How to Write a Newsletter Article
Creating a newsletter can be a difficult task and doing it effectively can be even harder. Knowing how to write a newsletter article is crucial here and you need to learn which elements should be included and how to use them properly.
But first, you have to be clear if you really need to send a newsletter or not. Think about what you want to achieve and if you have enough content available.
An online newsletter complements your existing communication accompanied by announcements about product updates, offers, events and general news about the company. It is not a promotional email dedicated to a single topic, promotion or event that includes additional content to make bulk.
If you feel that you can not provide enough important content or that the newsletter focuses on a single event or promotion, you should consider the option of designing an independent email marketing campaign to support these marketing objectives.
In this guide, you will see some newsletter article examples and learn some key elements that you should include in your campaigns.
You can use these to get newsletter article ideas for your emails and create something that could get more email subscribers so you can continue to build your list effectively. Then, you can focus on implementing your email marketing strategy and achieving the results you desire.
How to Write a Newsletter Article: Getting Started
Personalization
If you really want to focus on personalization, you should go beyond simply including the name of the recipient of the email in the subject line. Currently, most companies already do, so subscribers are accustomed to this type of customization and do not perceive it as something new and exclusive.
If you want to differentiate yourself to the maximum, try to adapt the content of your emails to each recipient.
The first step to achieve relevance is to understand who the person really is that receives your emails. If you have a large amount of information about the tastes, tendencies, and habits of each recipient you will be able to select relevant content for each one of them.
For example, an eCommerce site that has differentiated targets in terms of products, showing in their emails a specific selection of goods and/or promotions based on the characteristics of a purchase will make the communication more relevant to that recipient.
Regardless of the specific profile of the target you are targeting, in terms of content, remember that you are talking to real people, not robots. Use, as far as possible, a relaxed, accessible and personal tone. This way, you can create and maintain fruitful relationships with your customers.
One Email For Every Topic
Don’t confuse your subscribers with multiple topics in one email. This makes it cluttered and hard to convey a particular message.
Every email should have its own specific topic that it addresses.
If needed, you can add other parts at the bottom such as “What’s New This Week”, or “What You May Have Missed”.
The main part of the email, which is the start where people will read first, is where your main message should be.
If you want to draw people to a specific page on your website, do it straight away at the top of the email. This increases the clickthrough rate to your desired page and conveys the message immediately.
Find A Striking Headline
To open or not open an email? That is the question. We live in an age where we are bombarded by the inbox and the subject of each mail is a very important factor in deciding whether to open it or throw it in the trash.
The headline is everything when it comes to sending out emails to your subscribers.
It can literally be the difference between someone opening your email or not.
DON’T USE ALL CAPS for your headlines or stupid forms of clickbait.
People are a lot savvier online than they used to be and scan their inbox in a few seconds to see if you look like spam or not.
There are various forms of headlines you could try, but you will ultimately need to experiment to find out what your subscribers are more receptive to.
“ [OPEN] Have you seen the latest about… “
If you saw this in your inbox, would you open it?
I probably would to be honest. Nothing about it looks spammy to me and it finishes on an unfinished note that intrigues me to open it.
Share Valuable Content
People gave you their email address for a reason.
And it was most likely because they want to receive future communications from you about your website.
They could have subscribed for other reasons, like to get a discount code or freebie for example.
But these people are still subscribed nonetheless and offer you the potential to work with.
Offering them something of value in every email you send increases the chance that they will purchase something from you.
This is where you can create high-quality blog posts and let your readers know about it.
The blog posts can even have a few upsells or cross-sells in it but should be made for the purpose of providing great information for free.
Start Writing
Sometimes you can think of what to put in your newsletter. So, just start writing and see what comes out.
As we mentioned before, don’t send out newsletters for the sake of it.
If you start writing and you manage to crank out something of substance, see if you can provide value to your readers with it. Sometimes the best ideas can come from nothing, so just give it a go.
Tips For Writing an Email Newsletter Article
Offer Real Value
Offer value as no one else can and start building lasting relationships with your audience. There are many fakers in the world of marketing, offering the illusion of valuable content but with the delivery of nothing. Real value will deliver you real results, so treat this element properly and your audience will appreciate it.
Keep a Schedule
This can be one of the easiest solutions on the list. The fact that you publish constantly and on a similar schedule helps readers to establish an “appointment” with your content.
Thus, excitement and anticipation are established that can be fulfilled. If you publish daily, but for three days you do not publish anything, your credibility may be affected. But if you always follow a schedule, your reputation may increase.
Also, you should be aware that there are certain times for email marketing that are better than others, so take this into consideration before you send out your emails.
Maintain Attention
You may have only 15 seconds to convince a reader that your content is worthwhile.
You must hook them; Remember that it is very easy for any reader to be distracted and stop reading your content.
Careless work provides an easy way out of your content and this is a very common email marketing mistake to commit. Try to retain them, provide the right quality and quantity so that they do not go to the competition and remain by your side.
Consistent and Simple Design
The design should be consistent with a large number of blank spaces that make it attractive and easy to read. If you follow a fixed structure, readers will become familiar with the design format and each time it will be easier to navigate through each edition.
The key is to make it as practical as possible so that readers find the sections they are most interested in so that they do not get lost and frustrated with so much information.
The presentation is important since the opening rate is provided by the subject line but many times the click rate depends on whether the user is impacted by the image of the email or not.
So remember to include the logo of your company, use a clean template, check the spelling, and test before sending.
Optimized for Mobile
A lot of people admit that they will delete any email that is not adapted to mobile. If your email does not take into account this factor for a correct design and launch, your marketing budget is not being spent effectively.
With the segmentation by device, you can send the correct message on the right device and thus capture a larger number of customers.
Prove It
Every article or post is a story. But there are so many “storytellers” in the business at this time that the next marketing conference should be around a campfire.
In this context, however, narration means providing proof with a narrative. Use examples from the real world, for example, testimonials from your customers whenever you can.
When you can not, involve the imagination of your audience with the story of how your life will change with the solution you bring.
Don’t Include Excess Information
Newsletters usually contain news that covers all areas of the company, which makes it difficult to try to group all the articles together. You could create master sections that are constituted by relevant subtitles and images that help guide the reader through the information.
Instead of placing the launch of a product and opening a new office between the announcement of a partnership and an article about a new employee, a good tip would be to create a section called “Our Team” that contains all the information related to employees and another section called “Business Expansion” with company news?
Your newsletter has to be easy to read and direct, so you must maintain a minimal design and copy. In turn, the text should be clear and concise and point to a call-to-action markup that redirects readers to the web page in question or landing page.
Sending A Newsletter Article
Once you have gone over everything and optimized your newsletter article for each different element you can prepare to execute your campaign and send out your emails.
You can use an email service provider to do this such as GetResponse who will be able to help you build a subscriber list, create newsletters, segment lists, and much more to in order to build an effective campaign.
You can then study and track your analytics after the campaign is finished so you can chop and change things round in order to get better results in the future.