Learn Newsletter Tips and Best Practices for Your Small Business
With so many working from home these days, professionals are relying more than ever on their inboxes to keep them updated on news, information, products, and entertainment.
In recent years, we saw a global pandemic force businesses to reinvent themselves and to get creative in looking for new ways to reach and engage customers. As a result, we’re seeing a huge surge in the popularity of email newsletters. And while email newsletters are in no way a new method to reach people, in past years many businesses have stopped using them. But for marketers and businesses looking to stay top-of-mind for their subscribers, sell more products, and engage with leads, there is no better way than an email newsletter.
Nowadays, the true value of email newsletters is more important than ever. But, creating a truly exceptional email newsletter entails more than just sending a few lines of text out once or twice a week. In this post, we’re going to show you how to write a rockstar newsletter that entices subscribers to open it.
What is an Email Newsletter?
Simply put, an email newsletter is a way of reaching out to your customers, fans, and followers via email to keep them in the loop of all the happenings within your company. In addition, they are one of the most common ways to nurture the relationship between existing and future clients—primarily because of their low cost and tremendous value.
It’s essential to understand what an email newsletter is before we can get into the meat of creating a rockstar email newsletter that will hook your customers and have them anxiously waiting for what’s next.
Email newsletters can be used to market anything important to you. Whether that is news on your growth or new products, a sales event, your club’s monthly events, a new blog release, or a newsletter notifying your followers of the progress of your novel. These well-designed marketing email newsletters should be delivered regularly (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly) to ensure consistent website traffic and return on your investment. Newsletters make up the majority of all marketing emails sent, and they have a lot of potential. But more than just sending out more content, you need to know how to make your newsletter stand out. We can help with our newsletter tips, tricks, and best practices!
Check out the Tailwind blog and become an email marketing expert!
“If you build it, they will come.”
The Value of an Email Newsletter
Oh! That saying sure does make creating a business sound easy, right? But, in modern times, the truth is, “If you built it, go get them.” You see, simply having a great idea or product won’t do. To be successful, you have to put effort into finding customers, engaging with customers, and keeping them interested. The power of a successful email marketing campaign lies in what we call “top-of-mind marketing.” It’s what keeps your company and brand in front of potential customers’ minds so when they’re ready to buy, they think of you first, and it’s priceless.
If you’re still on the fence about whether or not you should spend your time and efforts on an email marketing campaign, check out the benefits of email newsletters:
Strengthen The Retention Of Your Customers Or Following
If you create an engaging and visually pleasing email newsletter, you can strengthen the relationship between you and your target audience. You may constantly remind current and potential clients that you exist if you send out a regular email newsletter. Many people become preoccupied and forget about a company they are interested in without intending to do so. A typical email newsletter serves as a simple reminder that you exist and have something to offer. Then, when a buyer decides to convert, the high level of trust you have built will keep you top of mind and increase your chances of becoming the brand of choice, whether for hairstyling services or movie screenings. Here are some pros and cons of email campaigns.
Low Costs
An incredible benefit of an email campaign is that they are low cost. Emails are intangible, so you don’t have to worry about the labor costs of creating a physical product. Plus, email newsletters generate a strong return on your investment. Many experts even say that email campaigns are the most successful channel for marketing digitally.
Expansive Reach
In modern times, cell phones are always within the palm’s reach, and everyone has an email account on them which means your brand can always be in front of their eyes. It’s pretty easy to say that most people own emails and use emails in their daily communications. There are billions of people who use emails, despite the emergence of various communication apps, according to Statista.
Personalize Your Brand
Creating a personalized experience between you and your subscribers will help to keep them interested and connected to your business or brand. And that’s everything in today’s marketing efforts. Effective email newsletters provide your organization or yourself an arena to share news releases, new products, or upcoming events. You can tell them about your brand’s story or even a hardship you overcame. The storytelling possibilities are boundless with email newsletters!
Data Analysis
Knowing how your customers interact with you is essential to making the best decisions and keeping you moving forward in your growth and outreach. You can draw helpful data metrics through email newsletters, such as the number of people who opened the newsletter, who clicked through to your website, and more. You can refine your email marketing strategy and better understand your customer or following behavior with this data.
The Drawbacks of an Email Newsletter
As with anything else, email campaigns also have a few drawbacks. Given the large number of emails that people receive, it’s possible that yours will get lost in their inbox. Here are a few cons to email marketing:
Competitive Landscape
Although people may subscribe to your newsletter, your email competes with many other communications. It’s always easy for them to unsubscribe, making it even more important to create excellent quality content. Brainstorming methods to beat other emails and have subscribers open your own message is definitely complicated.
Easy to Ignore
We all live a hectic lifestyle, and with our phones always in hand, too many emails can be frustrating. A drawback of an email marketing campaign is that people can easily look over your newsletter, quickly delete and even unsubscribe from it. So, you must take measures to create an engaging and valuable newsletter.
Labor Intensive
It takes a significant amount of time to produce a quality newsletter. You have to take time to brainstorm the objective of your newsletter and the overall aesthetic and vibe, gather subscribers and consider so many other components.
How to Create an Email Newsletter
The secret is out! Creating an email newsletter is one of the most successful methods to deliver value to your customers, persuade them to buy more products, and keep them engaged with your brand. In general, newsletters are an essential part of any successful email marketing campaign and shouldn’t be ignored. Here are some tips on how to make your newsletter more engaging:
1. Select an Email Newsletter Service
The first step in creating your email marketing campaign is to select an email newsletter service provider. It is essential that your email campaign looks visually appealing and professional, so simply doing it in your daily email just won’t suffice. Not to mention your regular email account will not provide detailed reporting. You can find the best email marketing tools and platforms in 2022 here.
2. Establish The Objective
Ok, once you have selected the best email marketing platform for your needs, the next step is to determine the objective. Spend some time deciding what message you want to deliver to your subscribers. Some awesome ideas on what you can include in your email campaigns are sharing company updates and news, how-to guides, sharing new products, inspiring to connect with blogs, advertising services, upcoming events, and so much more. And since they are sent weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, you can mix up the message and objective. This will help to keep your subscribers engaged.
Remember though—the key to an exceptional email that will get read is to write great content. Here are some ideas of what you can include in your email newsletters:
- Business
- Behind the scenes
- Promotions
- Product launches
- Blog posts related to business services or products (content marketing)
- Business updates
- Job openings
- Personal
- Project updates
- Monthly film recommendations
- Book reviews
- Quotes
- Advice
3. Design
This is one of the most critical parts of the process (other than the content itself). Having a visually aesthetic email campaign is key to increasing engagement. So, once you have your objective nailed down, it’s time to consider the design of your email newsletter. The design is uber important because it plays a significant role in establishing the tone of your newsletter. It can also decide whether or not someone will continue reading the newsletter. But, on the other hand, a lousy design may dissuade some people from connecting with your content. Thus, you may lose out on a precious opportunity to establish a strong connection for yourself, your business, or your organization.
Color Palette
If you’re creating an email newsletter for an organization, you don’t have to sweat too much. You can stick with your organization’s colors! This will strengthen the branding of your communications. However, if you’re creating a newsletter for personal reasons, stick with colors you enjoy and that go together. Feel free to use a color wheel or research to figure out an appropriate color palette. You can also consider the temperature of your colors to match your newsletter’s vibe. For example, consider warm colors if you are going for a lighthearted newsletter. On the other hand, if you create a serious newsletter, you may want to try cooler colors.
Templates
Depending on the email newsletter service provider you use, email campaign examples and email newsletter templates may be available for you to use. If you create a personal newsletter, feel free to use it to your heart’s content. However, people with business may want to consider a more original design for a more professional and unique zeal.
Layout
We recommend a simple layout for an easy and clean reading experience. For organizations, make sure to include your logo and social media in the newsletter. Also, keep in mind white space to avoid overwhelming readers.
Include Multimedia
Just text is boring. Spice up your newsletter with pictures, videos, illustrations, and even gifs! The options are endless, so don’t miss out on your chance of maximizing your newsletter’s engagement.
Unsubscribe Button
Don’t forget to include an option to unsubscribe from your email list. You do not want to build an audience of people uninterested in what you have to offer. Including an unsubscribe ensures that people genuinely dedicated to your email newsletters remain. United States business email newsletters must do this as per the CAN-SPAM Act.
Human Resources
If creating things isn’t your strong suit, you may want to consider asking someone in your business or organization to create the template for you. If that isn’t an option, consider outsourcing it to a professional. There are some legal requirements involved in sending email marketing campaigns, so you’ll want to brush up on these prior to getting started.
4. Content
Content is king in the marketing game! So, the content or meat of your email newsletter must be good. Sure! It’s ok to write your content that fits your brand, including the tone and buzzwords you frequently use. Your subscribers will receive this well because that’s part of what they love about you. But remember to not be too spammy or overboard on the salesy messages. This will surely turn them off and prompt them to hit the unsubscribe button.
Valuable Content
You want to offer content of “value” to the subscribers. Additionally, you want to ensure your content adheres to what they sign up for. Otherwise, subscribers are likely to stop following your newsletters. Generally, you want to create content that informs subscribers with valuable information; you also want to make sure it is relevant to your interests or your organization. However, if the objective of your newsletter is to promote a service or product solely, keep it concise and minimize the sales tone as much as possible.
Concise
People do not have all 24 hours of the day to read your email newsletter. So avoid long-winded essays and keep your content as short and sweet as possible.
Grammar And Spelling
Forgetting to review and edit your email newsletter is a big mistake. Improper grammar and spelling will make your newsletter look unprofessional. This is especially important if you are creating an email newsletter for a business or organization. So take a few minutes to read it and look for grammatical errors.
5. Subject Line
Oh, yes! The subject line on your email campaign is SUPER important because many times that is what will get your email opened versus deleted or skipped. And an inappropriate subject line may even inspire subscribers to disavow their loyalty to your communications. So, put some thought into it and make your email subject line an attention-grabber and on-brand.
Concise
Keep your email newsletter subject line clear and concise. The ideal character length for subject lines is around 41-50 characters. However, too long of a subject line may cause readers to lose interest. Writing a concise email subject line is always best especially since many subscribers will read your email on their mobile phones.
Professional
Remember, most people live an on-the-go lifestyle, and when it comes to email, most probably do a quick skim to see if they are interested in it before they click on it. So, it is imperative for your subject line to have a professional tone. Otherwise, people may get the wrong idea that your newsletter is spam.
Grammar And Spelling
Again, you should always use proper grammar and spelling to ensure your newsletter looks professional.
Be Honest
Your subject line should truthfully summarize the content of your newsletter.
6. Send It
Whew! So, you brainstormed your objective, carefully created some amazing content, included some attention-grabbing graphics, and double-checked your spelling and grammar—you’re now ready to send that puppy out. But, wait! Before you do, make sure you send yourself a test email first. This is an excellent option that most email providers offer. It lets you see exactly how your email marketing campaign will look when your subscribers receive it.
It’s a fantastic way to catch mistakes and see the visual appeal to make some changes before releasing it to the world. If everything looks good, then go ahead and hit send!
7. Legal Matters
Oh, yeah! The stuff no one likes to think about—legal matters—but it’s uber important. First, make sure that you know any email newsletter laws your country and state have. The last thing you want is to send out a mass of emails only to be penalized for not following the law.
For example, in the United States, there is a CAN-SPAM Act, a series of email marketing laws, such as providing an explicit means of opting out of emails. Prior to sending your first email campaign, make sure to familiarize yourself with the rules and regulations.
How to Improve Your Email Newsletter
Now don’t think just because you sent your email marketing campaign out that you’re done. It’s just the opposite. To understand how successful your efforts and emails are, you need to take time to measure and analyze your newsletter’s performance metrics. This will allow you to understand your audience’s behaviors better, noting any adjustments you can make to enhance future email communications.
You should also consider AB testing or split testing. Compare two versions of the same newsletter, see which one performs better, and choose the best-performing email. Marketing is an ongoing effort that can and should continuously be tweaked for maximum return.
Key Takeaways
This complete email marketing guide is packed with the most essential information you need to create an engaging email message. Using these newsletter tips will help you create email marketing campaigns that are read and convert to traffic to your website and sales. Remember these key takeaways, and you’ll be an email campaign ninja in no time. The key takeaways that you should bookmark in your noggin are:
What Is it?
An email campaign is key to connecting with your subscribers, customers, clients, fans, and followers on a whole new level. It is a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly letter to them to share the latest updates, news, personal stories, new blog releases, behind the scene stuff, sales and promotions, and—of course—your products. So keep top of their mind by sending regular email newsletters and watch your business grow.
The Pros And Cons Of Email Newsletters
Marketing is an always-evolving way of reaching your customers, and with any such effort, there will always be some pros and cons. The pros of email marketing include the fact that it is a low-cost marketing technique; you’ll be able to analyze data, reach more people, and personalize your brand. But the downsides are also there. These include tons of competition; they are easy to ignore and delete and take time.
Creating And Designing Your Email Newsletter
The essential factors to remember when designing your email newsletter are to select a color palette that fits in with your brand, choose a template and layout that is visually appealing, include eye-catching graphics and multimedia, and don’t forget to add an unsubscribe button.
This is your year to totally elevate your business, blog, and brand to the highest levels. Rockstar status is just a step away. This email newsletter guide and your newfound understanding of the power of an email newsletter are going to help you grow. Check out the FAQ below for additional tips and tricks on maximizing your email campaign efforts.
FAQ
Can I make an email newsletter for free?
Yes! There are email marketing tools that are free, or partially free, including Tailwind. You can create the perfect newsletter, or other types of email marketing templates for your business.
What is the best font size for email newsletters?
Generally, no less than a 14px font size for the body of your content is best practice. For mobile, you may want to increase the size to 16px or 18px. And it is important to keep the font size of the body uniform to avoid looking messy.
Can I use email newsletters for B2B marketing?
Yes, you can! Just let B2C marketing, email newsletters, and other email marketing practices are also common and effective ways for B2B businesses to stay connected to their clients, followers, and leads.
