Email newsletters come with several benefits, including driving conversions and sales. But newsletters aren’t just about announcing products or sharing offers. What actually sets them apart is their ability to build lasting and strong relationships with your target audience
For example, you can send a monthly update on industry trends or company news to keep your subscribers informed. Or, you can use your newsletters to ask for feedback on new products or services to show you value your customers’ opinions.
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With a pool of contacts already interested in your company updates, all that’s left is to design your newsletters properly and deliver amazing content. To help you create clickable newsletters, we’ll present you with the most creative email newsletter design tips to impress your audience.
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Find the Right Newsletter Software
Before you get started, you’ll need to find the right newsletter software. Such a tool allows you not only to design, but also distribute your newsletters to your recipients easily. Although there are many newsletter solutions in the market, our top picks are Moosend, Campaign Monitor, and Mailchimp. These platforms offer straightforward list management for targeted communication, lead generation opportunities to grow your audience, and robust analytics to monitor newsletter performance.
Newsletter tools are worth the investment for any brand looking to enhance their email newsletter design. Their drag-and-drop design tools let you add and arrange different components like text, images, or buttons within the newsletter layout. Using built-in newsletter templates, you can customize the design to suit your brand’s aesthetic. Plus, these platforms offer automation capabilities for personalized communication based on user behavior.
Our top three tools come with all the above-mentioned functionalities. Moosend stands out for its user-friendly interface and extended library of pre-made, responsive, and customizable templates. Also, its cost-effectiveness makes it an ideal choice for all business types and needs.
Campaign Monitor may fall behind in terms of advanced design features and flashy templates, but it’s known for its excellent deliverability rates. The platform offers a unique feature for timely email delivery based on your subscriber’s time zone.
Mailchimp is perhaps the most reputable player. It offers users the option to add and save their visual assets to create a personal library that they can use whenever needed. Its wide variety of integrations make it popular for businesses that want to streamline their marketing efforts.
But we should note that the tool gets quite pricey as your business scales and there are limitations in low-tier plans. So, if you want advanced features at a reasonable price, Moosend and Campaign Monitor are the most suitable alternatives to Mailchimp.
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Follow a User-Friendly Structure
Creating a user-friendly structure is key to engaging your readers effectively. By following such a structure, you’ll design email newsletters that are easy to navigate, attention-grabbing, and high converting. Here are the best strategies to implement:
- Start with a clean and organized layout that includes well-defined sections. To avoid visual clutter, you should also align different sections properly.
- Break up content through headers, subheadings, and spacing. That way, readers can scan information quickly and effortlessly.
- Try not to use large blocks of text that hurt readability. But even if you must create a lengthy newsletter, use bullet points and numbered lists to make it more skimmable.
- Cluttered layouts are a turn-off for subscribers. So, use ample white space to separate elements and help readers focus on one content piece at a time.
- Your CTA buttons and links should be large and tappable, making it easy for recipients to engage with your newsletter content and take action.
- Mobile responsiveness is probably the most critical email practice to ensure audience engagement. Stick to a design size of up to two columns that adapts seamlessly to various screen sizes.
- Always include a prominently placed and clear unsubscribe option. As counterintuitive as it may seem, complying with privacy regulations and maintaining transparency goes hand in hand with a strong brand reputation.
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Invest in the Power of Personalization
No matter how much effort you put into your email newsletter design, it will serve you nothing if you leave out personalization. Irrelevant and non-personalized emails remain among the top reasons why recipients unsubscribe from newsletters:
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Make sure your recipients and their needs are your priority. Learn who they are and what drives them and customize your newsletter content to match their expectations. There are limitless options in email personalization. It all starts with segmenting your subscribers based on their demographics, behavioral patterns, and unique interests.
If you feel like you don’t have enough data at your disposal, use your newsletters to find out more about your recipients. You can do so through interactive elements like polls, quizzes, and surveys. Not only will you learn all you need to improve your communication with your audience, but you will also engage them through a fun experience.
Since we live in the era of AI, we can’t ignore AI-driven personalization. Some newsletter platforms use built-in AI tools to manage audience data and generate dynamic content blocks within your newsletter design. There’s even the option of saving some of your favorite blocks to incorporate in future newsletters.
AI-powered systems can incorporate triggers based on user behavior to deliver relevant and timely content. For example, a subscriber who just made a purchase from your eCommerce could receive follow-up content on how to make the most of the product or service.
You can also use AI-driven personalization to analyze historical open rates and craft subject lines that grab the attention of individual readers. That way, you get more people to open your newsletters and read your content.
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Be Smart with Visuals
As already discussed, bullet points, lists, and proper spacing between components is essential for making your newsletter scannable. Are they enough, though? The truth is you need visuals, too. The last thing you want is for subscribers to scroll through large walls of text that tire them out before even reading the first lines. Studies show that people are far more likely to remember what they see and do:
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Design your content around attractive visuals to keep your readers’ attention. Images and infographics are an excellent way to convey key information and make recipients interact with your email content. Choose high-quality images that reflect your brand’s personality and communicate your message effectively. If you have real-life footage like your team in action, photos from company events, or user-generated content from satisfied customers, your newsletters are the best place to showcase it.
If it fits your brand voice, you could go as far as incorporating animation, GIFs, or memes to make your newsletters more playful. Last but not least, consider embedding videos in your newsletters to maximize engagement. Video content has proven to be one of the most effective ways to promote products and services, share important updates, and educate readers.
But don’t go too far with the use of videos in your newsletters as they could increase your newsletter size, leading to slower loading times and potential deliverability issues. Not to mention that some email clients don’t support videos, which results in poor user experience across different platforms.
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Don’t Ignore your Email Footer
The email footer usually includes details like your company’s physical address and phone number, privacy and return policies, and unsubscribe options. Due to the ‘boring’ nature of this information, not much thought goes into email signatures. However, they may constitute an important asset for brands looking to sell their products or services:
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A carefully designed email footer gives a professional look to your newsletters while making them seem more complete. And it’s not a challenging task due to the variety of email signature generators that help you through the creation process.
Your email footer should include all your contact details, along with legal disclaimers. But you can also leverage it to further promote your brand. How can you do that? By including social media icons for subscribers to follow you on your accounts or share your content with their connections.
Another reason why your email footer is so important is your unsubscribe button or link. That’s right, adding a clear unsubscribe option to your footer could be a blessing in disguise. Letting go of subscribers who want out is critical to maintaining a healthy email list. After all, you’d rather see them go than have them move your emails to the trash folder. Not to mention that the lack of an unsubscribe option could annoy recipients and make you seem untrustworthy.
Even so, the unsubscribe button is not the end of the world. Create a compelling unsubscribe page that will urge recipients to think twice before hitting the actual button. Employ humor, interactivity, and clever copy to give them a unique experience—even if they do decide to opt out. And don’t forget to add an option to change their email preferences as an alternative.
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Seek Inspiration from Popular Brands
You can follow many strategies to bring your email newsletter design to perfection. But there’s also nothing wrong with spying on how popular brands do it—or your competitors. To spark your inspiration, we’ve gathered our favorite newsletter examples to show you and explain why they work.
Subject line: Save 20% on Great Mobility 🐕
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- We loved the color choice in Finn’s newsletter. Orange and blue are not only vibrant colors, but also complementary. Their combination creates a visually appealing contrast that catches attention.
- The brand prioritizes the most important information and CTA by placing it above the fold. Also, they made sure to use bold letters to highlight the 20% discount and drive conversions.
- The dog images add a playful and relatable element to the newsletter. This type of imagery is powerful in establishing emotional connections, too.
- The main body is well organized into concise content blocks. Each block highlights different topics while icons allow for quick scanning.
Subject line: No eating dinner in total darkness anymore!
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- Caviar leverages the occasion of changing seasons to create witty copy and motivate recipients to order by offering a $0 delivery fee on all orders above $30.
- The newsletter uses hierarchy to guide readers’ attention. With a prominent headline and properly sized subheadings and email copy, the brand creates a clear visual flow.
- Each element is surrounded by ample white space, providing breathing room and an uncluttered design. This type of layout helps readers focus on the content.
- The use of an eye-catching GIF of fried fries with sunglasses and phrases like “WOW” adds an element of surprise, engaging subscribers to explore further.
Subject line: Introducing: Hundreds Of Trello Sample Boards!
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- Trello’s newsletter uses a compelling color scheme of blue and purple to create a professional look that’s also easy on the eyes.
- The layout is simple and mobile-friendly, using vertical orientation to facilitate scrolling on smaller devices.
- The email combines readable font types with good contrast against their background and colorful graphics to visually communicate Trello’s value proposition.
- It’s an excellent example of how to get the most out of your footer. It includes links to review the company’s privacy policies, manage their accounts, and unsubscribe. Far from that, the company invites readers to “get their productivity fix” by visiting their blog.
Get Creative with your Newsletter Design
For most brands, designing a stunning and clickable newsletter seems like a daunting task. But with the right newsletter software in place and the tips shared in our guide, you can make magic happen.
Keep your readers in mind by choosing a user-friendly layout and personalizing your communications to match their needs. Use attractive visuals and leverage your email footer to increase the chances of subscribers interacting with your content. And don’t forget to subscribe to popular newsletters to draw inspiration from their practices.
These strategies are all you need to encourage recipients to click through your amazing newsletter content.
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