Creating an email newsletter is one of the most effective ways to use an email marketing strategy. Email marketing can help you build a long-term relationship with your customers while generating the best ROI of any marketing channel.

Email newsletters typically make up the most significant portion of all marketing emails sent, and almost any type of business can benefit from creating a newsletter. Plus, building an email newsletter can be completely free! If you want to make an email newsletter but don’t know how to do it, you’ve come to the right place.  

In this article, we’ll look at what an email newsletter is, why you need an email newsletter, and the best practices to know about creating your newsletter.

What Is an Email Newsletter?

An email newsletter is a type of email sent by businesses or individuals to a list of subscribers regularly, such as weekly or monthly. Email newsletters are a popular way for companies to provide informative content to subscribers, such as guides, blog posts, news, product reviews, personal recommendations, tips, announcements, and other resources.

Email newsletters allow companies to maintain contacts, share ideas, and highlight new products that will drive traffic to the website. According to a 2020 study by Content Marketing Institute, 81% of business-to-business marketers say their most used form of content marketing is the email newsletter.

Why Do You Need an Email Newsletter?

Email newsletters are one of the most popular ways to stay in touch with subscribers regularly, which keeps you in mind to increase your chances of converting them into customers. Here are some of the main benefits of sending an email newsletter:  

A constant source of traffic

Well-designed and regularly sent email newsletters guarantee constant traffic to your website. 

More effective and affordable than other channels

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels because it is much more cost-effective than traditional media such as print products and offers an excellent return on investment. 

Your subscribers will receive email newsletters wherever they are on their smartphones. And if your newsletter contains relevant content, you’ll increase your chances of them clicking on the calls to action (CTAs) to get more information.

Easy and accurate performance tracking

You can easily measure the engagement rate of your activity by tracking key performance indicators such as open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, bounces, the device used to open the newsletter, when it opened, Etc.  Actively measuring the performance of an email newsletter allows you to adapt your content to the demand while keeping an eye on your ROI.

A high ROI 

Email marketing has the highest ROI (return on investment) of any form of marketing, with an average of $36 return for every dollar spent.

Learn More: Email Marketing: Beginner’s Ultimate Guide

How to Create a Successful Newsletter in 8 Steps? 

Step 1. Determine The Objectives of Your Newsletter 

Before creating a newsletter, you need to define your objectives and why you want to create one. Setting goals gives your email newsletter campaign a purpose and helps you measure the performance of your efforts.  You can create effective newsletters to drive traffic to your website, increase sales, build better relationships with your customers, create a loyal audience for your content, Etc.

Identify a target audience.

A clear idea of your target audience and their needs is essential to creating newsletters that fit your purpose. Identifying your target audience helps you understand what type of content you should send to your subscribers—exclusive offers, blogger content, promotional offers, updates, Etc.

Step 2. Choose The Right Email Service Provider (ESP)

Before you start creating email newsletters, you need to find a newsletter solution that allows you to create, send and analyze email campaigns. There are many professional newsletter solutions on the market, and finding the best email platform for your business will depend on your business needs. 

To choose the right email service provider (ESP), you need to know the most necessary features you can expect from it. 

What Features Should You Look for in A Professional Email Marketing Software?

The email service provider (ESP) you choose should be able to provide:

– An easy workflow for creating engaging and attractive campaigns.

– A drag-and-drop email editor to easily create newsletters in minutes.

– An extensive gallery of responsive newsletter templates. Make sure your emails display well on smartphones by using optimized newsletter templates. 

– Integrations with other platforms like WordPress, e-commerce platforms, Etc.

– Optimal deliverability rates to ensure your newsletters arrive in the inbox.

– Analytics on your campaign, including open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates;

– GDPR compliance and other certifications ensure the highest data security levels.

– Structured and clear contact management options allow you to manage your contact lists easily.

– Detailed statistics that allow you to analyze and optimize your newsletter.

– A/B tests to test your email campaigns.

Step 3. Create Your Newsletter Email Lists

You obviously need to have an email contact list to send a newsletter. So you need to create an email list. Your email list should include people who have signed up and given explicit consent, usually through a signup form, to receive digital marketing communications from your brand. 

Receiving consent from your prospects to leave you their email address not only helps with email deliverability but is also required by the GDPR.

 There are many ways to grow your email lists, the most common of which are creating direct marketing tools, such as signup forms and newsletter landing pages. You can also promote on your social media platforms, encouraging people to sign up for your newsletter.

Note: Don’t buy email lists, as this will reduce your authority as a sender and result in only low deliverability rates.

Step 4. Create an Email Signup Form for Your Website

One of the easiest ways to grow your contact list is to create an email signup form to capture subscribers from your website traffic. When creating your email signup form, consider the following: 

Clarity:

Before people sign up for your email list, you need to tell them precisely what they are signing up for, what they can expect from your email newsletters, and how often they will receive them. Setting clear expectations also helps you create a more engaged customer list.

You can add details that indicate what type of content they subscribe to and how often they receive it directly into your newsletter signup form. For example, you can specify that they will accept:

– Regular industry news.

– Access to exclusive content, such as e-books

– email courses

– Special offers and discounts

Friction: 

Reduce friction by making the registration process as simple as possible and only asking for the information you need, such as an email address and possibly a first name.

Confirmation: 

Consider implementing a double opt-in process to ensure that only people who want to receive your newsletter sign up and that no fake email addresses creep into your newsletter database, damaging your reputation and ability to deliver. Without a double opt-in process, you risk being classified as a spammer.

A double opt-in subscription process means that when someone signs up for your mailing list, they must not only provide their email address but also click on a link in a confirmation email to validate it.

Implementing double opt-in will improve your deliverability rate because it ensures that you are building a list of engaged people who are interested in what you have to say. Implementing double opt-in also ensures you have higher conversion rates and low chances of ending up in spam.

Welcome email: 

Don’t forget to send a welcome email to your new subscribers to make an excellent first impression. Once you have created your signup form, you need to place it on the appropriate pages of your website, such as the homepage, blog, and footer.

Step 5. Get People to Subscribe to Your Newsletter 

Now that you have designed your newsletter signup form, it’s time to place it on your website. You can set your signup forms in any part of your website that adds real value to your audience. 

Consider including your signup form for gated content or after checkout if you are an e-commerce business. Don’t forget to share the signup form on your social media accounts to generate leads and grow your subscriber base. 

Step 6. Create Your Email Newsletter Campaign 

To start creating your email newsletter, you must create an email template. You can use a newsletter template provided by your email service provider and make a few necessary changes to suit your branding and needs.

Here are some tips to get you started:

Keep your email newsletter simple.

 Give your newsletters a consistent design, and don’t cram your email with too much information. A clear structure allows subscribers to grasp the content and critical messages immediately. Keep it short and to the point by removing any unnecessary elements from your newsletter. Add images to grab readers’ attention, followed by brief text and a clear call to action.

Create concise and catchy subject lines

The subject line is the first piece of content your audience will see and can make the crucial difference between your subscribers opening your newsletter and sending it straight to the trash. A concise and catchy subject line can persuade your audience to open it.

Your subject line can easily make or break your open rates, so take the time to discover best practices for writing it. 47% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line, while 69% report it as spam based on the subject line alone.[1]

 Align your subject lines with the content of your email newsletter, or people may unsubscribe. Tell the reader what they can expect to find inside – don’t try to mislead or deceive them.

– Choose a tone and language that matches your brand’s style.

– Use emojis to energize the subject line and draw attention to your newsletter.

– Use personalization by naming the recipient.

Use pre-header text to increase open rates.

An email pre-header is the text that appears after the subject line, before your subscriber even reads the email, to give an overview of the email content. 

Using a pre-header is a great way to expand on the subject line and entice the subscriber to open the message. When subscribers open their inbox, they can read the subject lines and text in your pre-header, whether on a desktop or mobile device.

Design your newsletter 

Customize your newsletter design to match your brand identity. The design of your newsletter should align with your brand identity on other communication channels. Doing so will make your company appear reliable and credible.

-Insert your company logo at the top of the newsletter, so readers immediately associate your brand identity. 

– Use images, videos, or GIFs in your email newsletters to grab your customers’ attention while maintaining a balance between images and text. Be sure to keep the image size small, as using too large images can negatively impact the user experience.

Decide on the length of your newsletter.

Depending on the type of newsletter you are sending and the action you want your audience to take, you can decide how long your text should be. For example, to send your subscribers to your blog post, research, or video, short newsletters are perfect.

On the other hand, promotional newsletters are usually longer and accompanied by images. The length of your newsletter can affect your conversion rates. As a general rule, large blocks of text are likely to go unread. 

So, whether you send a short or long newsletter, include only the essential information to get your audience to read the email and click the CTA button.

Create clear calls to action (CTA)

A call to action (CTA) is a button or request for the reader to perform a specific activity; for example, click on the button to read an article or make a purchase on your website, Etc. Optimizing your CTAs is of great importance. 

Calls to action are one of the most important aspects of any marketing campaign to drive traffic to your site, generate sales, and grow your social media audience. 

When creating a CTA button for your newsletter, consider the following:

– Choose a color that stands out from the rest of the newsletter.

– Your CTA should stand out from other readers without disrupting their flow.

– Use action words that encourage readers to do something. Ensure readers know where they’re going by labeling the CTA with action phrases like “buy our product” or “sign up for our newsletter.”

– Think about the placement of your CTAs and, most importantly, always place your primary CTA above the page’s fold that can be seen without scrolling. 

– Include CTA links to your social media profiles. As part of your overall digital marketing strategy, your newsletter can be used to link your other digital marketing channels, including social media. Consider including CTA links in the footer of your email newsletter to your brand’s social media profiles.

Make sure your newsletter is responsive.

Ensure your layout is responsive so your email campaigns display perfectly on all devices.  According to one study, about half (49%) of all emails are opened on a mobile device. 

Use personalization to your advantage.

Personalization is one of the best practices in email newsletter marketing. The most popular tactic is to use the recipient’s name in the subject line or header text.

When a customer’s first name is included in the subject line, the email is 29% more likely to be opened!

However, personalization is not limited to that. Personalization is closely related to audience segmentation. Making your newsletter content relevant to each segment of your audience is the most crucial element of personalization you need to accomplish. You can send them content based on their previous purchases. From the customer’s perspective, personalized email content means you care about them.

– Include an unsubscribe button

Don’t forget to include an option to unsubscribe from your email list. Including an unsubscribe option ensures that people authentically engage with your newsletters stay.

Step 7. Send Your Email Newsletter 

With your content ready, it’s time to start sending out your newsletters. The best way to send your newsletters via email is to use an email service that allows you to integrate your contact list, create your newsletter layout, and send your emails on a single platform. 

Send your email newsletters at the appropriate date and time. 

The day of the week and time you send an email can significantly impact your open rates. Don’t bombard your subscribers with emails; they will only unsubscribe from your correspondence! You should avoid sending emails to your subscribers more than once a week. 

By sending quality content to your subscribers regularly, they will get used to receiving news from your company. You can even ask your readers how often you send them emails. Keep in mind your subscribers’ time zones to avoid sending email newsletters in the middle of the night.

Step 8. Measure The Performance of Your Newsletter

Tracking your newsletter performance helps you continuously improve your overall email marketing strategy. Your email campaign metrics will tell you how your audience is reacting to your emails or if there is a technical problem in your campaign. Most email newsletter services offer tracking metrics such as open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, and bounce rate, which are essential for measuring your efforts.

Let’s see what these indicators are: 

Open rate: the available speed of an email is the percentage of total subscribers who opened the newsletter.

– Click-through rate: The click-through rate represents the percentage of recipients who clicked on at least one link or call to action.

– Unsubscribe Rate: The unsubscribe rate is the percentage of recipients who canceled their subscription to the newsletter.

– Bounce Rate: The bounce rate is the percentage of emails that do not reach their destination because the recipient’s server bounced them. 

– Conversions and revenue per click: The percentage of readers who performed the desired action after clicking on the target page, such as purchasing, downloading, reading a blog post, Etc.

This data is an excellent source to decide how to optimize your following newsletters, showing you which elements of your newsletter can change.  Make sure you know how to read email statistics properly and how to identify what needs to be improved. 

Identify what works best, like which subject lines generate higher open rates, which CTAs drive the most traffic to your site, and which emails get the highest unsubscribe rate. Then you can check what’s not working to fix it. 

For example, if your open rate is low, your subject line may not be precise enough. Or, if your click-through rate is down, you need to work more on your calls to action (CTAs) to get your subscribers to click on your newsletter links. If your unsubscribe rate is high, think about how to add value to your newsletters or try segmenting your contact list into specific groups to get more precise targeting.

Learn More: 11 Most Important Email Marketing KPIs to Measure the Success of Your Email Campaign

Make adjustments using A/B testing.

Seeing accurate data on your email performance is the best way to leverage the strategies that work and fix the ones that don’t to increase your success rates. Try different subject lines, CTA buttons, text sections, or change send times to improve your results.

You can even ask your audience for feedback by creating a quick survey form for your email recipients. Then compare the results of your newsletters to see what works best for your business.

Conclusion

We hope that applying these email newsletter practices will help you get started with your email newsletter. Newsletters are an essential part of an email marketing strategy and a great way to communicate with your customers, extend your brand’s reach and increase your sales.

Take your business to the next level by creating your newsletter.