7 Keys to Creating a Great Email Newsletter

Even though we live in the social media age, a great email newsletter is still important. In fact, email offers an ROI of around 4,300% according to the Direct Marketing Association.

Email marketing also makes it easy to measure the performance of your campaigns so it should be a key component in any marketing strategy. In this post, we’ll share how you can create a great email newsletter and make your subscribers eager to receive your regular emails.

1. Use the Right Platform

The first step towards creating a great email marketing newsletter is to pick an email management tool. A few examples include MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, Drip, InfusionSoft, ConvertKit, and others.

Some platforms offer a free plan, while others offer a free trial so take advantage of that and get familiar with all the features that the platform offers.

You’ll then need to focus on building your email list and making sure they have opted in to comply with all the applicable email marketing laws. Using a double-optin is a great way to ensure you have their permission to email them.

Keep in mind that it’s more important to focus on acquiring quality subscribers instead of focusing on quantity. Having a small list of people who engage with your emails and buy your products or programs is better than having thousands of subscribers who barely open your emails.

2. Develop an Email Content Strategy and Identify Your Audience

Once you’ve found an email marketing platform that meets your needs, you need to develop your email content strategy. Start by identifying your audience and getting familiar with what is relevant to them.

Once you know what type of content resonates with them, writing a relevant email is a lot easier. One of the best ways to guide your email content creation is to think about how you can add value to your audience.

Adding value will help ensure that they look forward to your regular emails and open them on a regular basis. It will also build trust which in turn will help turn your subscribers into clients and customers.

3. Write Catchy Subject Lines

The first thing your subscribers will see when your email lands in their inbox is the subject line. Subject lines are incredibly important and need to capture their attention and pique their curiosity or else they won’t read the contents of your email.

According to examples in an Entrepreneur article about email subject lines, it’s a good idea to include your business name in the subject line. Using words like

“Free delivery”, “Upgrade”, “Available”, and similar can also have a positive impact on open rates.

4. Give Them a Reason to Read

Your emails should give your subscribers a reason to open them and read them. There are several ways to do this:

• Promote your latest blog articles in your email newsletter to bring your subscribers back to your website
• Offer them coupons, promotions or discounts to encourage them to make a purchase
• Give them exclusive access to new freebies, white papers or case studies without making them re-opt in
• Use email marketing to invite your subscribers to seminars, webinars, and other events
• Send them special marketing campaigns like advent calendars or yearly calendars
• Highlight products that are on sale or use email as an opportunity to drive attention to less-performing products and boost sales
• Share stories about your brand, company or employees to add a more human touch to your brand and show the people behind the brand.

5. Optimize Emails for Mobile

In today’s day and age of prevalent mobile use, your email campaigns and newsletters have to be optimized for mobile. According to statistics, 61.9% of email opens occurred on mobile, 9.8% on desktop and 28.3% in a webmail client. – Adestra “Top 10 email clients” (July 2019).

Luckily, almost every email marketing provider allows you to see how your emails will look on mobile devices before sending them.

6. Make Sure Your Emails Include Links to Your Website

Whether you’re sending out a regular newsletter or a promotional campaign, emails are a great way to drive traffic back to your website as well as increase product sales.

According to research, 68% of millennials stated that promotional emails influenced their buying decisions.

When you take that statistic into consideration, it’s easy to see why your emails should include a link to your latest product, promotion or a blog post.

Another example comes from one of our local clients. We sent out an email newsletter for one of our local clients and they had a $3,000 bump in orders at one location from the promotion. Multiply that x5 locations and that’s over $15,000 increase in revenue from one strategic email.

Your emails can also help you improve event registrations. Your email list consists of people who are highly interested in what you have to offer and who will be more likely to sign up and attend your events than random users on Facebook who saw your event ad for the first time.

7. What Are the Best Times to Send Email Campaigns?

A simple answer to the above question is this: send or schedule your email campaigns and newsletters to go out when your readers are most likely to ready your email.

According to MailJet, “[…] If you work in the B2B sector, you should send your newsletter during regular working hours. Peak times are usually between 10 and 11 AM, and between 3 and 4 PM. If your business model is B2C, then you should send during the week between 6 and 9 PM, and on weekends.”

The above is a great starting point, however, do take into consideration your own audience. Try experimenting with different send times and keep an eye on your open rates. Then, adjust accordingly.

For example, if you notice that more of your emails are getting open on a Thursday after 11AM, then plan your future email campaigns for that time.

What’s Next?

Email marketing is one of the best ways to build and improve a relationship with potential clients and customers. As such, email should definitely be a part of your marketing strategy. If you don’t have time to do your own email marketing, we can do it for you. Contact us today and let’s make a plan for your email marketing strategy.