5 Top Tips For Writing Newsletters

Ever since I have been in business I have spent time capturing data from customers. From like my Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, to sign up to my newsletter the list goes on, but I am guilty of not using this data to my advantage.  I spent a lot of time building up my email database and yet I hardly ever send out a newsletter? We all know we should send out regular newsletters but how often do you actually do this?

Newsletters Help To :

1. Remind our customer base we are there.
2. Let customers know about special offers, new products, events we might be at, latest blog posts.
3. Communicate with customers who maybe don’t follow you on social media platforms. This point alone could be key to using your email list effectively.

But How Often Should We Send Newsletters?

I send out a monthly newsletter, and those subscribers get 24 hours notice to new products. The newsletter is quite brief – this is my new product, and these are the venues I will be selling at face-to-face, and these are my online locations – Etsy/Supermums. Heather Barber – Minety Moose

• Monthly : Not only is monthly more manageable for the business but also not too overwhelming for the receivers – customers/clients.
• Weekly : Emma Collins PR suggests weekly “Weekly keeps the consumer up to date, inspired and you stay in their mind. Weekly doesn’t have to be the same content. From events, what’s hot, sale, inspiration, customer testimonial etc.“.
• Daily : I receive daily marketing emails from shops. I’m not inclined to unsubscribe I just delete those that don’t interest me.

I don’t personally believe there is a right answer as in the run up to a sale/event you might drip feed content over a period of days whereas your normal content might be more sporadic. I think it really is a case of trial and error seeing what works best for you, your business and most importantly your customers.

Designing A Newsletter :

As with any marketing you do your newsletter need to be consistent with your branding, it’s vital to keep this above the fold so instantly customers know it’s you. Newsletters need to be straight to the point no waffle avoid long blocks of text. Use bullet points, or no more than 5 lines in a section. Headings help to draw the eye around the page.  Use images to make a point and break up text and make it look pretty!

A couple of email marketing books I’d recommend are 1001 ways to get more customers and Email Marketing Rules . Both books give some great advice regarding layouts for newsletters.

• Fonts : Consider Arial 10pt or Verdana 10pt never go smaller than 10pt and if you use 12pt go with Arial.
• Single Columns : Apparently it’s better to use single columns as it makes the newsletter easier to read on a mobile device and not super incredibly long which can be overwhelming and daunting. My bad I usually use double columns but this makes perfect sense.
• Size : 100kb should be around the maximum size of the newsletter file this reduces long loading times. This is probably why lots of people avoid images in their newsletters and instead go for full on content. Again I normally add 3/4 images!
• Mobile Friendly : 53% emails are opened on a mobile phone

Subject Titles :

We literally have seconds to capture the readers attention whereby they decide to read or delete so subject lines are really important. Cracking Media suggests good subject titles include using words like “How…, What… and Why” Headlines work well whereby the content is lists “e.g. 10 tops tips for.., 101 ways to.., 5 things you should“. You could “even be a little cryptic and create intrigue, e.g. “Why we need to learn to love someone else’s worm” ”

60 characters at most makes a good subject line – so be glad that you have been getting good at keeping it brief on Twitter!

Calls To Action : 

You must tell the customer/reader what to do next. So always include a call to action and be direct. For example BUY NOW.  Limited the amount of clicks the customer needs to take too as this in turn will increase the risk of the customer abandoning the transaction.

Campaign Monitor has produced this awesome infographic which clearly breaks down all the do’s and don’ts when it comes to email marketing. I still struggle to send out regular newsletters.

Source: 10 Email Marketing Do’s and Don’ts by Campaign Monitor

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