9 Tips to Create the Perfect Email Newsletter

Whether sharing the latest content with your ideal prospects or promoting the latest sales campaign, email marketing is integral to every well-thought-out marketing campaign.

An email newsletter is a powerful marketing mechanism that enables you to build, nurture and monetize your email subscribers at scale.

However, devising successful email campaigns is no walk in the park for most businesses and email marketers. From crafting irresistible subject lines that pique the reader’s curiosity to coming up with engaging content that maximizes conversions, everything needs careful attention.

In this blog post, we share nine easy-to-follow tips to boost your email marketing strategy so that regardless of the email marketing software in use, your email marketing campaigns shine through with better inbox deliverability, higher engagement, and increased revenue.

9 Tips for Crafting a Winning Email Newsletter

When it comes to email marketing, the small things matter. Get these right, and your email campaigns will already be on the road to success.

Here are the nine essential email marketing tips for creating newsletters that stand out:

Craft Enticing Subject Lines

With good email marketing practices and a decent email service provider, you're more likely to land in a subscriber’s inbox instead of their spam folder. However, it’s the subject line that’ll get your email read.

Create an enticing subject line that’ll pique curiosity or raise desire in the reader enough to open your email. You could present a clear benefit, create a sense of urgency or ask a relevant question.

Example:

3 tips for effective subject lines:

1. Inject psychological triggers such as urgency, scarcity, and exclusivity to get more email opens;
2. Personalize email subject lines with the recipient's name for a more personalized touch;
3. Keep your subject lines short (5-7 words) for maximum impact.

Additionally, a creative approach would be to change the email sender's name and analyze the open rates.

Unleash the Power of Personalization

Personalizing your emails means tailoring the content and its messaging to closely match each subscriber’s desires, wants, and needs. Personalization is only possible when you collect data about preferences, behaviors, demographics, and more from your email subscribers.

Personalizing your email in just the right amount can foster a strong bonding with your subscribers, raising engagement and click-through rates. Consider working with a Digital Marketing Agency if you lack the internal resources or expertise to help you develop targeted email campaigns.

Example:

Look at Chico’s email below congratulating the subscriber for getting into their loyalty program. It captures the attention since the first name personalization is used effectively in the headline.

3 tips for email personalization:

1. 'Utilize custom fields in your email marketing tool to gather relevant data during the sign-up process;' taken from BagManufacturer, the best bag maker in China.
2. Use the segmentation capabilities of your email newsletter software to create highly focused groups based on common characteristics, likes, and interests. You can then target these groups through campaigns that speak to them about what interests them most.
3. Keep them guessing by not repeating patterns. For example, don’t personalize using the prospect’s first name in the subject lines for all emails.

Weave Magic with Storytelling

Everyone loves a captivating story. Use your email newsletter to present relatable experiences, spotlight customer success stories, or share personal or business anecdotes. In other words, create newsletters that convey emotion.

A picture is worth a thousand words. So, go ahead if the story you wish to convey is best conveyed through an image.

A well-narrated story captures the reader’s attention and makes your content more memorable, besides building trust and credibility.

Example:

Look at online liquor retailer Drizly’s email that helps them to share the origin story behind the brand’s main product.

3 tips for better storytelling impact:

1. Start your email with a captivating headline that hooks the reader;
2. Use descriptive language to bring your stories to life;
3. Include a relevant image, especially if it is a real picture, not a stock image.

Conquer the Mobile Screen

Approximately 60% of all traffic worldwide is mobile, so your email newsletter is more likely to be opened on a mobile device than on a desktop.

Using mobile-friendly layouts, font sizes, and images is key to keeping your email newsletter accessible on screens other than desktops and laptops.

The easiest way to develop responsive email designs would be to edit the html email templates that your email marketing platform comes with. Most email marketing tools also feature a drag-and-drop builder to help you create newsletters from scratch.

Example:

3 tips for more mobile-friendly designs:

1. Use a single-column design layout with larger font sizes (16px or higher) and bigger sizes call-to-action (CTA) buttons for a better user experience;
2. Compress and optimize images for faster loading times;
3. Seeing the mobile layout on your design screen isn’t enough — test by sending it to a test email address and then checking the email from a mobile device. Pay attention to your deck design, ensuring it is visually appealing and easy to navigate, particularly on smaller screens.

Use a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

A call-to-action (CTA) is a specific, persuasive instruction given to the reader through hyperlinked text or a clickable button, nudging them to take a desired action. Using an optimized CTA in your emails will improve customer engagement and drive higher conversion rates.

The desired action could be anything from signing up for an online webinar to downloading a resource. It's essential to create a clear CTA especially when you've sent your newsletter to potential clients and found them through an email address finder.

Example:

Look at Pitch’s announcement and update email below, where the call to action (“See what’s new”) is fully aligned with the context of the email.

3 tips to compose high-converting CTAs:

1. Make your CTA visually prominent by increasing the font size (for text CTAs) or by using contrasting colors, big-sized buttons, and optimal placements in your email design;
2. Keep your CTA contextual by making it speak to your audience in the same language as the rest of your email newsletter. For example, say, “Download this life-changing user guide here” instead of just “Download now”;
3. Inject urgency by giving your readers a solid reason why they must take action now. Examples include limited availability of offer or a time-limited promotion.

Don’t Forget the Design

Your email design plays a crucial role in engaging your target audience and conveying your message effectively. The easiest way to nail it would be to choose and edit any premade high-converting email newsletter template inside your email marketing software.

Example:

Look at the below webinar announcement email from Filtered that looks visually stunning yet doesn’t compromise on readability.

3 tips for eye-catching email designs:

1. Use high-quality GIFs and images in your emails but also ensure that they are highly relevant to the context of your emails;
2. Prioritize readability by choosing web-safe fonts and bigger font sizes and ensuring sufficient contrast between the text and background colors;
3. Test different visual elements, including layouts and designs, to understand what works, then standardize that design as your go-to email newsletter template. You can use an AI logo generator or logo maker app to create different logo versions for different purposes within the newsletter, including a header logo, footer logo, or watermark, and see which version resonates best with your audience within the email newsletter.

If you’re not a designer at heart, and email design overwhelms you, opt for an email template with a simple and minimalist design.

Elevate Trust with Social Proof

Including social proof elements in your email newsletter can help build believability, trust, and credibility with your subscriber base. These can be customer testimonials, media mentions, user shoutouts to your brand on social media platforms, and more.

The right type of social proof can destroy any objections your prospect might have towards your product or offer, bringing them closer to a sale.

Example:

Look at the below email from One Trick Pony, which has showcased top product reviews to help prospective customers to take the leap of faith.

3 tips for using social proof the right way in your email marketing:

• Use specific and relevant social proof. If you're promoting a group mastermind, sharing photos from your most recent cohort can promote a greater sense of community;
• Place your social proof prominently and strategically near any call-to-action elements to influence the desired action better;
• Hint about it in the email subject line. For example, “Here’s how Jason lost 20 pounds by sleeping in”.

Social proof doesn’t just increase the positive reputation of your brand, but it is powerful because it connects with your prospects emotionally. The more people see that others have already taken a particular action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service, the more likely they are to do so themselves.

Automate Your Email Marketing

Marketing automation and CRM is a game-changer for email marketers allowing them to send targeted, personalized, and fully automated email messages to prospects based on specific triggers and events. This is especially important if you plan to organize events and market it to your email prospects.

Popular tools like Eventbrite and alternatives to Eventbrite are all capable of managing your email campaigns to get most out of your efforts. For even more advanced outreach, consider cold email tools for agencies like Quickmail, which help automate and optimize your campaigns for better results.

Email automation is a real game-changer, saving you tons of time and letting you hit up your prospects when they're most likely to be interested. With the right tools, finding email addresses, writing your message, and sending emails in mass don't have to be a headache.

Just a few examples of email automation sequences:

1. Welcome Series: This is an email sequence sent to new subscribers to introduce your brand, set expectations, and share resources to help them take their next steps;
2. Abandoned Cart Recovery: This is an email sequence that aims to persuade customers who’ve left their online carts to come back and complete their purchases;
3. Post-Purchase Follow-up: This one is sent automatically after a customer purchases. The idea is to thank them, request feedback and upsell or downsell them on related product recommendations.

3 tips for maximizing conversions using email marketing automation:

1. Segment your audience into focused groups based on interests, demographics, and more before running custom automation flows on them;
2. Provide personalized product recommendations based on customer purchase history and browsing behavior;
3. Include personalized elements such as email signature design in your automated emails to enhance engagement with your audience. For easier access, include a link in bio to make it simple for them to participate and share their thoughts.

Most email marketing tools, including free newsletter software, support marketing automation capabilities. You can also use tools to collect the addresses. You can implement a LinkedIn email finder to find the right emails. Ensure you leverage it to maximize your engagement, conversions, returns on investment (ROI), and profits.

Let Data Drive Your Success

Using data-driven insights as your compass to scale, grow, and succeed is crucial. Insights will stem from constantly monitoring and analyzing key email metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, and more, to identify patterns and preferences among your email subscribers.

Most modern email newsletter software tools allow you to dive deeper into campaign data and its analytics.

3 tips for data-driven email campaigns:

1. Always start with clear campaign goals and objectives. Whether you desire to increase conversions, increase engagement, or nurture leads, you need a clear goal to guide your email marketing strategy;
2. Get rid of non-performing segments and replace them with newer ones;
3. Use A/B testing to determine the most winning version of your email newsletter. Test different elements (one variable at a time) and analyze the results to optimize your campaigns for better results.

Overall, data-driven insights empower marketers to make informed decisions and optimize their email marketing efforts for higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.

Keys to Email Newsletter Success

Crafting a successful email newsletter needs a thoughtful and structured approach.

Whether you are a marketer offering an email marketing service or a business owner trying to figure this out for yourself, here are three key takeaways to help you with your campaigns:

• Walk in Your Prospect’s Shoes: Identity what would interest them, provide value, and motivate them to take action, and your email campaigns will sort themselves out;
• Test, Analyze, Optimize: Test at every available opportunity and use the data to keep your email newsletter campaigns moving forward;
• Play the Long-term Game: Forget about the quick sale. Have your email newsletter forge enduring relationships through constant contact with your potential and current customers.

By following the nine email marketing tips and newsletter examples outlined above, you should be able to create impactful email newsletters that increase profits and promote stronger customer relationship management.