribers. Great newsletters can be a valuable tool in the hands of a creative marketer.
And given how inexpensive it can be, when done right, can have you seeing major rewards. From great customer relationships, boosting brand awareness, and impacting your sales, there really is no downside.
Especially when you keep in mind our 7 Tips. They’ll have your newsletters go from spam to success faster than you can click subscribe.
About the Author
Ryan Fick is a Cape Town-based, internationally raised, opinionated writer who is passionate about politics, social justice and a firm believer in the link between “Amandla” and “Awethu”. With a background in Journalism, Travel, and all-round Content Writing – as well as a burgeoning interest in all things SEO – he is a perpetual knowledge seeker who knows enough to know he doesn’t know it all.
“I’m constantly learning and upskilling myself. I strongly believe that the learning process should never end in order to grow professionally and individually. I take pride in my ability to motivate, educate and inform myself. A versatile and creative writer, I’m learning to combine that with my more analytical skills as my abilities and knowledge in SEO grows.”
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