A few steps towards a successful newsletter

Article overview

If you have come to this article, you are probably dealing with email marketing, or at least have some interest in it. Today we will focus on discussing the best practices that will allow you to prepare and correctly implement a newsletter campaign. Newsletter still seems to be the most effective form of contact with customers and allows them to be up to date with a given brand, so it is worth knowing some basics related to it.

Newsletter

Very often, the given brands, and more precisely, novice specialists responsible for their email marketing, do not fully know how to implement campaigns via the newsletter. They do not have an idea for it, a specific strategy, and sometimes also knowledge - which often results in poor results and falling motivation to continue or constantly optimize this communication channel. There are situations that it is used on a sheep rush basis, i.e. "other brands send, we should also send".

This does not have to be the case with your or your company's activities! So let's check what you should keep in mind when implementing your newsletter.

Best practices

1. Prepare a strong topic

This sounds like the basics, and in part it is. It depends on a good title (among other things) how many people will give themselves a chance to read your newsletter. It is he who is supposed to catch the attention of the recipient in his inbox, and then encourage him to enter and read the message. Its length should not exceed 50 characters. It's good to keep it short, concise and contain a call to action. Also, don't be afraid to run A/B tests! When you are not sure which title will be better, you can conduct this test in a 50/50 division, e.g. on a sample of 30% of your recipients, so that after a certain time, the remaining 70% will receive an email with a title that has a higher OR . Open Rate). If, however, you do not want to carry out an A/B test in a given campaign, but you are still not sure which title to choose, then you can use various types of testers that will help you dispel your doubts based on artificial intelligence. Example here. Do not use characters in the title that may increase the chance of the message ending up in SPAM. These can be characters such as: %, @ or #. In addition, remember that it is not recommended to use excess capital letters. Don't be afraid to use emoticons - in moderation, of course, and when they give the title some meaning. An additional advantage of using an emoticon in the title is better visibility of your message in the recipient's inbox, which is quite helpful during hot periods for marketers, such as Black Friday. Then you probably won't be the only one on your recipient's email list.

2. Don't forget about the preheader

The preheader, otherwise known as the subtitle, is no less important than its "big brother", the title. Its task is to complement the title with an additional portion of important issues that will encourage the recipient to open the email. A good practice is to use the so-called hard HTML spaces (&nbsp), which will prevent the text from the beginning of our message from getting into it. This will allow you to maintain transparency and aesthetics in your inbox.

3. Make sure your email is responsive on mobile devices

In today's modern and busy times, a very large proportion of recipients read their emails via mobile devices. Therefore, the most logical and recommended solution is to ensure that the email creation is adapted to smaller resolutions. Then, the recipient will not have to strain his eyesight, e.g. when looking for clickable elements. He will receive visible CTA buttons on the tray, which will definitely increase the chance of getting the expected conversion in the form of a click. After all, let's not forget about people who still use computers, laptops, etc. Fortunately, there are methods that allow you to satisfy these two groups at the same time.

4. Perfect the graphic design of your message

It would be impossible to ignore this issue. This is another very important step. You must remember that your message should be designed in such a way that, apart from being visually attractive, it is also well-optimized in terms of UX (User Experience). Do not be afraid of a large amount of white space, which will be decorated with aesthetically selected graphics (remember about ALTs! - alternative descriptions), text written in the appropriate font size and clear and functional CTA (Call To Action) buttons. An option for graphics can also be GIFs with a properly selected weight, which will introduce a bit of dynamics and innovation to the email. The use of a GIF in an email often makes it easier to show a certain activity/process/product without using excess, not very encouraging to read, text. In addition, the layout of such an email should of course be consistent with the brand and how it is presented on your own website. Also in this case, don't be afraid to experiment and test your solutions. Nothing like well-conducted A/B tests will give you such useful knowledge about the various variations of your projects. Of course, in the case of a graphical email creation, the best indicator of how engaged it is will be the click-through rate.

5. Use personalization and accurate segmentation

Try to send your messages to the most interested audience possible. A properly conducted segmentation process will help you with this, which I mentioned a bit more in the previous article. In addition, consider whether it is worth using an element of content personalization in a given e-mail, e.g. by inserting the name of the recipient. Nevertheless, in my opinion, it is worth being careful with this practice so that it does not become a boring, repetitive and, consequently, predictable norm.

6. Create your shipping calendar and keep an eye on it!

It is worth that email marketing activities should be based on a pre-prepared calendar. Then, they will be planned actions in which it will be easier for us to keep the recommended intervals. We must remember not to "overwhelm" our audience and thus not expose ourselves to increased unsubscribe rates. Of course, each case should be treated individually, depending on the specificity of the industry, the nature of e-mails, etc. However, when it comes to regular newsletter communication, one or two mailings a week are sufficient.

Summary

The above practices are certainly not a set of all possible actions that are worth paying attention to when preparing a newsletter. However, it is worth remembering that compliance with them will certainly ensure your email marketing activities at the appropriate level and will improve the key factors related to them. If you are interested in this topic, would like to discuss it in more detail, or go through the preparation of your own campaigns together - write to us via the contact form below, and we will be happy to help you!