Email marketing is one of the best tools you can use to stay relevant and on top of mind. Weekly or monthly newsletters inform people what is going on in your business and give them a reason to interact with your brand. Top Fox Marketing understands that writing a newsletter sounds simple, but it can be overwhelming – so we came up with a few steps to follow while drafting your newsletters.
Follow these seven simple steps to create an enticing newsletter.
1. Create an outline with five to ten topics.
Your content must be relevant to your company and your readers, tell a story and be fact-driven. Ask yourself, what topics will hold readers’ attention? You can include relevant news about your industry and talk about what’s going on within your company. Be sure to celebrate your clients, partners and talk about people.
2. To stand out from the crowd, use a signature voice.
Using humor, phrasing, wit and appropriate slang will enhance your brand personality and make your newsletter feel more authentic and personable.
3. Keep content focused and clear.
Find a common theme to hold the newsletter together. Create balance by keeping promotions to a minimum. Nobody wants to read a laundry list of promotions, so make them sparse and meaningful.
4. Have a killer subject line.
The first impression people get of your newsletter–and the information they use to decide whether to open it–is from your subject line. Everyone’s inbox is cluttered, and there’s no guarantee subscribers will open your email, so make that subject line count. Don’t be afraid to get creative with capitalization, emojis and characters. Alternatively, make it a consistent subject line so that people will recognize content that they look forward to. (Ours is always The Fox’s Den – Month, Year)
5. Keep it simple.
Newsletters too often feel jumbled and cluttered. You can avoid this by using templates or simple text blocks that are easy to follow. Images and graphics are great because they keep people engaged, but don’t use too many. Additionally, give images alt text (text that appears when images are not loading).
6. Create calls to action.
To increase your subscribers’ engagement with your website, talk about a specific feature such as a blog post or an announcement, ask readers to check it out and give them a link. Put the most important call to action at the beginning of the newsletter.
7. Test your newsletter before you send it out.
Make sure your final draft works on both phones and laptops. Send a test newsletter to yourself and a few colleagues for proofreading and feedback.
