20/02/2014 By Waka Reading Time: 3 Minutes

Digital newsletters will keep evolving. Many smart business owners are aware of this trend, given the potential role of newsletters in marketing and sales.

So what is the best method to turn newsletters into greater brand awareness and customer loyalty tools?

Many marketing specialists tend to agree on some essential factors that a newsletter should include. Remember that the end goal of newsletter marketing is to increase the conversion rate and to raise brand awareness. And the means to do it is through educating and informing your customers about your products and/or services. In other words, engage your audience through company news, promotions and so on.

Traditional email marketing is not the only way to communicate with your customers. Newsletters will keep improving by featuring a variety of visual graphics and designs that mirror your company image.

So we think that companies should include the following 5 essentials for digital newsletters.

#1 Get an impactful subject line!

It is the first thing that captures your audience’s attention. Therefore, it has to be eye-catching and enticing. But at the same time, you have to avoid being too sales-oriented. MailChimp gives us some useful insights into which words to avoid for subject lines – ‘free, help, percent off, reminder’.

Your subject lines should be catchy, focused, concise, and no more than 50 words, so that your newsletter will be more likely to be opened. It is always helpful if you keep in mind that the readers don’t have time to read all emails, leaving their inbox overloaded with unread messages. 

#2 Make it responsive!

The next generation is increasingly mobile. You need to acknowledge that most of your audience use mobile devices to check emails and read articles. Whether they use tablets or mobile phones, your digital newsletter must be optimised to fit in all screen size. Given that the number of mobile phone user keeps rising, a responsive e-newsletter can reach a wider audience. An article by Onbile shows that about 88 % of people read their emails on their mobile phones. So, having your digital website responsive can reach more audience easily.

#3 Get a more tailored content!

According to Versio2, ‘personalization’ will be likely to dominate the next trend in digital world. Why? Because there are needs for more personalised newsletters. By creating more tailored content, your company newsletter will be distinguishable from other useless emails that don’t give any personal value to the readers.

You can simply make your newsletter more personal by adding a city name and customer’s name. Or, you can go beyond the expectation by making the content more relevant to the readers. It could be new product release or even new job vacancies

99Designs used Miniboden as one of the best examples of customized e-newsletters for its targeted audience (See below).

More advanced companies are using behavioural data to create tailored e-newsletters that match each reader’s interest, says Versio2. By doing so, they will be able to organise their newsletter database according to specific geographical areas, interests, and demographic groups. 

#4 More creative and exciting design

Along with personalised content, your business newsletter also needs to feature a relevant design. For instance, if you are a restaurant owner and want to inform your customers about a meal deal, how about using a fun design template like the example below? The key point is to use some relevant visual graphics to make the content more entertaining to read. Images are not only eye-catching, but they also heighten the content. You can even consider using infographics to present data, if relevant. Infographics represent big data in the most efficient and creative way by combining facts, numbers with images and typography to create a ‘story’. 

#5 Choose the best timing!

Toprankblog says that timing is an essential part of newsletter marketing. And it is worth investing some time to experiment with different time of delivery. If an e-newsletter is sent too early in the morning, it is most likely to get buried under tons of other emails that are sent late at night or early in the morning. On the other hand, if an email is sent late in the afternoon, the customers tend to put off reading it till they get off work. Once again, putting yourself in your customers’ shoes is important. Avoid the busy working time and focus on lunch break or after work. If your e-newsletter is targeted for B2B, then try afternoon or 7-8 in the morning. The best way to find out is through experimenting different time frames and frequencies. 

Final Thoughts

So, I hope you’ve gained some inspirations from these 5 essentials for digital newsletters. We think it is crucial that your newsletters keep up with fast-changing tech-world. Because your customers are always ready for something better.

Sources: Hongkiat, 99designs, TNW

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