The Secret Recipe for Great Email Newsletters

The Secret Recipe for Great Email Newsletters

Email marketing has been having a moment for several years and shows no sign of slowing—mostly because it really, really works. Email is a personal, direct way to communicate with potential customers and stay in touch with those who have expressed interest in or actively utilized your services before. You can share information, send out blog posts, let customers know about discounts or other offers, and generally ensure that you stay top-of-mind.

That is if you do it right.

An email newsletter requires a delicate balance of information, images, and calls-to-action—and getting it perfect can be difficult.

What every email newsletter needs to succeed:

A solid idea. The theme of your email newsletter can’t simply be “talking to your customers.” Much like a blog, your newsletter needs to have one overarching idea or theme that drives it. What is the tone? What is it about? Why would people click through it? What can they expect? Consider what your newsletter will convey over time, and how each installment can add to that. Is it a roundup of industry ideas? Does it link out to great articles you read this week? Or it is more of a lifestyle newsletter about a specific industry or interest?

Oh, and for bonus points? Try to come up with a great name for it (like the Ace Hotel’s A-List).

A great subject line. This is paramount. Think of your subject line like a blog post headline: It’s the first thing people will see, and it’s what will compel them to click through. Pick something short and conversational, but pointed. For more, HubSpot has a great guideline for the perfect subject line.

Beautiful images. A wall of text is a real turn-off. Whether you’re taking pictures from inside your business, or you’re using free stock photos (there are lots of sources for those), images help give people something to look at while they read, and set the tone of your newsletter. Try to pepper the text with images to create a dynamic look—but make sure that the pictures aren’t so huge that they make it hard to read from a mobile device.

At least one big takeaway. You want your readers to learn something—and not just something about you and your business. Instead, you want them to take away one nugget or fact or piece of information that will remind them of you, and that they might even share with people they know. This is your chance to be relevant in their lives outside of the services you may offer in the future.

One call to action. It can be easy to get overly excited and ask your readers to attend an event and like you on Facebook and visit your blog, but each email newsletter probably should just have on cohesive prompt. Whether it’s telling them about an upcoming event or sale, trying to drum up engagement on social media, or directing them to your website, pick one of these per newsletter and let that be your guiding light.

Email newsletters can be fun, creative ways for brands to keep in touch with clients, with also demonstrating their authority or likeability. If you nail all of these components, you’ll be in great shape. And if you still need some inspiration, here’s a whole big list of last year’s best email campaigns.

Want to launch an email newsletter that works? The digital marketing experts at efelle creative can help.

The award-winning team at efelle creative in Seattle includes website designers, web developers, SEO copywriters, and digital marketing specialists that will help your business maintain an SEO content strategy that gets results. Call us at 206.384.4909 or use our online contact form for a free consultation