7 Best Email Newsletter Design Tips
The active list of email addresses is likely one of your greatest business assets. There’s no other medium for marketing that can offer the same direct and personal contact with your target audience.
Marketing via email is becoming more critical in this hyper-connected and constantly connected world.
A newsletter via email is an excellent way to be at the forefront of your customer’s minds by giving valuable information such as your most recent blogs, complete information, and alerts about sales announcements, company news, and much other information.
There’s plenty you can accomplish using email. However, the biggest hurdle you’ll need to conquer is getting your readers to open, read, and act in response to your emails.
Instead, we’ll not cover topics like subject lines or growing your email subscriber list in this article. We will focus on the design and layout of your newsletter. An effective email newsletter will keep your subscribers interested and encourage them to engage in action.
Below, you’ll discover what email newsletters are and how you can create an email newsletter that captivates your reader’s attention (even if you’re no designer).
How do you define an email message?
Let’s define the basics: What’s an electronic newsletter?
You’ve likely seen an email newsletter show up in your email inbox at some point. Maybe you’ve even looked at one in the morning while you went through your email.
Email newsletters provide companies with an opportunity to interact with their customers.
They’re regular periodic emails that include informative content or a recap of the most the latest offers or information that was published throughout each week (or month) according to how often you update your subscribers.
Typically, the kind of content you include in your newsletter is determined by your industry. Specific industries like retailers and e-commerce will likely feature more images and content geared toward products. Others utilize their newsletters to inform readers of the latest published blog post.
The main goal of your email-based newsletters is not to promote products or earn money for your company (at the very least indirect).
Instead, it’s about providing the subscribers value and strengthening the relationship. Your connection and create trust. This way, when you’re launching an event or launch, or are selling something you’ll have more resistance on the buyer’s part.
Seven email newsletter design tips
After you’ve learned the motivations of email newsletters, you’re now ready to explore some of the best practices for design.
- Get your dimensions right.
- Create a captivating (but not overpowering) header, but not overwhelming.
- Select colors that align with your company’s image.
- Use lots of space.
- Focus on content over design.
- Include a compelling CTA.
- Let the seasons and holidays inspire the design.
It is possible to consider the look of your newsletter similar to the style of your site.
It must be deliberate, directly address your audience, be engaging, and have ample white space to provide the perfect experience for the person reading it.
The industry you’re operating is also a factor in the overall style.
In specific markets, you might not have a design. Instead, you’ll use the most straightforward format possible, meaning that the email will appear as if you opened Gmail and then sent out a text-based email to your contacts. However, for most markets, you’ll need something present, even if it’s simple.
Make sure you keep these design principles in mind when designing an email-based newsletter.
1. Get your dimensions right
The first thing to concentrate on is dimensions. If your newsletter is too big or small, it will appear strange to email clients.
Instead of opening an email that is easy to read, your recipients will need to focus at the bottom of the email or swipe side to side in order to be able to read the content.
Provide this kind of experience for your readers over and over again. Instead of anticipating your emails, your customers will be eager to delete your emails as soon as they receive them in their inboxes.
Unsubscribes that are too frequent and have low opening rates can result in your emails being marked as spam. This means that your emails won’t get to their inbox at all.
The standard size for email marketing for email templates is 600 pixels. It’s possible to hover around this size, however, most companies that offer email marketing templates have templates in the standard size.
Make sure that your e-mail is displayed correctly on your user and mobile device’s email client, make sure you have 600 pixels or 640 pixels.
2. Create a memorable (but not overpowering) header
Your header will appear as the primary thing readers will see when they look at your email. You’ve already completed the difficult job of getting your subscribers to open your emails; your header should reassure them that they’re in the right spot.
Here are some super simple headers that work with the brand’s identity and website in general:
Nick Stephenson of Your First 10K Readers is straightforward in his header. It’s an ideal match for the logo on the website. When users go to the site, they’ll see the same symbol at the top of the page.
Another simple header comes taken from Sierra Trading Post. The title here corresponds to the logo.
Just below the header, you’ll see a second image that can be clicked which is the direct message’s primary goal is to encourage customers to visit the website to look at the massive sale they’re holding.
In many cases, your header may be your logo for your website. If the hue of the email template doesn’t match your site’s background, You can modify the color or the dimensions to ensure it appears just right.
You can either directly into the content beneath your brand name or add the header in the same way as in blog posts.
This will depend on the content you’re putting inside your newsletter.
For instance, if you’re creating a weekly roundup of the top content from the week, you’ll need an additional header that reflects the subject of your email, or the content within your newsletter.
Check out how AngelList is doing it:
The newsletter is divided into different sections, which are split by headers of various types, including blog posts, industry news and a list of startups hiring within the sector the newsletter covers.
Your header’s overall look and feel must be consistent with your brand’s website.
This means you should use a similar color selection, logo, and the exact fonts (if feasible). So that when some-one visits your website, they will experience a seamless experience.
3. Select colors that are in line with your brand
When you create an email newsletter, you’ll want it to align to your site. Therefore, if your website utilizes a lot of orange, red, and yellow, you’ll need to incorporate these colors in your newsletter.
For example, Marginalian email newsletter, for instance. Marginalian electronic newsletter is essentially an identical replica of the website.
For many website owners, this strategy won’t work or even be practical, but for this particular website, it’s working perfectly. Many websites use this technique to provide the reader with a seamless experience.
The newsletter is designed with similar fonts, colors and images, and spacing. If you go from the newsletter’s email to the web page, you’ll experience the same experience.
Another aspect to consider when selecting the color of your choice is to use complementing colors for your call-to-action (CTA) buttons and hyperlinks. This will make them stand out and inspire your readers to click.
This is a basic illustration, however, the primary blue hyperlink text is sure to grab your focus:
This is also true for buttons on your newsletter; even though the remainder of your emails contain hyperlinks, your eyes naturally will be drawn to the yellow button
4. Be sure to include lots of white space
There are limitations on the length of our newsletters that they can be. However, there’s no limit to the size of your newsletter. With virtually limitless space, there’s no reason to over-package your newsletter with unnecessary information that could overburden your readers.
Even if your publication contains lots of information, be sure to allow ample space for it to breathe.
For instance, Umzu’s newsletter is a good example. Umzu email newsletter, for example, is full of links to product reviews, testimonials, and more. The newsletter’s email content isn’t excessive, with myriad links and information. It’s quite the opposite.
If you’re planning on sending many information, links, or products in your email, you’ll require white space to balance your email.
In the case above, you’ll also see the logical structure in the emails.
The product first gets discussed. There’s also a testimonial. Then, they provide a method to find out more and offer more options to buy the product.
5. Focus on content over design
Even the most appealing design will not be enough to sway an uninteresting newsletter.
Before you begin designing your newsletter, it’s essential to determine what it will cover.
For instance:
- Is it an annual roundup of the most popular blog posts on the internet?
- Does the aim of this website to display your collection of seasonal items?
- Do you send an email with a link to a recent blog post you have written?
- Are you looking to recommend your subscribers to an affiliate deal?
- Perhaps you’ve got a very content-heavy site that you want to display some posts that are your top-rated content from the week before?
For instance, writer James Altucher sends an email newsletter that includes his most recent writings and links to other offers in the newsletter’s text.
One excellent strategy is to create the copy for your email newsletter and then develop your design around it. This will affect the design and the various elements, such as images, text, and CTAs you’ll need.
In the case of the majority of business owners, it would seem sensible to create a simple template you can work with. This will ensure that all your emails will have the same appearance, even if each email’s content, structure, and layout are different.
If your customers open an email and click on it, you want them to get the same experience again. You wouldn’t alter the style of your site every week or day as well, so you should do the same for your email messages.
6. Include a compelling CTA
Just because you have a gorgeous CTA button does not mean your customers are likely to click.
The CTA is as crucial just as how the buttons are designed. What is it that makes an excellent CTA?
Here are some suggestions to help you get off to a good start:
Use language that is actionable and related to your emails.
Your CTA must be active, meaning it is busy at the moment. Consider classic examples such as “click here” or “sign up.” It is essential to make your CTA more specific; however, these are good places to begin.
For a more precise instance, let’s say your message highlights the benefits of a service or product you offer, and you’d like readers to sign-up to receive a trial for free. In this instance, you could use a CTA such as “Start your free 30-day trial now” and “Get your free trial today” is a good idea.
Let the CTA stand above the rest of your emails.
Your CTA must stand out from your other content. If your customer is looking through your email then the CTA is sure to catch their focus.
For this, keep these things in your mind:
- Make sure you use vibrant buttons or colors that are different from those used in your email.
- There should be several white space around the CTA. Could you not put it next to other information?
- Create your CTA fluid to appear suitable, whether displayed on a computer, tablet, or mobile device.
The smaller the number of CTAs, the more effective.
The fewer CTAs you can include in your emails, the more effective they will be. Don’t overwhelm your readers with click options; click-through rates are likely to decrease. When you send out your email marketing, you’re usually trying to appeal to different interests and needs, So you’ll have many CTAs.
However, you must ensure the contents are relevant to the specific section of the email.
For instance, the designer and author Austin Kleon is the creator of Austin Kleon’s, an email roundup newsletter every week. While there are many hyperlinks, it’s not too overwhelming.
The email newsletter they send out encourages users to visit their website by highlighting the discounts they’ll enjoy when they purchase items from their website.
The newsletter is further divided into different sections that cover various areas of the market.
7. Let the seasons and holidays guide your design
There may be the standard design of your email newsletter for your campaigns. However, you may want to change the layout a little to accommodate seasonal events and holidays.
For instance, a large portion of your newsletters to email subscribers that will be sent out during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, & Christmas season will focus on sales that you’re running. This means that you should make the layout that you send out your newsletters reflect this.
You can depart from your initial email templates and have a touch of seasonal.
Here’s an illustration that shows the way Sephora organizes the structure of its Black Friday email newsletter:
It’s easy, simple, and straight to the essence. The email aims to encourage readers to click through to their website to take advantage of the offer.