Whether you’re a large corporation or a small startup, your company has ideas to share! A newsletter can be an ideal way to reach your audience, keeping the rapport between company and consumer lively. However, making the perfect newsletter is part art, part science. Marketing^SI wants to share our tips for making a newsletter excellent.

EVALUATE
THE NEED
TO HAVE
ONE

Before rushing into anything, think about if a newsletter really is the optimal way to reach your current audience. Some companies go the newsletter route because “everyone’s doing it,” but if there are better alternatives to achieving your company’s defined goals, it may save you time and money to opt out.

Always consider your target audience’s demographics. How old are they? How do they receive information? What are their careers? Tap into your consumer to assess the best communication strategy, leveraging data or analytics you already have to give you that insight

IDENTIFY YOUR OBJECTIVE & STICK TO IT!

When planning your newsletter, be clear about what its objective is. Resist the urge to make a newsletter “for exposure” or to “stay top-of-mind,” as these are superficial objectives that result in low-value content and poor community engagement.

To educate, entertain, inform, inspire—these are great objectives to shoot for, provided they add value to your particular target audience. Pick one, and do that as best as you can, sprinkling in promotional messaging in a way that’s seamless and relevant to your audience.

STRATEGY OR BUST

We at Marketing^SI know that nothing is successful without strategy! To start, figure out what role a newsletter will play within your communication ecosystem, along the customer journey. Once you have clearly stated objectives that match your corporate goals, make a comprehensive game plan, which includes key themes that live at the intersection of the organization and its target audience.

Do check that everything aligns with your positioning and target segmentation. Finally, consider how your newsletter will support or enhance other efforts, such as promotional activity and your social media content calendar.

VALUE, NOT SPAM

Put simply, good content is that which adds value to the person getting it. Based on the sender-receiver model, all communication—newsletter, email, text, or otherwise—is receiver-based. Your recipient is #1; your content should always be tailored to what serves them best.

Keep content relevant to the reader, reminding yourself of your objectives (which, again, should not simply be self-promotion). For example, if yours is to educate, HubSpot recommends newsletter content be 90% educational and 10% promotional.

FOCUS ON THE TOP

Eye-tracking studies have shown that people read online material in an “F” shaped pattern, meaning that the content at the top of the page is the most closely and heavily read—maybe even the only thing read at all.

In email communications, including newsletters, lead with your best foot forward and give the most effort and punchiest words to the front lines!

LESS IS MORE

As Hamlet said in his namesake play, “Brevity is the Soul of Wit.” When writing content for your newsletter, a dissertation is not only unnecessary, but downright inadvisable. Keep it short.

SUBJECT LINE SUPERHERO

Did you know that 35% of recipients open emails based off of the subject lines? Or that 69% report that they mark mail as spam from the subject line alone? Your subject line makes or breaks your newsletter’s receipt.

So, it should incite intrigue and urgency, making the recipient say, “Wait, what?” or “I have to check this out right now!” Be engaging; give the recipient a taste of what’s inside with a tantalizing one-liner. Instead of “Company A’s October Newsletter,” try this instead: “Liking, tagging and sharing—oh my! See our socials.”

MAKE IT PERSONAL

Put the receiver’s name in email! This isn’t just nice to do; 82% of marketers report that emails with personalized elements increased open rates. After all, who doesn’t want to open something just for them?

Another great way to make things more personal is with the “From” name. According to digital marketing expert Neil Patel, using your name in the “From” area is excellent practice as people prefer emails from people, not disembodied corporations.

NOW YOU SEE ME

Visuals are an essential part of marketing; they draw the eye and convey information better and faster than most written copy. Our brains process images faster than text.

Video is even better, as using video gives you a 96.38% higher click-through rate than those without.

THE “POPSICLE STICK” THEORY

When you were a kid, chances are you loved finishing a popsicle and checking the stick for the punchline to some mildly humorous joke. Heck—you probably still do! Moreover, maybe you feel disappointed when your stick is blank.

Your newsletter needs to be like a funny popsicle stick; your viewer should anticipate the content within, and you should deliver on that expectation. If your consumer has come to expect certain content at a certain cadence, do it. As communications expert Judee Burgoon purports with her Expectancy Violation Theory, going against built-up expectations can damage your brand’s favorability.

LASTLY, LOOK AT THE NUMBERS

You’ve worked hard on your newsletter, but before you get too attached, it’s important to evaluate if it’s seeing the success it should by tracking metrics. For e-newsletters, focus on open rate, clickthroughs, conversions, list growth, forward rate, and delivery rate. Be sure to compare your metrics to those seen in similar businesses and industries to see how you measure up!

WE’RE HERE TO HELP!

From developing an overarching content strategy, to optimizing and implementing an effective newsletter, we hope these tips help you create an effective, perfect newsletter for your organization!

If you want to talk about this and other insights, don’t hesitate to contact us.