Subscribers love information related to their interests, work, or industry. Subscribers appreciate when they see good offers or deals, news, and updates from businesses to which they subscribe. Sending an email newsletter is an effective marketing strategy to grow your business. But sending a newsletter without strategy and planning is a waste of time.
You should ask a few questions before sending an email newsletter.
- Why should you send an email newsletter?
- What content and topic should be included in your newsletter?
- What time should it be sent?
- Whom do you want to reach out to?
- What is the outcome of this newsletter?
- Why should customers open your newsletter?
- Why should customers click on your newsletter?
Email newsletter helps you to connect with your target audience. Not only that well-crafted newsletter can increase web traffic and boost your conversion.
What are the benefits of sending an email newsletter?
- To boost website traffic and close more deals
- To showcase product and service capability to the target audience
- To engage customers with offers, deals, news, and updates
- To keep the audience happy and informed
To run a successful email newsletter campaign you have to consider these best practices to do it perfectly.
1. Choose a relevant content
As a first step, you should choose the topic or content you would like to send your audience. Content can be a report, news, articles, whitepaper, guide, blog, video, or any external source related to your target industry. Research and choose the top article on your website or the latest news and updates about your business. Choose content or topic that is relevant to your target audience.
2. Newsletter format
This is the main and important component of an email newsletter. News digest with the article is the most commonly used format for newsletters. But you can try different newsletter templates to engage your customer. There is no perfect design or style for your newsletter but try a unique format that conveys your message in an effective way and stands out from the crowd.
3. Be consistent with email template
Always be consistent with the template including brand color, design, and content. No matter how frequently you send email newsletters but design and brand templates have to remain consistent. In the newsletter, you should include brand color in the header and footer. And also try to use brand color in CTA as well. By doing this customers will identify your newsletter way easily.
4. Balance the content
90% of the content in your email newsletter should be educational and relevant to your audience. Use top articles or blogs on your website. And also use tips and tricks kind of content that interest subscriber. Only 10% of your email newsletter content can be promotional. Balance it in the right way so it can not be a look-alike promotional email.
5. Segment your target audience
Targeting the right audience on your list will impact the success of an email newsletter. Segmenting list will help you to target the right audience with the right content.
There are multiple ways to segment your list, you can segment by industry, job titles, location, age, interest, lead stage, buyer journey, website visits, open and clicks, new and repeat customer, and more.
6. Craft a catchy subject line
The subject line is the first thing customers look at before opening an email. Give more importance to the subject line and craft an attractive and catchy subject line. These are the point you should consider while crafting the subject line
- The character limit for the subject line should be 60 characters.
- Avoid spam words like free, apply now, bonus, billion, etc.
- Don’t use CAPSLOCK and exclamation points
7. Optimize pre-header
After the subject line, most people see a pre-header, if it looks interesting then subscribe open your email. Generally, a pre-header is the first line of your content. But you can change it and make it more exciting for the reader. Utilize the pre-header option in your email marketing tool to optimize your email.
8. Craft a powerful CTA button
Write a powerful and clear call to action. After reading the content subscribe should know what to do next. CTA encourages the subscriber to click on it. So use CTA as an opportunity to catch the subscriber’s interest.
9. Personalization
Personalization is one of the most popular and effective best practices to run a successful newsletter campaign. Nowadays personalization is not only just placing customer name and company name, it has gone beyond that. You should be personalized based on their interest, buyer behavior, purchase history, website interaction, ad interaction, and more.
10. Use a familiar sender name
Using a known name for sending a newsletter helps you to improve the open rate. People know which company they subscribe. So it’s better to use the company name or owner name it gives more credibility to subscribers.
11. Best time to send a newsletter
Sending the newsletter in the first half in the morning works better compare to any other time. But try and test before deciding the perfect time to send the newsletter. Timing also depends on your audience, industry, and other factor-based customer profile. Always use send time optimization features to get more opens and clicks. Read this article Best Time to Send an Email Newsletter.
12. Try A/B testing
Use A/B testing to optimize and get better results from the newsletter campaigns. Create two different versions of the email newsletter and test with the small segment. Then decide to send the rest of the email based on higher open or clicks rates. There are 5 types of A/B testing you can use and optimize the campaign.
- Based on the subject line
- Based on the whole email content /design
- Based on the sender name
- Based on open and clicks
- Based on date and time
13. Use a mobile-friendly theme or template
Nowadays most people read the newsletter on their mobile phones. So you should make sure that your template is mobile-friendly and easy to read. Use the rendering test feature in your email marketing software and preview it on all devices, if everything looks good then go ahead and send your email newsletter. If you see any rendering error then do the changes accordingly.
14. Visible and clear unsubscribe option
Always provide a clear option to unsubscribe. People who are not interested in your product and service are most likely to unsubscribe. Or else if you are sending emails too frequently then subscribe don’t like someone bombarding emails without valuable content. In that case, you will get more unsubscribes. So plan your campaign strategically and maintain a high-quality subscriber list.
15. Provide offers and discounts
The email newsletter is the best way to promote your offer and discounts. To get more conversion from your email newsletter, you should offer them discounts or incentives. People like discounts and expect from brands to offer them some sought of discount. Include one section for offers and deals in your email newsletter. That way you can boost your sales and profits without spamming subscribers.
Conclusion
Writing an email newsletter will take a lot of time, research, and refining. You should know your target audience, their interest, the latest topic, and relevant information that keeps customers exiting. These 15 email newsletter best practices will help you to improve conversion rates and grow your business.
