The way you write your newsletter will have a direct impact on your email marketing results. Here are 5 tricks that will help you while your fingers are diligently working away at the keyboard.
1. Choose an attractive subject line
The subject line is the first thing your readers will see in their inbox. Through extensive research we’ve noticed that an effective subject line contains 7 to 10 words.
You need to attract attention immediately and entice your readers to open your email right away. Don’t forget that readers will often notice more than one email in their inbox at the same time which will put your subject line in “competition” with others.
Too long, and you are asking for too much effort from your readers. Too short, you’re risking them not getting the message you are trying to convey.
Answering these two questions while crafting your subject line is a good way to ensure it will attract attention:
- “Why did my readers subscribe to my email list?”
- “What are my subscribers expecting to get from this email?”
If your subject line doesn’t pique their interest and your subscribers don’t open your email, all the hard work you put into creating your newsletter will be lost.
2. Key details go first
A rule of thumb when writing a newsletter is to always begin with a summary of the content. Write in small paragraphs and adopt the news-writing style. In other words, the following questions should be answered in your intro:
- What?
- Who?
- Where?
- When?
- How?
This practice allows the reader to get a glimpse and decide whether or not they would like to continue reading about the content, which they can do on your website. That means the content you send must be of interest to the person receiving it and it must be enticing.
3. Pay attention to editing and formatting
Leaving “spealling errers” or “typpos” in your newsletter is never a good idea…
Also, writing a novel full of twist and turns might add additional flair to your text but it’s also not a good idea. Instead opt for:
- Bullet points
- Short text
- Taglines
- Numbered lists such as “top 10 tricks, 8 best tips, 5 tricks to, etc.
The formatting must be concise, short sentences, straight to the point. Pique the interest, and when needed, invite the reader to find out more on your website by adding a button or link “read more”.
4. Don’t underestimate technical details
Your readers’ attention span is measured in seconds. They react fast and make split second decisions.
Have you thought about what content will be displayed above the fold?
What happens if an email is read on a phone, a tablet, or a desktop? The content that is not visible unless a person scrolls down towards the bottom might never be seen.
One more thing to consider is that the eye of the reader tends to read the content on the screen in a Z formation. It’s important to place your paragraphs for proper viewing. As mentioned above, your content would benefit from being light and balanced. The eye of the reader will often go in a diagonal direction before settling on a point of interest.
Before sending your email, look at the formatting as a whole and try to make it as readable as possible: think about spacing, titles, images, their positioning, layout, alignment, choice of colours, fonts, CAPITAL letters, etc.
When it comes to font, playing with sizing is a good idea, however going with three different sizes in one email is the very maximum. The same rule applies when it comes to choosing fonts–3 maximum.
5. Add text on your images
The idea of placing a nice image of a person smiling can be attractive. But have you thought about adding a line of text to the image? Wouldn’t it be more effective?
An image is the perfect background to add a few words to. Two or three words as a tagline can prove to be very effective when added to an image and can entice people into reading your email. It’s true that an image is worth a thousand words, it just needs to be the right words!
Happy writing!
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