How to Create an Email Newsletter That People Will Want to Read

Creating an online newsletter can be a tough process. If you lack the support internally it makes collecting content a nightmare. Everyone has an opinion and every department wants their content to be the “highlighted” piece. Call-to-actions accumulate, articles get longer and you end up with a bulky bulletin that’s looks inconsistent, cluttered and unfocussed.

Below are our 3 top tips for creating a successful newsletter:

1. What is the goal of your email newsletter?

First of all you must decide whether or not you really need a newsletter. Think about what you want to achieve and if you have enough content available. A newsletter is an extension of your existing communication filled with announcements about product updates, offers, events and general news about the company. It’s not an enormous promotional email dedicated to one topic, promotion or event packed with extra content “to pad it out”. If you feel that you can’t provide enough valuable content or that the newsletter is centered on only one promotion or event, then you should consider designing an independent email marketing campaign instead to support these marketing objectives.

2. Information Overload:

There are two common errors that are associated with content:

• Too much information:

We can’t stress enough that your newsletter should be scannable so keep your design and copy minimal. Include subheadings and images to guide readers through the information, while text should be concise and to the point with a strong call-to-action directing readers to the relevant web or landing page.

• Too much unrelated info:

Newsletters are usually filled with news spanning across all areas of the business making it a difficult task trying to group articles together. Our advice is to create master sections made up of relevant sub-headings. Instead of placing a product launch and new office opening piece between a marriage announcement and a feature about a new addition to the team, why not create a section called “Our people” to deal with all employee related info and then another section called “Business Expansion” to deal with company news.

3. User friendly and consistent design

Your design should be consistent with lots of white spacing, making it attractive and easy to read. By following a regular structure, readers will become familiar with the lay-out and each edition will become easier to navigate. The key is to make it as convenient as possible for readers to find the sections that interest them the most so that they don’t get lost and frustrated in the sea of information.

And finally, ensure to assign alt tags to all images. If recipients have images disabled, then the alt tag will help communicate the message even if the images cannot.