One of the purposes of writing and marketing a newsletter is to get subscribers and then turn them into buyers. The dream of nearly every budding internet marketer is to write a newsletter that gets read and forwarded instead of ending up in the trash folder. After all, if the email simply gets deleted, all of your efforts were wasted.
Writing a newsletter that will get read is not as simple as it sounds. Particularly in this modern age, the majority of businesses use email messages to communicate with subscribers and customers so making yours stand out is both difficult and essential. Go over these newsletter writing tips to make your newsletter an effective email marketing tool.
Newsletter Writing Tips – Design
The design of the newsletter should be one of the first things you consider. It is quite easy to find an appropriate template either online or through the word processing or graphics software already installed on your computer. There’s no reason not to use a template; the key to making a newsletter stand out is to customise it so that it accurately reflects your company brand.
Unlike the old days when busy, three-column newsletters were printed and mailed, an emailed newsletter needs a cleaner, crisper format. Make it easy to read and let the content take the spotlight; leave advertising for the sidelines.
Consider using a template that can be created in both plain text and HTML format so that all of your subscribers can easily access it.
Once you’ve got the initial design elements in place you can use this template for all subsequent newsletters so that all you have to do is copy and paste each piece.
Newsletter Writing Tips – Content
Your newsletter template should have blocks where you can insert various types of content. These generally fall into several categories which could include news, a featured article, a regular column, advertising, and the contact/call to action box.
The news section can feature either something new about your company and its products or services or a piece that relates to the overall industry or topic of interest of your subscribers. For instance, if your website sells sports memorabilia, you could include the latest week’s game scores. This is content readers will be interested in.
The featured article should be the first and most prominent block on the page. This is where you write the content that gets noticed. It should be interesting, informative, and urge the reader to take some action such as an online purchase or a click-through to your blog. A time sensitive discount or freebie offer is a great way to accomplish this.
A regular column can be anything from a short piece that offers advice to an FAQ format or a snippet of trivia. What you choose depends on the style of your company and the type of content that will appeal to your subscribers. Keep this section consistent to achieve the greatest impact.
The contact/call to action box should be prominent and easy to find. You can sprinkle links to your website throughout the newsletter, but be careful about adding too many as this may relegate your email to the spam folder upon arrival.
General Tips
One of the most important newsletter writing tips I can give you – is that it must be interesting and informative. If the content is purely a sales pitch, it is not going to be read.
Schedule time to work regularly on your newsletter and send it on a consistent basis. It takes time and effort to get a response and more than one newsletter is required to accomplish this. Weekly, fortnightly, or even monthly is sufficient. Don’t inundate subscribers with messages in their inbox but do send the newsletter at regular intervals.
Newsletters can be a very effective form of internet marketing. By following the above newsletter writing tips on design and content, you will be well on your way to gaining increased sales.
About Sean Rasmussen
I will be referring to this when I need to. Pretty common sense really
Well you have just destroyed all my newsletters. I guess I should thank you.
It must be my age that automatically has made the use of the word newsletter be the two or three column boring layout. I know that the content has been above reproach, but it has not worked.
The idea of working hard on design and trying different templates is new to me and I am going to probably make a real mess of the next few newsletters. They will probably look more like an advertisement for a brothel, but it will be only because I am going to try to take your advice and make them visually attractive and interesting as well as contextually informative.
Thanks for the kick in the pants.
Hi Sean,
what format would you send your newsletter in, html or plain? And what templates can you use when it is plain text email?
I personally delete all newsletters where I have to first download fancy pictures to read the text, so I am definitely not going to do that myself
Hi Sean,
These are excellent tips for writing newsletters. I’m definitely going to pay closer attention to the newsletters that I receive. I tend to delete the ones I don’t like without even taking the time to make note of what is wrong with them. I may not be sure of what I want my newsletter to be like but I’m sure that I will have some strong opinions about what I don’t like.
I think that this is going to be a lot of trial and error before I get it right. Is it wise to put an opt-in form on my blog from the time that I launch it? Or, when is the right time?
There would be nothing wrong with having an opt-in form on your site at the time of launching Jazz. It is your site, do what you are comfortable with
I receive dozens of newsletters that I signed up for in order to get something for free. I filter them so they don’t clog up my email. Most, if not all of them have something valuable to say but most of them I don’t read because 1. They are too long 2. They come too frequently. The perfect newsletter for me is 2 pages a month total, monthly or fortnightly (ie 1 page fortnightly). Any more than this and most likely it won’t be read, ever, unless the author has built lots of respect.
Sean – a grammatical error. First line of article ” is to turn get subscribers and then turn them into buyers.” I think the ‘turn’ needs to go.
All fixed Elly, thanks for picking that up
Hi Sean
I really like receiving and creating newsletters. I have already made one as I have told you somewhere else in the maze of comments I am scooting through here, but to reiterate, I would love to receive a really newsy newsletter on my passionate subjects with great tips etc that I can use so that is what I am creating with mine and with a very select and minimal advertising campaign.
If I can add positive value to someone’s life every month then I am happy with that and I have found the newsletter the perfect vehicle to do that.
Thank you for the great tips.
In the “Newsletter Writing Tips For Internet Marketers” article mention is only made of html and txt formats. Is a pdf file a useful format for marketing newsletters? A lot of publishing software can output in pdf format. Personally, I like information in a pdf file. It’s usually easy to print off pages that you’re interested in.
Another thing I think should be considered is the old newspaper concept of “what should appear above the fold”. In computer terms, what do I see on the screen before I have to scroll down the page? Why not base the design of your newsletter “page” on what one normally can see on a monitor and then link to the next page. Try to prevent the user having to scroll. This can easily be implemented in a pdf document.
Just some thoughts for consideration.
A great tip Sean and Don just perfected it!
Cheers
Rose