How to Make a Newsletter: 8 Elements to Include

A newsletter is an email marketing tool to share news and information about your business or personal life with your existing customers, potential clients, and other email list subscribers. The best email newsletters exist as part of a larger email marketing strategy, with email campaigns and newsletter content promoting e-commerce or new products and driving internet traffic to your company website.

Newsletters, particularly professional newsletters, keep your email subscribers up to date on your business and allow you to connect to them and create a relationship of trust. More importantly, it gives your email clients a call to action to engage with your business, reminding them of your brand and what you offer through eye-catching marketing campaigns. In addition, a good email newsletter allows you to use digital marketing software metrics to keep track of click-through rates and engagement growth with each email campaign.

You may decide to use a premade email template for your company newsletter or build your own after brainstorming newsletter ideas. If you choose to create your own newsletter, it should contain the following design elements:

• Business logo: The newsletter’s colors should complement the color scheme of your logo, which should feature heavily in your design. Learn how to design a logo with graphic designer David Carson.
• Call-to-action (CTA): This element might include special offers, subscription opt-ins, pop-ups, or sign-up forms that drive the reader to engage with your company’s website landing page.
• Easy navigation: The functionality of your newsletter design should make it easy for your clients to read and explore.
• Header: The eye-catching header on your email newsletter template reflects your company’s brand and captures the reader’s attention.
• Images or graphics: Break up blocks of text in your newsletter campaign with photos or other colorful graphic design elements.
• Main content: Strive to make the layout of your newsletter easy to read and visually attractive, and more importantly, ensure you provide your reader with relevant and valuable content.
• Personalization: If possible, personalize your newsletter by directly addressing it to the name of each subscriber.
• Subject line: Craft a subject line that grabs your reader’s attention and makes potential customers want to open your newsletter.

You can create your own professional newsletter by following these steps:

1. 1. Choose an email service provider. You’ll need an email client to distribute your email newsletter campaigns. Choose a service capable of handling bulk correspondence, which personal email clients typically don’t offer. Email marketing platforms can supply metrics like open rates and click-through rates.
2. 2. Build your newsletter. You can choose a free newsletter template or create your own design using a tutorial. The benefits of an existing email newsletter template include having an easy drag-and-drop editor that requires no preexisting design skills.
3. 3. Customize your newsletter. Choose your email newsletter’s color scheme, logo, branding, and calls to action. Research other newsletter examples for inspiration and newsletter best practices.
4. 4. Add valuable content. Keep your newsletter content entertaining, informative, and engaging. Proofread for grammatical errors and typos, and include alt text for images. Add colorful and engaging images to break up a long piece of content.
5. 5. Create an eye-catching subject line. Your email subject line should be short and grab your reader’s attention.
6. 6. Add an unsubscribe button. According to General Data Protection Rules (GDPR), you must provide an unsubscribe button to your email list.
7. 7. Conduct tests and send your newsletter. Conduct A/B testing if you want to check how the newsletter appears on a webpage versus an app. You may also find it helpful to do a deliverability and spam test, which checks whether your newsletter will make it to the mailboxes of your target audience. When your newsletter feels right, send it out to your subscriber list.
8. 8. Gather metrics. After a few days, check to see how your newsletter did in terms of click-through rates, open rates, and conversion rates, which you can gather through marketing automation software. Use the in-depth information you collect to adjust and make changes for your next newsletter campaign.

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