.png)
Last updated on
April 4, 2023
Whether you’re new to email marketing or have been around the block, you’ve likely heard of email newsletters.
Email newsletters are one of the best ways to not only provide value to your audience but also to encourage them to engage with your brand and buy your products.
In today's article, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about email newsletters, including what they are, give you a step-by-step checklist to create an effective one, and show you some great email newsletter examples you can learn from.
An email newsletter is an occasionally-sent email that informs your subscribers of the latest updates, tips, or information about your business, products, or services.
The information provided in a newsletter can be anything from in-depth guides, announcements about upcoming sales, or simply sharing a super inspiring quote that you think your audience will find useful.
The goal here is to engage your audience either by educating or entertaining them — and in so doing, getting them to keep coming back to your business.
Here are some of the benefits of creating an email newsletter for your business.
It’s estimated that there’ll be around 4.6 billion email users globally by 2025 — with the number already being well over 4.2 billion this year. That’s more than half the world’s population!
This means that email marketing is one of the marketing channels with the widest reach. No matter what industry you’re in, chances are, you can reach your target audience through email.
There are endless amount of online resources like StuDocu that provide hundreds of free educational materials covering all types of marketing — including email. You can access this material from anywhere to increase your knowledge and improve your business’s email marketing strategy.
In 2021, 86% of U.S. advertisers agreed that newsletters provide a vital connection point with customers. They offer you the opportunity to build relationships with your audience and get them to recognize your business as the ideal solution to their problem.
By adding unique content and design elements to your newsletter, you’ll differentiate yourself from competitors — which will give your audience a reason to choose you over them.
Make your newsletter emails unique and visually appealing by customizing them with free vector graphics and fonts.
Sharing your latest offers and content in your newsletter is a great way to indirectly advertise to your readers without coming across as “salesy.” Instead, you’re giving them value first. You’re investing in building a positive relationship with potential customers, so you have to focus on review management, gathered data, so that your newsletter is in accordance to your audience.
MOS is an excellent example of a startup that consistently offers value to its audience (students looking for affordable banking) by sharing useful, fresh content in its newsletters. This way, young adults looking for the student bank accounts get all the information they need, and view MOS as a reliable authority in the industry.
Newsletters work better for some businesses than others. Here’s a list of businesses that can benefit from newsletters.
Let’s get into our checklist (using a pre-send checklist helps brands improve email marketing ROI by 42%).
The first step is to choose an email newsletter software that suits your goals, technical skills, and budget. There are several different types of email marketing tools out there that offer tons of great features.
For example, Mailmunch is a complete email marketing solution for creating amazing newsletters, including email automation, premium email templates, advanced analytics, unlimited landing pages, and more.
Once you’ve chosen your software, you can go ahead and choose an email template that suits your needs and looks good.
The templates that you choose will depend on the type of business that you have, your customers, and the goal of the newsletter.
For example, if you want to announce an upcoming sale, you can choose a template like the ones shown below.
Luckily, Mailmunch offers 1,000+ great templates for different occasions and business types — so you’re guaranteed to find one that’ll work really well for your business.
After you’ve selected a template, you can customize it to suit your brand. Make sure that your newsletter visually transmits what the email is about. Use Mailmunch to customize the templates according to your requirements.
To make your newsletter unique to your brand, you can add:
If you want to take it a step further, you can include interactive elements in your email. A survey conducted by Dyspatch shows that 60% of people are likely to engage with interactive emails.
Alt text appears when a picture isn’t loaded. Since not all email providers are equal, your images may sometimes take longer to load. In this case, it’s great to have alt text so that your readers know what they’re looking at, even if the image isn’t there.
Also, make sure that your email looks great in plain text as not all email providers display HTML properly. The best practice is to look at your specific email provider’s features and send test emails frequently to make sure that all your text, images, and buttons are visible and functioning correctly.
Related Guide: HTML vs. Plain Text Email: Which Works Better in 2022?
Personalizing your newsletter is the key to making it stand out and driving more clicks/conversions.
Personalization comes in many forms — from catering your emails to different audiences and their interests, to adding subscribers' first names in subject lines and content, and more.
For example, the company Tempest often takes a personal angle in its emails. It addresses the specific issues that its audience segments are facing and talks to them about these issues like they’re long-time friends.
This approach helped the company 10x their email click-through rate.
To create click-worthy email subject lines, you need to try out different things. Generally, subject lines that have fewer words have higher open rates. In fact, a study conducted by Invespcro found that subject lines with 6–10 words have the highest open rate.
For example, boutique Scented candle manufacturer Otherland introduces its subscribers to three new candles with the subject line “3 Scents for Summer: the Beach Club Collection is here!”
The subject line alone tells a story about the product and entices the readers to open the email to learn more.
If they instead used something uninspired like, “we’re launching 3 new candles for summer,” it changes the entire mood of the email. Don’t be afraid to get creative, but always keep your brand’s positioning and target audience in mind (i.e. don’t make millennial jokes if you’re selling insurance to middle-aged businessmen).
Furthermore, subject lines that include the recipient’s name have an 18.30% open rate, whereas subject lines without the recipient’s name have a 15.70% open rate.
Try out different subject lines and perform A/B tests to identify which types of headlines drive the most engagement.
After you’ve created your campaign and finalized all the content and design elements, you can launch it. Be sure to bring attention to the newsletter through your website and social media marketing so that more people will sign up.
If you don’t have a lot of subscribers yet, you can leverage lead magnets to build your email list.
Learn how to create super-effective lead magnets that convert like crazy.
Keep an eye on your newsletter to see how it’s performing. Look at which emails in your newsletter performed the best and which subject lines had a better open rate.
For the best results, you need to set up metrics and KPIs for your email newsletter campaigns to determine whether you’re reaching your goals and to identify any problem areas that need to be addressed.
Here’s a list of four great email newsletter examples.
Subject line: This FREE eBook has the secret to scaling your agency!
Copy: The copy in this email was written with the intent to “sell” the free eBook to readers by including more information about its contents and how it’ll help readers’ agencies grow.
Design: The striking image of the eBook cover, bright and big eBook title, and smaller descriptive text create a design hierarchy that leads the reader’s eye straight to the CTA button.
CTA: “Download it now!” encourages the reader to download the eBook right away.
Subject line: Last Chance: Get $100 Off Accessories With Your Bike Purchase
Copy: The copy used in this e-newsletter is concise and straight to the point. It announces a special limited offer where customers can get money off when they purchase a bike.
Design: The red “Limited Time Offer” banner at the top of the email creates a sense of urgency since readers know that the offer will expire soon. The image used in the email also shows the product in action — which helps the user visualize themselves using it.
CTA: The call to action “Get the bike” is straight to the point and tells readers exactly what to do next.
Subject line: Something new is launching tomorrow.
Copy: The copy in this email does an excellent job of piquing the reader’s curiosity. The tone is so casual and relatable that readers can’t help but be intrigued by the “mystery product.”
Design: The image used in this email almost resembles a puzzle (or a “guess this pokemon” outline) which supports the message all the more.
CTA: Though this newsletter doesn’t have a direct CTA, the reader knows that they need to read the next day’s email to discover the new product.
Subject line: Are you doing THIS after you shave?
Copy: Instead of trying to sell something, this email adds value to customers’ lives by informing them about the right post-shave routine.
Design: The email has a lot of white space and comes across as simple and clean — which supports the message of a cleanly shaved face perfectly.
CTA: The call to action “Follow these steps” guides people to the blog post that they can read on Harry’s website.
Email newsletters are ideal for businesses to disseminate information about their brand, and consequently, build trust with their customers. Moreover, newsletters provide a wide range of coverage which means you can attract more customers to your business with exquisite and insightful newsletters.
Hence, newsletters are an essential part of any email marketing campaign, and thus, shouldn’t be dispensed with or thought of as an afterthought. But rather, they should be carefully planned and designed to meet the requirements of your business.
A voracious reader and a music lover, Ammar has been writing engaging and informative content for over 3 years for B2B and B2C markets. With a knack for writing SEO-optimized content, Ammar ensures the results speak for themselves.
Tags:
Ayesha Ejaz
December 2, 2024
Ayesha Ejaz
November 25, 2024
Ayesha Ejaz
November 21, 2024
