E-Newsletters: Best Practices for Email Marketing Success

There are many different reasons to begin sending an e-newsletter. Determine the goals you would like to accomplish with your e-newsletter before sending and create an email marketing strategy based on these goals. Use these best practice techniques for a successful e-newsletter:

Great Subject Line:
The subject line is the first impression of a newsletter and an attention-grabbing subject line will yield better open rates. Short, catchy headlines work well for an email subject line.

Interesting Content:
A great subject line will get readers to open the email but if the content isn’t interesting they won’t keep reading or click links. Create high-quality content that readers will want to continue reading and will forward every email. If readers can expect great content they will be more likely to open a brand’s emails.

Featured Article:
Have a featured article at the top of the e-newsletter. This is beneficial for several reasons; it is visually appealing, makes a great subject line and it puts the best content at the top. A featured article can also help each newsletter have a distinct theme in content.

Links, Links & More Links!
An effective newsletter will have many links embedded into the email. Anything that a reader might try to click on should have a link back to the original content. Each headline, photo and “read more” button should be linked to the correct place making it easy for customers to find. Also, don’t forget to include links to social media platforms. This is essential because if a reader ever un-subscribes from the email list, they will still be connected through social media.

Images:
Include images in your email marketing but be selective. People are naturally drawn to images over text, but large or very detailed photos can be distracting in an email. Use smaller images with simple, clean lines, which will be less distracting. This is especially important if many of your readers are opening emails on their mobile devices.

Consistency:
Set a schedule and commit to it, send e-newsletters around the same time and frequency each week or month for best results. Readers will become familiar with the routine and begin to look for newsletters in their inboxes ­– as long as they are filled with interesting content.

Mix It Up:
When beginning an e-newsletter it is important to try out different strategies to determine what works best. Test out different days and times to send emails, keep track of successful subject lines and keep changing the strategy based on what is working and what isn’t.

Thinking about sending an e-newsletter? See how WTWH Marketing Lab can help.
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