Email marketing is on the rise, and it is here to stay. If you are wondering how writing a newsletter can help you, and how to do it, you are in the right place! Read on for essential tips for writing the perfect newsletter which will greatly benefit your company, whether it is a startup or a distinguished powerhouse in your respective industry.
Nine Tips for Making an Ideal Newsletter
A company can make a newsletter that is informative, promotional, fun, and inspiring, but that is not easily achieved. Here are some tips which will help you get a better idea of how to approach writing a newsletter:
Create Your Newsletter for a Specific Reason
Before you even begin writing your newsletter, make sure that you know why you’re making it, i.e. what is its purpose. There are several goals for the email newsletter, including increasing sales, traffic, promoting your brand, products, or services, or improving your social media presence. Those were just examples, your goal may be entirely different, which is fine. Ensure that you stick to your goal no matter what, and a single, solid goal is better than having multiple goals in the same newsletter because the latter might cause confusion.
Grab the Attention of Your Readers!
Modern companies that know what’s up are using slang, catchphrases, puns, and another modern lingo to get people’s attention. The way to do that is by coming up with catchy buzzwords, introductions to your newsletter, and titles.
Starting from the top down, you want your title to be straight to the point, and have action verbs which will inspire the reader to do exactly what you want! A standard example of such a title could be “Our Latest Newsletter Has Arrived, Read It Under a Minute and Find Out About Our Deals!”
You can add that text to your intro, or write something in the same vein. It won’t hurt if you offer a special deal, discount, coupon, or something of that sort to sweeten the pot and make the reader even more interested.
Make It Short But Sweet
The first thing you should have in mind when writing your company’s newsletter is that our attention spans are getting significantly lower. The global average attention span is only eight seconds today, and it used to be 12 seconds in the year 2000!
So, what is the appropriate length of a good newsletter? Up to 500 words should do the trick! Anything above that word limit is considered too long, and chances are, your readers would get bored and skip reading the entire email if you sent them a lengthy one. Ideally, you would want to even further ‘trim down the fat’ and make your newsletter in the 300-400 words range.
Adapt Your Newsletter to the Audience and the Occasion
You should always have in mind the person that will read your newsletter. Is it going to be a millennial, a stay-at-home mom, or a senior? Getting in the know on your target audience demographics will be of immense help to your newsletter. It will enable you to personalize your content and make it appealing to the reader.
Not only should you know who’s reading, but also when they will be reading it. Good examples are seasonal promotions, such as Black Friday or the holiday season. You should adopt the holiday spirit and add some cheer to your newsletter so that it doesn’t appear bland or uninspired.
Make Your Newsletter Visually Appealing
One additional thing you should have in mind when writing a newsletter is the visual effect. Most people are visual learners (65% of us, according to Atlassian), so use that fact to your advantage! Hire a graphic designer if you can, or come up with enticing visuals for your company yourself. Make sure to pick a brand design, including its colors, logo, etc., and stick to it. Your brand design should be featured on your website, social media pages, and you guessed it, the newsletter. Since the newsletters should be short and sweet, adding vibrant colors, images, or clickable elements should be just enough to improve the overall visuals.
Don’t Be Afraid To Use Diversified Vocabulary
When writing, and also importantly, after you’ve written your newsletter, make sure to double-check it for repetition and the same phrasing. Try not to be repetitive and tedious, readers do not appreciate such writing. Do you see what we mean? You can say things in many different ways, so mind the wording, the manner, and the tone you will use. Your readers are people too, and you should leave a positive impression, which can be done with affirmative language, subtle suggestions, and honesty.
Check Your Grammar
Once more, you should not send out the first draft of your newsletter. When you have written, let it rest overnight and double-check it tomorrow. With fresh eyes, you may notice some spelling, syntax, or unnatural phrasing you didn’t catch the first time. Even a small grammar mistake may leave the wrong impression, so do your homework and make sure your newsletter is eloquent, fresh, and spotless in the grammar department.
Track the Data
Is your newsletter successful? How does one know that? You need to oversee the results of your marketing campaign, including email marketing. Numerous tools are available to track the data for you, but it is more important to know the key trends. The most important trends include open, click-through, and bounce rates, the number of unsubscribes, forwards, conversion rate, etc. With the constant tracking of your newsletter data, you will learn how to improve it.
Update Your Newsletter And/Or Website
Based on the previous tip, you can keep updating your newsletter if it is not bringing optimal results, just make sure that you don’t overdo it. Once you know what exactly isn’t working, i.e. the conversion rates are too low, you can improve it. In that scenario, you could offer a slight discount, offer a better deal, improve your web shop, etc. Perhaps the newsletter is not the issue, your website might be outdated or impractical. It is best to consult with an expert and freshen your website up if necessary.
Last Bit of Advice
Writing a newsletter is not rocket science, but making it perfect is not an overnight job. Make sure that yours has enough content, in other words, fill your company promotion letter with exciting news! That can be achieved in multiple ways, and one of them is telling a story. If the story is captivating enough, your readers will appreciate it and respond favorably to your emails. Keep the story short, relevant, and creative. Hopefully, these tips will improve your newsletter and bring in the results you were expecting. Apply them, remain patient, and open-minded if you want a unique and effective newsletter.