Your e-newsletter is another great tool for marketing that also helps you to enforce your brand positioning. No matter what industry you’re in or what audience you cater to, your main priority should be offering interesting and engaging content and design. And as we’re all regularly inundated with emails, be sure to consider what might compel your recipients to open your emails every time. Here are the main elements to consider…
An Attractive and Effective Headline
Wow your subscribers with a headline that is interesting and gives a hint to what to expect in the e-newsletter text without giving too much away. This is the time to pique interest before your email has the chance to be deleted or passed over. You can also go ahead and split up your subscribers into groups sending identical newsletters with different headlines to get a feel for what works best for your particular audience.
Clean and Simple
While there are definitely exceptions, a generally great rule of thumb is to use a clean and simple design scheme. Don’t get too wild with colors. Feel free to use interesting fonts but don’t use too many fonts and be sure they’re easily legible. Your e-newsletter should be easy to read with a layout that allows the eyes to naturally follow text, images and other elements. Don’t be afraid to get creative but the overall effect needs to be easy and comfortable to read.
The Call-to-Action
Every e-newsletter should include some type of call-to-action whether it be to make a purchase or to subscribe to your podcast. Many will have more than one but you always to have at least one action you want your subscribers to take that is more important than the rest. It will be the main focus for that particular issue of your newsletter. What action do you want your audience to take the most? How will you entice them to take action?
Edit, Edit, Edit
Brevity is key. Get to your point in as little words as possible.
WIIFM
“What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM)… If any given subscriber were to ask his or herself this question, would the answer be known? Like any other product or service you may offer, your e-newsletter should provide your audience with value in some way whether that be a special offer, information they are interested in acquiring, a product launch preview, et al.
Saying Goodbye
Make it fast and easy to unsubscribe. This is a service all subscribers expect and it shows you respect and value your subscribers’ rights to choose.
