Facebook and Twitter.
Ask a hundred people where you want to market your business and chances are, they’ll name these two platforms.
Seldom do they realize that Email, not social media, is their best chance of gaining more business. Skeptical? You have every right to be.
But before you shrug me off, let me just start off with a mind-blowing stat.
“Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter”
Let that sink in.
Here’s another one. For every $1 spent on email marketing, you can bag $42 in ROI. And no. You’re not reading fiction.
But all that success isn’t easy to achieve unless you perfect the individual aspects of your email marketing strategy.
Therefore, in this blog, we’ll be focusing on email newsletters in particular and the best design practices you must start following today. So without further ado, let’s dive right in!
But before that..
What Exactly are Email Newsletters?
Good question! If you’ve got a business, chances are, you’ve got an audience. But you can’t call every single lead, prospect, or previous customer over new developments and offers. It’s costly, time-consuming, and not to mention, annoying.
Luckily, email newsletters help fill that void. They serve as an excellent way to inform your audience about the latest news, tips or updates about your company and the products you sell.
| “Well designed email newsletters are a cost-effective and powerful brand awareness tool” |
The type of email newsletter you wish to create depends on the objective you set for it. For instance, your goal may be to gain new subscribers so an incentive-based newsletter will work well.
If your goal is to increase conversions, you can consider offering enticing discounts or running a promotional campaign. The approaches are endless!
However, all your efforts can go to waste if you don’t design your email newsletters the right way. Therefore, it’s essential to understand what constitutes a good email newsletter design first.
What Makes Up an Email Newsletter Design?
Just like a well-directed movie has several elements that make it memorable, email newsletter design is no different.
It needs to utilize the right ingredients to work as an effective conversion tool. Elements such as compelling visuals, personalization, branding, and even your subject line must go hand in glove to deliver a message that works.
Add in good user functionality and voila — you have a newsletter design ready to transform your client relationships and potentially your business!
So now that you have the basics for email newsletter design down, it’s time for you to craft your first effective newsletter.
Before rushing through, use these best practices as a guidepost to creating an awesome email newsletter. Time to grab your notebook and pen folks!
Email Newsletter Design Best Practices You Must Follow
1. Make the Subject Line Impactful
A subject line is the opening act of your email newsletter. It’s the first thing your audience will see in their inbox hence it needs to be impactful and concise.
Fun fact: Over 47% of recipients click on an email just because of its subject line. That’s around 1 in every 2 people!
Therefore, when crafting a subject line, It’s often best to provide a summary of what your audience can expect once they open the email.
It should also have an element of curiosity attached to it. If the user feels they’ll miss out on more value by skipping your email, it means you have an effective subject line.
To stir your imagination, check out some good subject lines that can pique an audience’s interest.
⚠️ Avoid: Words like a reminder and help tend to give out a bad impression to your recipients and negatively impact open rates.
2. Opt for a Clean and Simple Design
The fact is, you’re dealing with human attention spans equal to those of a goldfish. Since 9 seconds is all you have to make or break user attention, you have to make it count!
One of the most effective ways to do that is by opting for a clean and simple visual design. Remember, Emails are supposed to make life easier, not harder.
Think about it. How many times have we come across complex emails with too much information, over-the-top visual elements, tiny fonts, and an endless amount of links/buttons? It’s not charming.
On the contrary, emails with a clean and simple visual design make for a digestible reading experience, improve subscriber retention and increase open rates.
As an example, view the newsletter below.
From the onset, this newsletter layout gives out a calm and minimalist vibe. By not looking complex, the user can show more attentiveness to the task at hand – which is to take action.
Furthermore, through the newsletter’s color contrast and clever button placement, it directs users’ attention toward the category they want to shop in.
Also Read: The Best Website Design Guide for Entrepreneurs and Businesses
3. Tailor Your Messages
Have you ever found yourself scrolling through your inbox and pausing on an email addressed to you? That’s the power of personalized emails.
In fact, personalized email newsletters have a 50% higher open rate than generalized ones. But the personalization doesn’t end there.
Another great tactic is to inform your existing subscribers about new arrivals that may interest them. You can tailor these offers based on previous purchases or the items they’ve frequently viewed in the past.
By creating email newsletters based on consumer interests, you can increase your chances of generating more sales.
4. Craft an Inviting Call-to-Action (CTA)
Every email newsletter has a purpose. Whether your goal is getting more email subscribers, or having them take up your biggest discount offer, you can’t accomplish any goal without a call to action.
They’re an essential conversion tool and your best shot at getting recipients to take the desired step. And you certainly don’t want them to skip it.
Therefore, your CTA button needs to stand out. We recommend using a highlight color that helps the button look distinct from the content.
Here’s an example of a good CTA below →
This CTA is clearly distinct and grabs attention due to its unique color in comparison to the backdrop.
5. Make Your Email Newsletter Design Responsive
If you’re looking to get away by neglecting your email newsletter’s responsiveness, you’re in for a bummer.
Did you know? Over 42.3% of recipients delete emails not optimized for their smartphones, and 41.9% open emails through their mobile devices!
That’s why it’s essential for you to design fully responsive email newsletters that can fit any screen type and improve your users’ retention rate.
6. Test on All Devices
Now that you’ve invested a lot of time in creating this amazing newsletter. It’s time to put it to the test.
We recommend using email rendering tools such as Litmus and Campaign monitor to help you test it across various devices. They will also help you save time and effort.
Additionally, you can test out your links, ensure no images are missing and view how your newsletter features scale across multiple devices.
It’s a Wrap!
By putting these email best practices to use, we hope you’ll be able to create the next best newsletter the world has yet to see. Just remember, there’s no right or wrong approach.
We advise you to use these design best practices as a guidepost since they’re based on research and consumer psychology. However, we also suggest you hire an industry expert to help you with impeccable email newsletter designs.
Who knows. You might just crack the best email newsletter design and have us do a special feature on it. 😀
On that note, we wish you all the best!