10 Tips for Writing Compelling Email Newsletter Content
Email newsletters are excellent tools that you can use in your business to get closer to your target audience and build up a subscriber base.
The crew at Copyblogger stated it best when they stated the following…”Email provides you the most direct line of communication for conversion to sales” …
In this post, I am covering some tips for creating a great email newsletter. If you haven’t started your email newsletter yet, click here to check out my step by step guide to starting an email newsletter and collecting emails.
A Few Tips for Writing Compelling Content
There are numerous things you can do to create an effective and compelling email newsletter. Nonetheless, here are the most crucial tips you should consider:
1. Create a Catchy Title
The first thing your readers will see is your email newsletter’s subject line and article title.
If those two things are not intriguing enough, your click-through rate and sales will diminish. Some examples of Catchy Newsletter Titles are:
- “Commercial Property Investor’s Report” versus “The Loman Investment Newsletter”
- “Birdwatching Today” versus “Dave’s Pet Store Birdwatching Gazette”
- “Racing Trends” versus “The Racing Mechanic Times”
2. Pick Relevant and Evergreen Topics
Learn as much as you can about your target audience and then create content that:
- Answers their questions and solves their problems
- They can apply in their own lives and businesses
- As much as possible, can be used no matter how old the newsletter becomes
Here is a list of 50 Ideas for Great Content for your E-Newsletter.
3. Make Your Newsletter Unique
People pick clothes that they find refreshing and which match their style. Similarly, people will pick your newsletter only if it is fresh and unique and outstanding email design. That means it is beneficial to create beautiful email design – Sender.net is an email marketing platform that provides all the required tools for successful email campaigns, including advanced and easy-to-use design tools, with multiple templates to choose from.
4. Always Go for Quality
You are an expert and an authoritative figure on your chosen niche. That is what you want your readers to understand. Now, how can that be possible if your email newsletter has a poor design and filled with grammatical errors?
That said, you ought to:
- Always proofread and edit your email newsletter articles
- Add relevant images when necessary
- Limit links
5. Talk to Your Reader
Yes, you might have hundreds or thousands of subscribers. However, you have to remember that your newsletter will reach and be read by your followers individually, so you have to make your writing as personal as possible.
Instead of collectively referring to your subscribers as “readers,” use words, such as “you,” that endear you to them.
6. Make It Easy to Read
Some people do not like reading long articles or big blocks of texts. Make it easier for them to go through your newsletter by:
- Adding subheadings
- Using bullet points
- Highlighting (bold or italicize) vital information
- Using short sentences and paragraphs
Brant Wilson, a staff writer for the DesignMag network put together a great list of 10 Stunning Email Newsletter Designs that you can use as inspiration for designing your own company’s Email Newsletter.
7. Prefer to Inform, Not Advertise
People subscribe to email newsletters generally because they want to learn from the author. While they might like some products you offer, you should never make a huge advertisement magazine out of your newsletter.
Keep ads and affiliate links to a minimum and allot a small part of your email for them, so readers can skip them, if they like.
8. Listen to Your Subscribers
Readers know what they want best, so be sure to listen to what they say. Collect questions and feedbacks, and address them in your next release. Do this, and your readers will surely love and treasure you.
9. Stick with a Schedule
Make your readers anticipate and eager to get your latest newsletter by creating and sticking to a schedule. Now, you do not need to send emails every day. A newsletter a week, every other week, or once a month can be enough; just make sure that you are offering valuable information.
10. Offer Incentives
Every now and then, offer a reward to your current and potential subscribers. The prize need not be worth a fortune. In fact, simple shout outs or small products relevant to your business can be enough.
Although this is to show your appreciation to your readers, they are most certain to give the favor back by continuously supporting you and perhaps sharing your email newsletter with more readers.
How to Plan Content for Your Monthly Email Newsletter
Planning out content for an email newsletter can be a challenge. One of the best resources that you can use to map out content on a monthly basis is an editorial calendar.
With an editorial you can easily track all of the content that you publish on a monthly basis to your newsletters, blog posts and more.
Coschedule, Convince and Convert and Hubspot all have printable editorial calendars that you can download and use to map out your content for your email newsletters.
What Should You include In Your Editorial Calendar?
When mapping out your content, here are a few things that you should add:
- The titles of the content that you plan to add
- The date that you plan to publish the newsletter
- Who is responsible for publishing the newsletter
Examples of Content that you can add to your Monthly Newsletter
Here are a few examples of content that you can add to your newsletters to keep your subscribers engaged:
- Add Case Studies from your current customers – here you can highlight how your products or services have benefited them.
- Include Testimonials from satisfied clients – to build credibility with your subscribers
- Add a Client spotlight feature – highlighting your best customers, their businesses and again provide examples of how your products/services have benefited them.
- Add a blog post roundup – with links to all of the content that you have published to your blog for the month
- A curated content or industry news– with links to hot topics and trends in your industry
3 Great Email Newsletter Service Providers for Small Businesses
If you are on the hunt for an email newsletter service provider for your business, here are a few of the best email newsletter service providers that you should consider:
1. Aweber Email Newsletter Service
AWeber is one of the BEST email newsletter service providers there are out there. AWeber is the current email marketing and newsletter service provider that I am currently using here at the Small Business Sense blog. If you’re ready to start an email newsletter for your business, check out my step by step tutorial here. (You can take AWeber for a test run for just $1.)
It’s easy to use, has automation features, and has tons of drag and drop tools that you can use to email easily create an attractive email newsletter for your business.
2. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an additional email newsletter service that is easy to use that is free to use. Like AWeber, Mailchimp has a ton of drag and drop email tools you can use to build an email newsletter as well. With this service, you can send emails to up to 2,000 subscribers, however…the free version doesn’t have automation features included (which is a huge time saver).
3. Constant Contact
Constant Contact is an additional email newsletter service that folks rave about. This email newsletter service is very popular amongst small businesses, can be integrated easily with a variety of other products like Hootsuite and more.
Creating a highly effective and very compelling email newsletter is not easy, but with the right email marketing tools, the process can be significantly streamlined. However, if you keep the tips I shared with you in mind, in time, you will be able to create newsletters that generate awesome results. Otherwise, there is a professional writing company Advanced Writers that can be very helpful in writing email newsletters, blog posts, academic articles and web content for busy people.
