Unveiling the Secrets: Newsletter Best Practices & Strategy

Email newsletters, when done in the right way by the marketers, are amongst the most efficient methods to remain in the customers’ minds. The issue, however, is that businesses themselves don’t know what they should include in their newsletter.

Businesses do not grasp why they should publish newsletters. They’ll stress about having to do it because everyone else is doing it or want to stay etched in the mind of consumers. They won’t have any other strategy or approach at their disposal. Despite these issues, it doesn’t have to be yours. A proper strategy and objectives would turn the newsletter into a powerful marketing tool for your company.

Crafting a compelling newsletter involves more than just sharing updates; it requires a strategic blend of engaging content, thoughtful design, and a keen understanding of your audience’s preferences.  

Let’s take a look at some of the top email newsletter best practices that would get the readers hooked on:

⏩Using a powerful subject line: The subject line is undoubtedly the most critical part of the narrative. And the open rate tends to struggle in the absence of a strong subject line. It’s essential to consider different subject lines that attract readers. Also, consider examining their brevity, if they are concise enough or whether the language is compassionate enough. Also, please take a look at the usage of Emojis to make them appealing. Usually, the ideal email subject lines are concise, compelling, and provide enough glimpse of what’s there in the email.

⏩Using Images to enhance the newsletter:

Readers consider text-only newsletters to be uninteresting and would seldom read them. Including images piques readers’ interest in the newsletter and encourages them to read the overall content. The usage of images or GIFs draws the reader’s attention and encourages them to continue reading.

When creating a newsletter, be careful not to go overboard with images or rely solely on them. If the image fails to load, the text may become unreadable. Adding alt text readers lets you understand what the image is about even if it doesn’t load. Keep their file size modest while uploading, so they open quickly.

⏩Attention to the email newsletter design: The importance of design for the success of a newsletter is challenging to overstate. Design is not just selecting fonts and colors for an effective newsletter. Instead, there’s a great deal more to it. The method of the newsletter content plays a significant impact on how readers interact with it. Creating the Call-To-Action (CTA) buttons and making the engagement metrics easy to read significantly increases the reader’s engagement.

Furthermore, well-organized emails help grow your email deliverability. Equal consideration should be given to factors such as the amount of color contrast employed or the dimension of the typefaces. The accessibility should also be considered while creating the designs.

Some other best practices of designs are making the CTA buttons clear and concise, including logo, website & social media accounts, and the addition of preheader texts. 

As newsletters are an extension of the brand itself, it’s essential to make sure it aligns with the rest of the brand experience. 

⏩Optimizing email for mobile devices: Over half of all emails are read on mobile devices, which is a staggering figure given that individuals still use computers regularly. Optimizing emails for mobile devices is a good idea, which involves evaluating the newsletter template on both desktop and mobile devices. The subject lines should also be tested when it comes to mobile optimization. It’s a disaster if the subject lines are not assessed for multiple devices. Hence it’s essential to account for them and send as many test emails as possible.

⏩Targeting customers through segmentation: Depending upon the organization’s structure, an email newsletter may either go to the entire list or can be categorized for select groups. For a company serving multiple sectors, it’s a good idea to create different types of content for each of them. Also, provision should be there for newsletters with specific content for subscribers in other regions.

You can send out surveys to the subscribers, asking them about the newsletters they would want to receive. Segmenting the audience ensures you don’t end up sending random newsletters which they aren’t interested in. It’s better to ask about the reader’s interests directly.

⏩Encouraging people to open newsletters through videos:

Videos often entice recipients to open and click on emails. They are enjoyable to viewers and effective for rapidly conveying much information. The organization’s videos like how-to videos, testimonials, or advice from executives or industry experts are the best types of videos to include in the email newsletters. These videos have the potential to fascinate your viewers. Furthermore, they provide an opportunity to persuade people to join your company.

These videos have the potential to attract viewers. Furthermore, they provide a chance to convince people to join the company and work for them.

⏩Crafting a compelling Call-To-Action (CTA): Companies sending out newsletters usually have something in mind to link their readers to, either a new product or a tease from a piece of content from your website. Whatever be the case, it’s necessary to have a clear, compelling Call-To-Action to guide readers to the desired destination.

The CTA button should be easily visible, and the text should be clear to ensure readers don’t miss the next phase of the activity.

⏩Improving the click rates through A/B testing: The marketing team of a company should mandatorily do A/B testing. They should start doing it immediately if they haven’t been doing so. Although brands might want to believe that they know enough about their audience and the types of emails they prefer, they are highly misplaced in their judgment. They would never know as much as their audience knows about themselves. A/B testing allows the audience a chance to tell about their preferences.

Through A/B tests, marketers experience much higher open and click-through rates than those who do not. It provides the marketers with valuable feedback about what works with the audience and whatnot and comprehensive information about the company’s email marketing strategy.

Conclusion 

The best practices mentioned above provide a framework for developing an email newsletter marketing strategy to attract customers and increase conversion rates.

Summing up, it’s advisable to use the email subject line wisely to maximize the open rates and break the list into segments to increase the creative appeal. And since email frequency and timing make or break an email campaign, it’s of utmost importance to use A/B testing to unearth the best time to send newsletters. 

Ensure >90% inbox placement with our deliverability strategies and elevate your email marketing effort to improve subscriber engagement. Connect with our experts and  leverage our Integrated Email Marketing platform.

Sources:

8 Email Newsletter Best Practices,

10 Email Newsletter Best Practices To Follow In 2022