by Wikus Engelbrecht
5. agosto 2010 03:33
4 Tips for an impacting email newsletter
Stumped as to how to go about designing your newsletter? Our design team shared some great tips in the past, but here are a few basics for those first timers out there.
The first thing most first-time email marketers want to do is design their newsletter – and without fail, they want something that’s visually appealing to subscribers. And here they get stumped...because it takes some skill to design a truly flashy newsletter.
We’re overwhelmed with information daily and images are an easy way and eye-catching way to pull them in. The good news is that subscribers are pressed for time – they enjoy something that’s simple and to the point. You don’t need an intricate design; just something that’s bold, simple and clearly tells them what they need to do.
#1: Remember to keep your email newsletter as short as possible, with the most important information above the fold. If your subscribers are busy, they don’t want to have to scroll through oodles of information – they want the most important information staring them in the face as soon as they open and if it interests them they’ll scroll further down. It’s the same concept as a newspaper article, really.
#2: Use images – it’s an easy way to pull your subscribers in visually. Subscribers don’t want to be faced by a block of text; images make your email easier to read, more memorable, and personal.
However, there are two things to keep in mind:
Keep a good balance between your text and images, so that your readers aren’t so distracted by the pretty pictures that they miss the point of your email.
Insert alternative text for the images in your email so that, should the recipients images be blocked, they still see some text rather than just a blank block.
#3: Another way to break up your text blocks is through simple formatting. Highlight points that are important, insert bulleted lists or create visual blocks to frame snippets of text. Our drag-and-drop editor is the perfect tool for designing newsletters in this fashion – and it means your content is easy to edit, and read.
#4: It’s good to have a little structure, that way readers know what to expect when they open your newsletter. Subscribers sign up to your newsletter, either because they want to establish a relationship with your brand, or because they want to improve on the existing relationship and become more informed. By following a similar structure in each newsletter they come to know where to find the information they’re most likely to be interested in and there might even be a particular section of your newsletter that you’d really enjoy. Even something as simple as sticking to a basic colour structure helps.
Of course, a surprise is always welcome. If you subscribe to our newsletter you may have noticed that I stick to the same structure in every newsletter, but that the banner image changes. Even I enjoy seeing what our designers come up with for each month’s newsletter – even though you know what the layout of the email will be, it’s nice to have an ever-changing element that you know will surprise you. If you want to include something like this, remember to stick to one changing element and keep the rest in keeping with your newsletter’s “uniform”.
There you have it – four basics with which to kick off your design. So forget about choosing colours and images for the moment and make sure that you stick to these principles first to ensure you design an effective newsletter.
You can read some more thoughts on how to make sure your newsletter makes an impact here.
