Businesses around the world are increasingly using newsletters and email marketing services to build brand identity, drive traffic to their websites, and boost sales. Email marketing gives an average return on investment of US$40 for each dollar invested. Therefore it’s not surprising that businesses are investing considerable time and effort to create informative and interesting emails and sending them across to their target audience.
At PeddleWeb, one of the fastest digital advertising and email marketing companies in India, we provide professional email marketing services to all types of businesses. In this blog post, we discuss ten effective steps to create compelling newsletters and provide valuable information and insights to the target audience.
- Determine the content and segment the list
First thing first, determine what the newsletter content will be and segment the target audience into separate lists. This is the best way to run targeted campaigns. Some people may want to read whitepapers. Some may be interested in a webinar. Some may be interested to participate in surveys.
- Market the newsletter
After deciding the content and segmenting various recipients make sure that the newsletters reach the right audience. The simplest way to do it is to inform them about its existence and encourage them to sign-up for it. For that, find out the value the newsletter can add to recipients’ lives and let them know that. Create plain online banner ads and market them using social network platforms.
- Design a template
A template with a drag and drop feature is perfect for a newsletter. Using it, senders can pre-create newsletter templates and save a lot of time and effort. With some minor formatting and altering names, they can send emails to as many people as they want. Apart from simplifying newsletters creation, templates also enable senders to maintain consistency in their communication. It is best to keep the design as simple as possible.
- Create a visually appealing layout
When it comes to the newsletter’s layout, make sure it is visually appealing. Show your best creativity by using an attractive color scheme to elicit emotions. Blue brings out feelings of loyalty and trust. Green denotes freshness and growth. Orange gives the vibe of warmth and fun. A professional email marketing company will help in finding out which colors are most suitable for your email newsletters. Use high-resolution pictures, illustrations, and visual elements.
- Create a creative subject line
Craft a compelling and creative subject line that would entice the receivers to open the mail and read the newsletter. Start with a verb and infuse excitement in the content. Avoid capital letters and spammy words such as ‘act now,’ ‘reminder,’ ‘limited time,’ and ‘free.’ Avoid too much punctuation and ensure the character count remain less than 50. Don’t promote and use humor and be reasonable.
- Craft appealing and engaging content
Some studies show that the most effective newsletters are about 200 words, or 20 lines of text, long. With the limited word count, it is necessary to be crisp and clear with the content. Be a wordsmith while creating content for a newsletter and aim to make it interesting and engaging to the readers. Use subheadings whenever possible. Avoid overcrowding and use the white spaces liberally.
- Provide unique and valuable information
Even though using a template is important to save time and increase efficiency, it must not compromise the uniqueness, originality, and usefulness of the newsletter. The content must be original, engaging, creative, and provide valuable information. If possible, provide value to readers by crafting content that needs extensive research or replete with unique information that is not easy to find.
- Format for mobile users
Amid the growing use of mobile devices for accessing the internet, formatting newsletters for mobile devices is the need of the hour. While creating a newsletter, use a responsive web design to fit the content to various screen sizes. Use larger fonts and other attractive visual elements. Avoid using a large block of text. Test user experience before sending emails to the intended recipients. Create multiple copies of the newsletter and perform A/B testing with each to find out the best one for mobile devices.
- Remain consistent
When it comes to email marketing, consistency is the key. Set a weekly or monthly schedule that works for you. By that, the recipients will know when to expect the newsletter and many will look forward to it. However, stick to the newsletter publishing schedule no matter what as failing to commit it will send the wrong signal to readers. Apart from the timing, be consistent with the content quality. Make sure to be consistent in efforts and timing which will yield effective results in the long run.
- Provide compelling and necessary call-to-action
A well-crafted newsletter without a definite call-to-action is like a ship without a rudder. It may well attempt to take readers on a literary journey but will lack direction and end up confusing them. It is extremely crucial to add compelling and necessary call-to-action in the newsletter to encourage readers to take the desired action. Call-to-action must be compelling with short and crisp content. You can use more than one call-to-action depending on the requirements. Communicate with readers by using the first-person pronoun and make the communication clear. If possible, create a sense of urgency. Try to use buttons instead of text or links.
Taking everything into account
Owing to its high return on investment and extremely targeted approach, email marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies. At PeddleWeb, we have helped many businesses gain new customers and boost revenues with our email marketing services. If you are looking to engage your target audience and turn them into paying customers, newsletters and email marketing is the right way to do that. Contact us today to know how we can help.
