How to Create an Impactful Email Newsletter Format

Why is your email newsletter format important?

You might be wondering why your email newsletter format is so important in the first place. From keeping your audience active to driving sales, there are plenty of benefits to having a good newsletter format.

Here are some of the most notable reasons you should focus on your newsletter format for emails:

alt text: Advantages of a good newsletter: Maintain an active audience & drive sales, Improve your ROI, and Reduce unsubscribes

Maintain an active audience & drive sales

First and foremost, a good email newsletter helps you maintain an active audience and drive sales. If you’re delivering a content-filled newsletter on a regular basis, your email clients are more likely to read that email newsletter and keep up with what’s going on with your brand.

When you write a quality newsletter, you keep your brand in the minds of readers and increase the odds of them purchasing any new products or services you’re offering.

Improve your ROI

You want to get the most out of your marketing emails, and finding a good newsletter format for emails can help with that. Your email newsletter can help you increase sales and keep your audience engaged, which can mean a notable boost to your bottom line.

If your newsletters aren’t performing as well as you’d hoped they would, you might need to work on your email newsletter format.

Reduce unsubscribes

After a while, readers may lose interest in your newsletter if you’re not providing valuable information that’s easy to digest. Keeping customers engaged and subscribed to your newsletter is a good way to maintain consistent sales and an active audience. And, people are significantly less likely to unsubscribe if your newsletter is good. You might even consider using an email content optimizer to improve your email newsletter format.

What makes a good email newsletter format?

A successful email marketing campaign requires more than a high-quality product or service. Knowing how to properly craft your email newsletter template using a format that is suitable for your target audience is essential to maximize your online reach. The most important elements to keep in mind when crafting the best format for email newsletter campaigns include:

Subject line

With every email you send, you will need to include a title in the subject line. This title will be the first instance of text a subscriber sees when they open their inbox. A subject line must be relevant, captivating, and interesting in order to engage a user or a prospective customer, which is why choosing the right title for your emails or digital marketing campaign can make all of the difference.

Header

When crafting an email newsletter, it is highly recommended to include a header inside of your email newsletter template itself. The header of your email template might include your company's logo and contact information. It can help with branding and building a sense of trust among your readers and subscribers.

Background

Consider the background color you will be using when sending emails. Setting the background color consistently is also recommended for branding purposes.

Visuals

Whenever you are sending an email newsletter, consider the type of visuals you intend to use. Will you be using professional photography, animation, or drawn illustrations? Choosing one art style that aligns with your brand will help to make your emails appear more cohesive.

Copy

The voice of your email newsletter will also matter and will likely depend on the audience you intend to reach and the industry you represent. Your email copy should be direct, positive, optimistic, and helpful in tone. The voice of your brand should also be apparent to those who wish to genuinely support your company.

Calls-to-action

Implementing a call-to-action within your email newsletter is one of the best ways to drive traffic to a website, online store, or product link. A call-to-action, commonly referred to as a CTA, can be useful to draw attention to a particular page, product, service, or link that you intend to share within the email you are sending. CTAs are often standard practice when creating new email templates for businesses and brands.

Footer

Along with a header, it is also important to incorporate a footer in your email newsletter template design. Your email footer section should include location information about your brand, contact information for your business, as well as the option for users to unsubscribe or change their subscription preferences as needed.

Types of email newsletters

Before you create an email design for any newsletter, it is important to consider what type of email newsletter you are sending to your subscribers.

Not all email newsletters appear similar or have the same purpose.

Company highlights and news

A company update with recent news and highlights is one of the most common email newsletter templates sent by corporations and organizations. This template will typically include basic text, a possible image, and a standard CTA, or call-to-action, button.

Blog-style

A blog-style newsletter will typically only link to a website's internal content and may be focused on relevant storytelling or sharing information about industry-specific topics.

A new blog post email newsletter might also include graphics, photography, and even links to videos for an engaging and immersive experience for the reader.

Offers /discounts

If you want to attract attention to your email newsletter, you can do so by offering enticing offers and discounts to your email subscribers. Promoting your discount in the subject line of your email will help to increase your email's open rate and overall engagement.

Curated content

Sending emails with automatically curated content is another way to keep visitors coming back to your website and opening your emails. The more relevant the curated content appears, the easier it is to engage readers.

Exclusive promotions

In addition to traditional offers, it is also possible to create templates that include promotions that are exclusive to subscribers, loyal customers, or even users who may be following your brand on a particular social media platform.

The appeal of exclusivity can also significantly increase your email's open rate.

Contests/giveaways

If you are looking for a way to generate buzz surrounding your business and brand, you can do so by hosting a contest or giveaway and promoting the contest via your email newsletter campaign. Contests and giveaways are excellent tools when used correctly within digital marketing campaigns and with the use of social media.

Elements needed for the best email format for newsletters

Finding better ways to format your email newsletter is important, so you need to make sure you’re including all the right elements. Here are some of the things you need to include to optimize your email newsletter format:

Branded header

You want people to recognize your brand and know who they’re getting a newsletter from, so start with a branded header. You can include your company name and logo and use your brand’s colors to make your header instantly recognizable. The customers who like receiving these email newsletters will look forward to emails with your branding and be more likely to read through.

Attention-grabbing headline

The subject line and headline you choose for your newsletter are both important. The goal is to catch readers’ attention early on, that way they’re interested in reading the rest of your newsletter. A good way to do this is to tell readers about how something benefits them, such as the new product you’re unveiling or the work you’re doing behind the scenes.

Easy-to-read layout

Readability is important, so don’t go too crazy with your layout. Try to split things up a bit so that blocks of text are split into paragraphs and broken up by helpful graphics. Splitting paragraphs up allows readers to digest the information in your newsletter.

You can use A/B testing to try out different layouts and see what people are responding to the best.

Scannable content

Speaking of making things easy to read, it’s important to make your content as scannable as possible. As we mentioned above you should break up content, but you can also use lists and subheaders to allow readers to scan the email quickly. You can also use bolded or colored font to highlight the most important parts of your newsletter for readers.

Eye-catching graphics

You might think newsletters are all about the words you choose, but eye-catching graphics play an important role in perfecting your email newsletter format. Graphics are a great way to simplify information about new products and services for readers and you can use charts and graphs to break down numerical data.

Clear call to action

A good newsletter should end with a call to action (CTA) that tells readers what they can do about the information they learned in the newsletter. You can let readers know where they can go to buy your new product or how they can contact you. You should make your CTA short, explicit, and linkable so that readers can take action immediately.

How to format an email newsletter

Learning how to format your emails is a difficult part of email marketing, but finding the right format is crucial. Here are some tips that can help you learn how to format an email newsletter to maximize audience engagement and drive sales.

Choose an email marketing provider

You should start by choosing an email marketing provider. The provider you choose determines the tools you’ll have at your disposal for automation, email optimization, and informative content. Look for a popular email marketing provider that offers all the features and key elements you need. If you can start with a free trial to see if a provider is right for you, that’s even better.

Select a template that works for your needs

The next thing you’ll need to do is select a template that works for what you’re trying to accomplish. Mailchimp has tons of email design templates that can help you write a better email newsletter. Look for a template that’s responsive and fits your brand, even if you have to make some changes to perfect it.

Customize your layout

Once you’ve found a template you like, you can customize it to make it your own. You don’t want to get too extravagant with customization, especially if you’re writing a short newsletter. At the same time, you don’t want your e-newsletter to look exactly like every other template, especially if your competitors are doing something similar. Customizing your template can give your newsletter a personal touch that reflects your brand.

You may also want to implement dynamic content for your email newsletters to that they’re personalized to each subscriber.

Add your header

The top of your newsletter should include a header that helps readers identify your brand. You can get creative with your header, but as we mentioned, you should include your company name and logo, as well as any colors your brand typically uses. You can also include contact information, a link to your website, or anything else you think is important.

alt text: Your email header should include: Company name & logo, brand colors, contact information, and link to your website

Add body copy

The body copy is the real meat of your newsletter; this is where you include all the important news readers need to know. Whether you’re rebranding, developing a new product, or launching a new service, your body copy should go into more detail about the subject of your newsletter. Make sure you break this copy up with headings and graphics.

Note that the body copy may address several pieces of news. If that’s the case, make sure each topic is sectioned off so the information presented is clear to readers.

Add images

Images are a great way to display to make your emails more engaging. Plus, they can be used to present easy-to-read information in your newsletter, so don’t be afraid to use them. You can use charts, graphs, and other types of graphics to illustrate your point with fewer words, which makes your newsletter easy on the eyes and saves readers time.

Add footer & social links

At the very end of your newsletter, you should include a detailed footer with social links. In your footer, make sure you provide readers with an email signature that includes:

alt text: Your email signature should include: Basic contact information, links to your social media accounts, and an unsubscribe button with a link

You can implement your company logo and colors into your footer to make it match your header, but the footer is typically smaller.

When it comes to formatting an email newsletter, there’s no single layout you have to use. Combining the components above in a way that best caters to your customers is a good start.

What are the benefits of using Mailchimp?

If you want to maximize your ROI with email marketing, you need to choose the right email marketing provider. With Mailchimp, you get access to a variety of email templates, automation tools, and resources to help you learn more about email marketing.

A/B testing can help you test various formats with different portions of your audience, while analytics help you monitor how well your newsletters are doing. Mailchimp is essentially your all-in-one solution to email marketing, whether you want to write better emails or automate email marketing processes.

Benefits of email marketing courses

Email marketing is one of the leading areas of expertise for those who are involved in digital marketing today. Taking an email marketing course can help to significantly increase your formatting, tone, and design knowledge when crafting your own campaigns in the future.

Whether you are looking to build email marketing courses for others or if you are seeking to boost the return on investment you receive with your current email marketing campaigns, there are many benefits to enrolling in and completing an email marketing course.

Learn all of the tools of the trade

An email marketing course will open up an entirely new world of digital campaign tools that can help to craft, send, and monitor newsletters you send out. From learning how to properly format your email templates to tracking and monitoring the performance of each individual campaign you create, an email marketing course can help you to master your newsletter-crafting abilities.

Discover A/B testing

If you want to know how you better reach your audience or current subscribers, you will need to familiarize yourself with A/B testing. A/B testing is one of the most important methods used to determine which formats and messaging work best to appeal to a specific audience.

Produce cost-effective email campaigns

By immersing yourself in an email marketing course, learn how to produce email campaigns that not only resonate and increase engagement but are also cost-effective.

Learn how to increase leads

Whether you are trying to build an online community, establish your brand's reputation, or generate sales with your ecommerce store, you can learn how to increase leads with an email marketing course.

Network with marketing professionals

One of the most appealing aspects of diving into an email marketing course is the ability to connect and network with similar and like-minded professionals. Networking with others who are also involved in email marketing can help you to learn faster while engaging in the creation of your newsletter campaigns.

Stay on top of new tools and solutions

Each year, the internet becomes an even larger and more infinite space, with plenty of new technologies, applications, and games to boot. Enrolling in a digital email marketing course is one of the best ways to ensure you are not missing out on any new technologies, platforms, or services that can help you to streamline your campaign management.

When you enroll in an email marketing course, you will feel confident in the decisions you make when it comes to formatting, publishing, and monitoring your campaigns.

Email Newsletter Format FAQs:

How do you make a newsletter look professional?

Creating a newsletter that looks professional can be done by reviewing popular email design tips and streamlining the format you choose with a logo, a color scheme, and a font that best represents your business or brand.

Research and compare popular newsletters to see which type of layout and format is most suitable for the newsletter you intend to send. Seek an email provider that offers users access to a template and design library to quickly find a layout and format (both on desktop and mobile devices) that appears professional for your brand.

To wrap it up, keep the following simple tips in mind to make your newsletter appear as professional as possible:

• Consider your audience first and what demographics you intend to reach with your newsletter.
• Determine the purpose of your newsletter's message.
• Streamline your email's tone, logo, color scheme, and art style.
• Use similar layouts and formatting with all of your email newsletters to help establish a professional brand reputation.

How long should an email newsletter be?

An email newsletter's length limit will depend on the type of newsletter you are sending, the message you intend to convey, as well as the target audience you are trying to reach.

Most standard newsletters do not typically include more than 500 words in the body of the email itself. However, when you are calculating the length of your next email, keep the following in mind:

• Objective: What is the purpose of your email? What message are you trying to share with your readers? Are you trying to generate sales or other forms of engagement? If so, you may want to keep your body text short and succinct.
• Target audience: Who are you attempting to reach with your email newsletters? What demographics will be reading your emails, and are they interested in short and sweet emails or long-form emails?

Are email newsletters still effective?

According to Content Marketing Institute, in 2020, more than 81% of B2B marketers still claim that email newsletters are their most used and preferred method for marketing content. Although technology is always rapidly shifting and evolving, email newsletters are still one of the most effective marketing tools available for creating digital campaigns today.

Get the most out of your newsletter

A good email newsletter can take your email marketing efforts to the next level, especially if you’ve got a decent subscriber list already. Take some time to work on your email newsletter format until you find something you like, then test your new format to see how readers respond to it. Ultimately, you want to find a format your readers enjoy, that way they keep coming back to your newsletter.

Ready to maximize your email marketing ROI? Try Mailchimp to see how it can help revitalize your email marketing campaign today.