If you’re using email marketing to promote your content, you’re certainly on the right track. Recent studies by MarketingSherpa have found that organizations across industries uniformly believe that email drives an incredible amount of ROI, illustrated below:
Image credit: MarketingSherpa
Other estimates suggest the number is much higher, at around $57.25 for every dollar spent on newsletters and other types of email outreach. Either way, it’s obvious that email remains a strong way to connect with your prospects and customers. Sharing your content this way helps you offer value to your audience and stay in the minds of prospects who are thinking about making a purchase.
To help you create an email that leaves a lasting impression, we’ve put together 20 of the best resources for your program. We’ve included a variety of companies with thousands of happy customers (and plenty of successful deals), along with budget-friendly templates that are popular with businesses of all sizes. No matter which option you pick, these products will make you look like a design expert:
1. Campaign Monitor
Image credit: iamtyce
All it takes is 60 seconds to build an original, HTML email newsletter template using Campaign Monitor’s products – no coding knowledge required! Your final product’s not just going to be gorgeous, it’s sure to resize perfectly for mobile devices and be tested on all major email platforms.
2. Active Campaign
The design geniuses at Active Campaign are pretty generous with the freebies – their website has dozens of newsletter templates for you to download and add to your preferred email marketing tool. Available options range from professional to fun, and many are highly customizable.
3. Smilebox
Image credit: staticworld
If you’re looking to do some advanced things with your email outreach, Smilebox’ interactive templates might be the right choice. With thousands of free and low-cost options available, they’re an easy-to-use resource for including video, slideshows, and collages.
4. Sendblaster
When you need an email newsletter template that’s anything but ordinary, Sendblaster’s library of 600+ free options is sure to have something that’s right for your organization. Available options include plenty of highly-specialized templates for industries that range from automotive to eCommerce.
5. Microsoft Office
There’s plenty of highly-professional options that are super easy to optimize that PC users can download directly. It’s important to note that while these options are free, the fact that they only integrate with Microsoft Outlook will limit your ability to run A/B tests or closely track your newsletter content metrics.
6. Constant Contact
One of the world’s most-beloved email marketing platforms offers loads of stylish and mobile-friendly templates. While usage is limited to Constant Contact customers, the site does offer a free 60-day trial so you can try before you buy.
7. Vertical Response
If the name of this brand sounds familiar, it’s probably because they’re one of the leading researchers on the science of email marketing. Like Constant Contact, their thousands of templates are limited to customers and free trial members. However, their program is especially awesome due to the drag-and-drop tools for simple customization.
8. Zurb
Responsive design is red hot for a reason – as mobile usage continues to skyrocket, there’s also a growing number of screen sizes on the market. Zurb’s templates are responsive, allowing your message to shine through load and clear whether your reader is on an iPad or Blackberry. Keep in mind that their templates are basic, so you’ll need to do some polishing before it’s ready to send.
9. MailChimp
MailChimp is a pretty major player in the marketing world, and their 5 million customers include both small businesses and major Fortune500 companies. Their customers can pick from loads of pre-made newsletter templates (including some fashionable flat design options), or build their own in minutes with the tool’s drag-and-drop editor.
10. MyEmma
Another major email marketing platform, MyEmma is beloved by the most sophisticated marketers for its easy-to-use A/B tests. Their templates range from the elaborate to straight-to-the-point options, and most are guaranteed to show up just fine on all kinds of mobile devices.
11. GraphicMail
If you’re looking for highly-visual email newsletter templates to really make your emails stand out in your prospects’ inbox, GraphicMail’s massive collection of options from highly talented designers may be your tool of choice. There’s no need to stick with your first pick, either – you simply pay a one-time membership fee for access to the collection.
12. Appetizer
Image credit: bashooka
It’s apparent that this responsive design template via ThemeForest is targeted to restaurant owners, but that’s no reason why the rest of us can’t benefit from it’s highly visual, picture-heavy layout.
13. Aqua
Image credit: envato
This pick has everything a small business needs from their newsletter templates – it’s responsive, socially-integrated, simple to customize, and affordable. It works well with both MailChimp and Campaign Monitor.
14. TimeOut
Image credit: timeout
Want the focus to truly be on your amazing content marketing? Then the simplicity and beauty of TimeOut, a visually-appealing but simple template might be just what you need. Like Aqua, it’s compatible with MailChimp and Campaign Monitor, and it’s been carefully tested on both major email platforms and mobile devices.
15. Journey
Image credit: bashooka
Hoping to start email marketing on a shoestring budget? Journey’s a great investment, considering it’s responsive and your purchase comes with free lifetime investments. As an added bonus, it’s design is both uber-modern and totally easy to personalize.
16. Storesletter
Image credit: oscarbarber
Need a template that’s “designed to sell?” This one’s almost guaranteed to be a hit among your audience. It’s one of the top-rated options on newsletter template hub ThemeForest, and you’re able to pick from 3 layouts and 4 color schemes.
17. GitHub
Savvy enough to hack a little HTML? Then head to Github, the world’s largest hub for code-sharing, and scope out the pre-made templates that are completely free for your use. You’ll likely need to experiment a bit before it’s ready to send, but you can’t beat the price!
18. AntWort
It’s an unfortunate fact that many responsive email newsletter templates aren’t designed to work on Microsoft Outlook, which is still one of the leading platforms. AntWort is the exception to this rule, allowing you to simply maximize your impact – no matter where your clients decide to open your content.
19. Market
Know exactly what you’d like your newsletter to look like, but having trouble finding the perfect template? Market is a highly customizable template-building tool, offering 8 different layouts, 24 design elements, and 28 color schemes, so you can design and re-design to your heart’s content.
20. Freshmail
Image credit: freshmail
This template is exactly what it sounds like, a breath of fresh air for the purists among us. It’s appearance is highly modern and minimalist, allowing you to shine the light on your content. It’s responsive, and can be customized.
To learn more about how to create engaging outreach, we recommend 24 Newsletter Content Ideas + Bonus Newsletter Idea Resources.