11 Best Tips For Writing A Newsletter
The aim of the newsletter is to establish a close relationship with your customers and to encourage them to take action. It is therefore essential to take care in writing it to make it attractive and captivate readers. Therefore, we have this list of best tips to write effective and engaging newsletters for your subscribers.
What is the recipe for writing a good newsletter that attracts and converts? Don’t look for it, it doesn’t exist, but there are plenty of ideas to exploit!
Techshali.com has some great tips on how to create a newsletter that will land in your recipients’ inboxes.
1. Use a catchy subject line
In an ultra-connected world, decisions are now made in 2 seconds. You need to spark your reader’s curiosity in the blink of an eye.
No matter how good your content is, if the recipients of your newsletter are not interested in your message, they will be.
However, your subject line must also convey the core of your message and avoid false promises. Otherwise, your subscribers may unsubscribe or never open another email.
2. Avoid spam words
In order for your emailing to engage recipients, you need to take care of the style and language of your content.
Attention: Don’t go overboard either! A newsletter that is too catchy is automatically considered to be an attempt at scamming.
Certain terms should be avoided at all costs:
- Special offer
- Free
- Money
- Easy
- Profit
- Free trial, etc.
Indeed, the anti-spam filters applied by the email service providers systematically sort out the messages received.
Those containing promotional words are censored and land directly in the junk folder.
3. Highlighting a punchy phrase or number
A simple, but highly effective method of grabbing your reader’s attention is to quantify a piece of information in your newsletter with a key number.
Think about it
This data often attracts the reader’s attention, especially if it is highlighted in a striking way (in bold, in colour, via a specific design, etc.).
Inserting a striking figure encourages the recipient to find out more by reading the rest of the email and/or clicking on the call-to-action.
Email is the preferred distribution and reception channel for Internet users, especially for interacting with brands. Social networks are just behind email.
4. Summarise the big ideas
To keep your newsletter from being indigestible, avoid novels! A hundred words or so, structured in paragraphs, headings and catchphrases are more than enough.
The aim is to summarise the main points of a piece of information, then redirect users to your website, blog, landing page, product sheet, social networks, etc.
5. Use short, simple sentences
Adopting the language of your recipients is the best way to get them to click. Few people take the time to read the entire content.
You should therefore opt for short, simple sentences that perfectly describe the content, the offer, the promotion, etc.
Our advice
Use dashes and bullets to make it easier to read.
6. Use formatting
To make it easier to read, your newsletter must have a rigorous structure and an ergonomic design. The visuals and colours should enhance your message, illustrate what you are saying and capture the recipient’s attention.
When writing, remember to use “classic” formatting such as bold, italics, underlining and even strikethrough. For this, use a (responsive) HTML format with illustrations, adaptation for reading on a smartphone, etc.
In principle, HTML newsletters have a better internal click-through rate and make it possible to track opening rates (how many readers have opened your newsletter). It is therefore interesting to use this type of format when writing your newsletters.
7. Focus on the call-to-action
In addition to the information conveyed through your newsletter, you should also encourage recipients to take action.
It is therefore important to emphasise the call-to-action to achieve the objectives of your newsletter.
Don’t forget!
People will never take action if they are not invited to do so!
8. Create an appointment with your subscribers
By appointment, we mean the regularity of your mailings, but we also mean a publication that is so attractive that it will be eagerly awaited by your newsletter subscribers.
So it’s not a question of informing people that one of your products is on promotion or that you are celebrating the company’s 5th anniversary (although you should communicate on these subjects) but rather of creating recurrent and irresistible content.
How do you do this?
By creating addiction! Imagine that you are the scriptwriter of a series. Each episode ending (with the exception of Black Mirror, I grant you) has to keep the audience waiting for the next one. Why not do the same with your newsletter?
Create a unique and unmissable event! Humour, thoughts, zany deciphering of a news item… dare to step out of your purely marketing vision to build loyalty among your readers with something other than your products!
9. Be original in your presentation
The problem with newsletters is that they look very similar. Instagram-style photos, eye-catching logos, bold promos… in short, they are so trendy that they become banal. The idea is to go against everything that is done everywhere else.
And how?
By involving the readers. Turn passive reading of your newsletter into active reading. Yes, it’s not for everyone because you’ll have to invest and you’ll probably have to create an app…
The goal here is to share your news or the news of your sector differently. Games, messaging-type conversations, surveys… it doesn’t matter, but create interactivity with your readers.
We often tend to forget that what defines a human being is much broader than just their profession. We are more than a freelancer, e-tailer or cook. We are more than running, mountain biking or yoga enthusiast.
As human beings, we are bound to listen to everything around us, so why should a newsletter be dedicated to just one subject? To keep your readers coming back, vary your content!
How do you do that?
By daring to be yourself if you are a blogger or a solo entrepreneur, and by daring to go beyond (in moderation) the scope of your business if you are in marketing. It’s not a question of writing content completely out of context, but of daring to offer even a section on something other than your sector or your company.
You could create a sort of “this happened this week… and we loved it” brief… bet your open rate will increase?
11. Think like a human, not a robot
Nothing annoys your readers more than serving them the same content as your competitors. It’s no use anyway, you’ll lose out every time because there will always be someone who does it better than you. Be yourself again and act like a human being.
How can you do this?
For example, by leaving Google Trends aside for once and trusting your instincts. Analyse the media that appeal to you because of their impertinence or their original way of deciphering the news. Select the news that you find most interesting or out of the ordinary.
This will allow you to write truly unique content for your newsletter and build a loyal readership that will read it from cover to cover.
By standing out from the mass of newsletters that populate our inboxes, you are more likely to keep your subscribers coming back.
To write a captivating newsletter, you’ll have to dare to digress from the codes of traditional marketing by addressing your readers simply as humans.
By following these 11 tips for writing your newsletter, it should land in the recipient’s inbox. These tips also help you meet your traffic and conversion goals.