Email marketing is one of the most powerful influences for your audience, especially as so many people around the world have access to an email account. Enabling your users to sign up to your newsletter is the first stage of success but now comes the important part, keeping them subscribed.
In order to keep them subscribed, you need to be providing engaging and valuable content through your newsletters. Even the bigger corporations and brands have to work hard to convert their new leads into paying customers.
So what’s the secret formula for writing newsletters that keep your subscribers intrigued? This how-to guide will show you all the top tips and tricks to create newsletters that get your customers interested in what your brand is about and what it has to offer.
Why are email newsletters important for marketing?
According to Mailigen, 89% of marketers use email as their primary channel when it comes to generating leads. With over 4 billion users worldwide that possess an email account, there’s a lot of potential out there to reach.
A good email newsletter is essential for marketing, otherwise it restricts the growth of your brand in general. It can often contain important news and updates regarding your business that otherwise wouldn’t be found anywhere else. A newsletter may also have significant information relating to your brand or products on offer.
It can act as an exclusive form of communications that can help create better relationships with your customers and to solidify any existing leads that are close to converting. Your email newsletter shouldn’t be something you sell in but it does provide opportunities to sell and promote your business.
With that in mind, let’s look at what makes a high-converting newsletter when conducting email marketing for your brand.
Start with a catchy introduction
A catchy introduction is crucial to maintaining your subscriber’s engagement. These newsletter introduction examples show how creative and versatile you can be when it comes to the intro of your email.
It starts with the subject of your email. Catchy phrases or keywords are going to be important to research. Think about the length of the title and avoid making the title too spammy. Keeping it simple is much better than making it overly complex. Consider the tone and language used within those first few lines and throughout the email to ensure it’s connecting with the reader.
Introductions should be concise and straight to the point but then alternatively, you may want to do a bit of storytelling, depending on what type of content you’re providing in the newsletter. You may also want to do some A/B testing to check the functionality of any GIFs or other visual content you use in the email too.
Your introduction is an essential part of the email newsletter and will set the bar in terms of how many continue to read on and how many click off it. With the average open rate of an email being 18%, you’re already at a disadvantage.
When creating emails, a good platform or tool is a worthwhile investment to perfecting your designs. Flodesk and Mailchimp are two popular examples that can help you create regular newsletters for your email and can be utilized by those even with basic experience.
Add in visual imagery to catch the user’s attention
As human beings, we love visuals and imagery can be a great way to catch the user’s attention. A user that you entice enough to click on the email is likely to be curious when they see an image in contrast to an email newsletter just filled with boring text. That text might not be boring to read but visually, it’s not doing itself any favors.
Now we’re not just saying you should check any image, GIF or embedded video into your emails. It’s beneficial to consider what visuals will help add to the quality of the newsletter and doesn’t serve as a distraction.
Interactive visuals are popular to use, whereby you can click on them and they take you to another page or perform some sort of action. The placement of the visual is essential too as you can risk placing it too far down that it’s not even in screen view when they click on the email.
With any type of visual, it’s important to check it shows up automatically when delivered to the user and A/B testing can help ensure that happens. Don’t be afraid of adding some form of visual into your newsletter to make it more interesting to look at.
Consider the layout and font
For the layout of your email, there are some confines that all email newsletters will adhere. However, it’s good to play around with the design of your newsletter so that it can be easily digested and enjoyed by the reader.
Customer experience is important in every part of your business, including those that read your emails. 84% of companies that improve their customer experience, report an increase in their revenue. If they’re met with a beautifully presented layout that has been well-thought out and executed, they’re more than likely to engage with it more.
A good tip is to not be afraid of white space. White space allows the reader to focus their attention easily on different sections of the email. There is a case of having too much content squeezed into a newsletter so embrace white space to help amplify any key message or communications you want to get across.
Font is also a point of focus when it comes to email marketing. Remember to keep in line with your branding if you already have a typeface you use and that’s recognizable to your customers. Be aware of sizing and how you highlight certain sentences or words that need extra attention.
Provide incentives that’ll encourage engagement
It’s all about keeping your subscribers engaged not just to remain on your email list but to follow through with what you are asking them to do. Not everyone likes being told what to do and so for some, a little incentive or two may help encourage them to commit to a CTA you’ve placed in the email.
Customers like getting value and freebies are always something that most will welcome with open arms. Make sure that it’s relative to what your subscribers are after, otherwise it may put the user off.
Investment into your business can be essential in many areas and that’s the case for your email marketing. Sometimes, you need to be willing to offer something first before you get anything in return. Most of time, it won’t actually cost you anything to offer the incentive. It’s an act of giving that will go far in your customer’s eyes.
An example is the below where By Regina offers a free 80-page guide for users that sign up to the newsletter. In order to get the guide, they must give over their name and email address.
Incentives on emails may be discount codes to use on the products or services you offer. Saving money can always be an advantage for those who are looking to shop on a budget. Free shipping is often an incentive, as well as referral codes. Referral codes are often very useful to help expand your database and customer reach.
Tailor the content to the user’s journey
Finally, make sure that your newsletter’s content is matching up with the user’s journey. There are going to be some leads that are further down the sales funnel than others and so segmenting your email subscribers might be of added benefit.
A customer journey is important to focus on, particularly when it comes to generating email newsletters. Personalizing your emails is also recommended and something as simple as having the reader’s first name at the start of the email or in the subject line, can be more meaningful.
Consider what your audience is after and align that with the type of newsletter content you provide. After all, it can be a great way to direct those readers in the right direction, especially if it influences a sale or two.
Nuturing is a term often used when it comes to acquiring new leads or in this case, subscribers to your mailing list. Putting in the time and effort to make a tailored experience for them, will help more of your leads convert into customers. It’s not something that will happen straight away either, so regular newsletters that continue to encourage your leads into completing your CTA can help.
Email newsletters offer a wealth of potential
If done correctly, newsletters are a great way of communicating with your customers, whilst enticing new leads to your brand. Even if you already have an email newsletter in place, there’s always improvements that can be made to better the quality of the content. This will help with engagement and hopefully more conversions for your brand.
Author Bio: Natalie Redman (LinkedIn)
Email – natalieannredman92@gmail.com
Freelance writer for many clients across multiple industries. Natalie has two years of copywriting experience. Natalie has a wide range of experience copywriting for web pages for businesses across many industries. She’s also an owner of two blog websites and a Youtube content creator.
