How To Write Email Newsletters That People Actually Want To Read

It is ideal for businesses to have an email newsletter because it is an effective means to reach their target audience in a more personal manner. Email marketing campaigns can deliver stable returns on investment when backed by a strong strategy.

In fact, a two-month 2019 survey by Hubspot showed a steady increase in email engagement according to 78% of the marketers over the last 12 months. Moreover, email newsletters just like a drip campaign can also provide other value-added benefits to consumers.

What is a newsletter?

A newsletter is one of the tools that can be used by businesses and organizations to provide their network of customers, subscribers, and prospects with relevant and valuable information.

You might ask why bother writing an email newsletter anyway? Actually, this will give businesses direct access to the inbox of their audience so that they are able to share engaging content, drive traffic, and promote sales.

How to write a newsletter?

It is important to learn the basics of how to write a good newsletter before going into the practical details.  Thus, here are simple tips to write a newsletter.

• Write by making people want to read it
• Make sure to fix your open rates
• Practice consistency in your delivery
• Keep it short and simple

A step-by-step guide to writing a successful newsletter is presented below.

1. Figure out the things you want to share
2. Write a draft just as you are writing to a specific individual
3. Review the draft you have made
4. Send the draft of the newsletter to about 10% to 15% of your subscribers
5. After knowing that everything you sent is okay, send the newsletter to your email list

You could use part of the title as your subject line, like Curie, source

What are email newsletter best practices?

As a cornerstone of any email marketing strategy, the creation of an email newsletter can aid businesses and enterprises to gain valuable benefits. Thus, it is important to ensure that your newsletter will suit to reach the targeted recipients.

So, this must focus on the key elements of creating an eye-catching newsletter.

• Headers
• Logos
• Images
• Content layout
• Personalized content

Since your content is highly relevant to your audience and must provide immediate value, you have to keep them informed on the latest industry trends or provide them with tips or insights on a specific topic.

What are B2B email newsletter best practices?

Remember that the best email newsletters can help you in converting new leads into paying customers. Since the business-to-business marketing approach will target the interests, needs, and challenges of individuals making purchases in behalf of their organization, customers are looking for long-term solutions.

This will result in a longer sales cycle, longer relationships, and longer contracts with companies. There are about 93% of b2b marketers who use emails which means it is one effective tool in reaching the target market.

Review successful newsletter examples

Successful newsletters serve a number of purposes. Among them is the possibility to increase awareness, create a sense of stability and commitment, or provide basic information for a project.

However, it is also important to note the limitations of a newsletter even if it has become an effective part of the educational strategy of the project. In fact, surveys show that people don’t do a thorough read and only tend to scan local news or interesting information bites.

You can avoid this from happening by reviewing successful newsletter examples. Try to look at some examples from the inside and outside of your industry that really work for your advantage.

Does an email newsletter benefit your business?

It is not wise to use an email newsletter that will not fit your marketing campaign because it will only waste your precious time. You can do some research first to determine the need to engage in using an email newsletter.

You may ask a number of helpful questions to serve as a guide.

• Do people like to subscribe to email newsletters in your industry?
• What’s inside these successful newsletters?
• Can you be successful with the budget, internal support, and time is given to you?

Determine the kind of newsletter you want to send

Most of the time, email newsletters are cluttered and unfocused due to the fact that they support each aspect of the business. One way of fixing this is to use one common thread to hold it together such as an email drip campaign.

That’s why you need to keep it to one very specific topic. You can focus on a topic that is vertical but not generally about your company. For instance, you can offer a specific newsletter for people who are interested in cats instead of writing everything about pets.

This will give you an opportunity to get more engagement because the niche will be aligned with a specific interest.

A template with drag & drop functionality, source

Balance the content of your newsletter as 90% educational and as 10% promotional

Note that email newsletter subscribers are not 100% interested in your products and services every time. You can do this by getting rid of self-promotion all the time and instead focus on sending your subscribers some educational, relevant, and timely information.

Set expectations on your subscribe page

From your Subscribe page, you have to ensure that you are communicating properly about the focus of your newsletter and the content balance. On this part, you have to tell potential subscribers exactly about the content of the newsletter.

This should also include the frequency of your newsletter to reach your subscribers. From the subscriber’s perspective, it can help to determine the source, the content, and how often the email will be sent.

From the marketer’s standpoint, having this type of information upfront will aid in diminishing your spam and unsubscribe rates.

Get creative with email subject lines

When your subscribers sign up for your emails, take note that it is not a guarantee that they will open your emails after receiving them in their inbox. In fact, many marketers use the same information in the subject line as they try to increase familiarity with their subscribers.

Remember that subject lines get old for subscribers due to the fact that there is no immediate incentive when they click on a specific email. That’s why you need to have a different, creative, and engaging subject line for every newsletter you send.

Pick one primary call-to-action

Instead of making a newsletter with a number of calls to action, only use one head call-to-action. You only have to consider the rest as options. But make it simple for your subscribers to know what you really want them to do.

Keep design and copy minimal

Avoid making your readers feel confused due to a newsletter’s cluttered design.

• You have to make a concise copy to give your subscribers a taste of what you are offering, which leads them to click and learn more.
• Having enough white space is also key in email newsletters to help them become more visually clutter-free, making it much easier for them to click the right link.

Make sure images have alt text

Understandably, email marketers would want to include visual content in the email newsletter. But that can be an issue, particularly when people have disabled images in the email.

Therefore, you have to consider the essential component, which is the ‘alt text’. This is what appears when images are not loaded in the email. This will also be useful if you are using images as calls-to-action to ensure people will click even if images are disabled.

Make it easy for people to unsubscribe

Needless to say, you would certainly want to maintain an active and engaged subscriber list. But this can be challenging or even counter-intuitive particularly if you are going to use weird language.

Instead, make sure that your unsubscribe button is not hidden behind an image without an alt text. You must have a clear unsubscribe process to ensure your email is not marked as spam before it reaches the inbox of your list, aside from keeping your email list healthy.

Wrapping up

It is important to note that the best email newsletters focus on design, content, and value.

Moreover, it should be easy to navigate and should have clear calls-to-action driving readers back to the website in order to engage with the conversion landing pages. So, it is not just all about how to write a newsletter email, but it is how you tailor your newsletter to the needs of the targeted recipients.

About the Author

Yulia Zubova is an Outreach Specialist from Snov.io and has a passion for writing.