How to Create Email Newsletters Your Customers Will Want to Read and Share

Email newsletters are a great way to connect and engage with your customers and prospects. However, creating one, whether it is from scratch or with the use of templates, is not always that easy.

More often than not, you have to take into account a handful of items when putting an email newsletter. You have to make sure it is polished and flawless before it reaches your readers.

So how do you achieve that? Follow the steps below. Not only can this help you create email newsletters that your readers cannot get rid of, you will also be well-suited to take your email marketing game to the next level.

7 Effective Techniques for Writing Email Newsletters

#1: Step into the shoes of your customer

As with most things involving content, it is crucial to know your audience. Your audience holds the key to creating a successful email newsletter. It is neither your brand nor your offerings. When creating a newsletter, try to focus on the problems your customers are facing. Understand the challenges they have and provide resources and information to overcome them.

So how can your newsletter help them? While you can include offers, your newsletters should be valuable and useful to your readers. Include expert tips, how-to guides, tutorial, industry news and other relevant articles in the newsletter. When you get this right and create a truly helpful email, you will see your target audience engage with you and even share it across their circles.

#2: Craft an eye-catching subject line

One of the most overlooked items in an email newsletter is the subject line. No matter how great your email newsletter is, if the subject line is poorly written, no one will want to click on it. Concentrate on coming up with short, punchy subject lines that compel quickly. Be straightforward about what the email contains and communicate how it will be beneficial to the reader.

Similar to avoiding salesy language, shy away from caps lock, multiple exclamation points and other terminology – such as “free” or “limited time” – that could leave a spammy impression on your email. We put together the best tactics for writing a subject line here.

#3: Offer snackable bites of content

Try to consider how you usually read an email newsletter. Chances are, you will probably only spend a few seconds before deciding whether to read further or click the delete icon. And like most readers, you will probably skim rather than read the content.

By keeping your content easy-to-digest, you can catch your readers’ attention before they can even decide to hit delete. To make your email newsletter scannable, use bold headlines, bullet points, charts and a combination of text and images. Give as much information as you can using the least amount of space possible. Instead of including the entire blog post within the newsletter, take only snippets and link it back to the complete content on your website.

#4: Incorporate attention-grabbing images

We are visual creatures and stunning photos can be a great way to grab the readers’ attention fast. That said, spend time designing captivating images that not only conveys your brand story but also forges an emotional connection between you and your intended audience.

You will also want to use lots of white spaces and keep text to a minimum. This way, you make it easy and fun for your readers to scan your email. However, keep in mind that choosing the right images is as vital as writing good captions. While graphics play a big role, oftentimes you have to combine both elements in order to produce a high-quality content. As with anything, make sure that your newsletter is relevant and interesting to the people you are trying to target.

#5: Keep a consistent format

Format your design in a way that speaks to your customers. This means, your content should be relevant to the people you are targeting and that the design should be formatted in a way that accommodates their needs. For this reason, it is important to have a good customer relationship management (CRM) system that provides detailed information about your subscribers.

With a CRM system, not only can you keep customer information up to date, you can also track every interaction they have with your business. Through this data, you can gain a clear understanding of what your customers and prospects want to see and how they want to see it. This ultimately helps you develop a design that suits their needs.

#6: Balance information with promotion

A good rule of thumb is to maintain a balance of 10% promotional content and 90% informative, helpful content. Promoting your products or services is not entirely a bad thing as long as it does not dominate the email newsletter. If possible, send your offers in promo-specific emails. Remember, the point of a newsletter is not to make a sale but rather to foster a meaningful relationship with your customers.

Then, decide what you want your readers to do. Do you want them to share your blog post on their social media accounts? Download your free eBook? Whatever it is, make it easy for your readers to take action on your email. Since you cannot expect everyone to finish your entire email, consider mentioning your call to action a few times. You can put a CTA after each content block such as “Read More” or “Watch the Video” to prompt your readers to take action. Here are other guidelines when crafting a call to action.

#7: Explore, experiment and tweak

Staying attuned to what is working and not is essential to the success of your email campaign. Run frequent A/B tests, track your analytics, examine what works better and adjust accordingly. A few important elements you can test include subject lines, images, CTAs and design. Consider sending out trial emails to colleagues and friends for initial reactions. Get their feedback and use it to refine your content so that it can be more effective.

A well-crafted email newsletter is paramount to the success of your email marketing campaign. It can help establish your brand identity and improve awareness, which can result in a stronger customer base. 

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About Jeff Pulvino

JEFF is a digital marketing strategist, a business consultant and a serial entrepreneur who has built, managed and consulted with numerous corporations in various industries for 20+ years.

He is the co-founder and CEO of Boost Media Group, a full-service digital marketing agency based in Sacramento, CA. He also co-founded CoSource, a co-sourcing company that helps business owners build a high-quality, reliable virtual team for lower costs.

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