How to Create Professional & Polished Email Newsletters

Earlier this year, I attended a conference where the host asserted that the design of your marketing materials has become more important than your words!  Of course, being the believer in words that I am, I decidedly disagreed.

But I must admit:  if you can’t get someone to read the first seven words of your ezine, it doesn’t matter what you’ve written or how good it is.  Your message will be lost due to poor delivery or design.

Unfortunately, I see this a lot in the newsletters I receive, and wish I could get in there myself, tidy up and move things around!  (You’ll get to know about my perfectionist streak, if you aren’t already acutely aware of it.)

Email newsletters, more than printed newsletters, need a bit of extra formatting attention for three reasons: 

1. In this world of “now” you only have 7 to 10 seconds to capture attention.
2. People don’t read everything you write; they skim when reading on their computer or smartphone.
3. You have an opportunity to continue the conversation when you link to your website or blog, which also increases your traffic.

In this article, I’ll outline some formatting secrets essential to creating professional and polished newsletters.

Professional

What makes an email look professional?  In my opinion:  brand consistency and ease of navigation.

Brand consistency.  It’s important to match the style of your newsletter with that of your website, which means using the same type of graphics, fonts and colors.  When your readers know who sent the newsletter by just glancing at it, your branding is working!  I know that email templates give you all the styles and colors in the universe, but that doesn’t mean you have to use them all!

Along with looking like your brand, your email should also sound like your brand.  If you use a conversational style on your website, make sure your newsletter follows suit.

Ease of navigation.  Make it easy for your readers to navigate your email newsletter.  Put things where they’ll expect them to be.  For example, perhaps no one wants to focus on this, but the unsubscribe link should be clear and easy to find.  I’ve seen options at the top and bottom of emails.  It doesn’t matter where it is, but it is required by the CAN-SPAM law.   Of course, you want to keep newsletter subscribers, but there are many reasons people unsubscribe, so don’t make it difficult--that’s just bad marketing etiquette.  Other navigation tips:

• Link your newsletter to the home page of your website.  You can do this in a “Quick Links” box and your banner (the large image at the top featuring your logo and other information).  Most readers expect to find links to your website easily, and that is exactly where you want them to go.
• Provide all your contact information (email, phone number, social media links, links to your website) in your newsletter.
• Include a “Forward to a Friend” link so your readers can easily forward your newsletter to their friends and colleagues.  (Email services usually provide the tools to create these. I use Constant Contact, and have several styles and colors of buttons to choose from, which helps me keep the look of my newsletter consistent.)

Polished

Well, well.  My favorite part--the details. 🙂  A polished newsletter looks well-put together.  This would be the job of physically formatting and proofreading your newsletter.

Formatting.  Here are some special touches that will set your newsletter apart:

• Images should be neither too big, dominating the page, nor too small.
• Paragraphs should not be crammed together.  Leave enough “white space”--it’s easier on the eyes.
• Use bulleted lists to set apart information and make reading easier.
• Different sections of the newsletter should be clearly labeled and also have enough space between them.
• Colors should match.  Your webmaster or graphic designer will give you the Hex Color Codes (codes for the Internet) for your logo colors.  Double-check that the colors you’re using in your newsletter match those on your website.  Again, the purpose of this is to connect all the elements of your marketing presence, strengthening your brand.

Proofreading.  Hiccup-free reading and navigation draws a subscriber smoothly through your newsletter.  Make sure everything is spelled correctly.  Verify that all of your links are clickable and link to the appropriate page.  The following are some proofreading & editing tricks:

• Read your newsletter aloud.  If you falter while reading, you probably have an awkward sentence that needs to be fixed.
• Don’t write, edit and proofread your newsletter all in the same day.  You’ll be more likely to catch errors when your mind is fresh.
• Always have someone else proofread for you.  Since your brain already knows what you were trying to say, you’ll often read it that way and miss errors.

Lastly, send yourself test messages so that you can see what your readers will receive.  Test different email addresses (Hotmail, Gmail, whatever you have) because each one tends to have unique glitches, depending on which email template program you use.  Your subscribers probably have ten or twenty different email clients, so you’ll never be able to review them all every time you send out a newsletter.  Try to test the most common ones and be open to feedback from your readers so that you can investigate any “bugs”.

Will your email marketing fail if you don’t shine up your electronic emissary?  Not necessarily, but it’s worth the special touches to ensure you get the eyeballs your great message deserves!  And, as always, if you need some help in this area, just give me a call!