Ultimate Guide to Create an Email Newsletter for Business

Parnas Ghosh

14 May 2021 — 9 min read

The email newsletter is one of the powerful digital marketing tools. If you are struggling with retaining your existing customers or not able to convert your warm prospects, then start using Email Newsletters. Creating best email newsletters can be helpful for keeping audiences in the know and also in gaining traffic. Here's all you need to know about how to create newsletter.

According to a survey, 93% of B2B marketers use email to distribute content & 83% of B2B companies use e-newsletters as part of their content marketing program. Best newsletters help you create a good customer base. Check out this article to know everything about email newsletters and creating the best startup newsletters.

Before proceeding you may like these 100 Proven ways to Generate Leads for your Business

What Are Newsletters?
Designing A Newsletter
Steps To Design An Attractive Newsletter
Benefits of Newsletters
Some Important Points
Some Apps To Send NewsLetters

What is a Newsletter?

Newsletters are some periodic letters (including emails) that are used for advertisement or to send offers to the subscribed users. They are an important part of any business, almost every website has newsletters these days.

If you don’t influence a big group of people, then you are not doing business, and if there is no group at all, then you have to make one. That’s what newsletters do, they make a society that has similar interests. Let’s see how important are newsletters for the business and how to create them.

Designing a Newsletter

Before knowing about the importance of newsletters we need to know how to design them, make them look attractive and write content that is crisp as well as gripping. A good newsletter should have good graphics and the graphics should be relevant to the product or service that is being advertised by the organisation.

Steps to Design an Attractive Newsletter Template

The first step is to figure out the purpose of the newsletter. Why it is being sent? Which purpose does it serve? How it is relatable to the customers and how it is going to generate more leads? All these questions need to be answered before creating the newsletter.
Collect all the content required for the newsletter. Make sure it is as relatable as possible to the audience. If the audience can't relate to your newsletter then it will be a misfired shot and in this competitive generation you cannot afford to miss any opportunity to grow.
Now, make sure you know how you want your newsletter to look. So choose a template accordingly. Keep in mind the amount of content that is going to be on the newsletter, the graphics and the company's contact information. Company's contact information should not be missed, it is an important part of any newsletter.
Set the size of the newsletters. For most of the provider, the default newsletter size is 600 pixels with which email body padding another 30 pixels wide on all sides. So, check whether your content fits there or not and then make the adjustment according to it.
Add the content, graphics and all the other information to the template that you chose for your newsletter. Then edit it accordingly. For more effectiveness, add personalized token and other smart content.
Choose the subject and sender name. Also, make sure that the newsletter is supported with alt text (It appears when a picture isn't loaded as plain text).
Now, check whether it is legally compliant or not. The two biggest laws that need to check are CAN-SPAM (The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act) and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
Test with some service providers and email providers before sending out the newsletter.
Now, send the newsletter to subscribers and evaluate the response.

Benefits of Newsletters

Attracts New Customers: You can’t run a business from your old customers only. You definitely need new customers. Newsletter let you connect with your new customers.
Identifies Potential Customers: Newsletters let you know who your potential customer is. When new people visit your website and they subscribe to your newsletter, that means they are impressed by your product or website. There is a strong possibility that they will buy your product.
Helps in Promotion: Now when you know who is your potential customer, you can start preparing to sell some stuff. You can promote your products in your newsletter. People will love to buy products from you. Even if they don’t check your product out in first chance, you can use Google’s strategy. Just keep promoting your products in the newsletter for some days. Eventually, they will check it out.
Increases Brand Awareness: Newsletters helps to increase brand awareness. If people read your newsletter daily, they will think about it and which means they are aware of your brand. They may also tell about it to other people, and that will increase your brand's awareness even more.
Establishes Relationship with Customers: Newsletters establish relationships with your customers. As newsletters have to be periodic, they will know when you are going to send them a newsletter. Some of them might even wait for it. So,in one or the other way, you are in a good B2C relationship with your customers because of the newsletters that you send them.
Grows Contact List: Providing an option of newsletter subscription will increase your email list. When someone subscribes to your Newsletter you get their email address and you can add it to the email contact list that you can use for other email marketing options.
Generates Leads: You will get an early estimate of the people who might be interested in your website or your product because of newsletters. Eventually, after so much promotion, targeting customers, brand awareness and establishing a relationship with your customers, people will buy products from you. Therefore, newsletters are a great way to generate leads.

These were some benefits of newsletters. You can now decide whether you need a newsletter or not. In case, you have decided to include one on your website, here are some things to remember.

Some Important Points

Attractive Headline: Write a creative and catchy headline in your newsletter. People will ignore your email if you too write like others. Don’t just be different, be unique.
Take enough Time: Take your time researching about the “time” most of your audience will be free at. Schedule your newsletter at the best time. If possible, conduct a survey on your website asking this to your visitors.
Include Unsubscribe Link: The most important tip for your newsletter. It can be really frustrating for people who don't like the newsletter and there is no option of "unsubscribe" at the end of the article. Hence to avoid such situations provide an “unsubscribe” link at the end of your newsletter.
Include Call To Action: Call to action is an important factor for your newsletter. Include a strong Call To Action so that people can interact with your newsletter and website.
Terms & Conditions: No one ever clicks that link and reads the full content, but the terms and condition’s link are important at the end of your newsletter. It will save you from getting into legal complications.
Reward: Provide some rewards to your subscribers. You can give away your own products, some discount coupons or some other rewards you can think of. People will always read your newsletter if you some type of rewards are included in them. If you can’t afford rewards for everyone, then you can use a lucky draw system to choose random subscribers.
Provide the content which is in the context of the website: You are designing a newsletter to attract people to your website and if your newsletter doesn't talks about your website then how will they get interested in your website.
Not just Advertise: Don't just send out a newsletter consisting of only the advertisement as the sole content. The newsletter should be the proper mix of both advertising and content.
Personalized Content: Write as if you are writing personalized content for each of the subscribers on the mailing list. The information should be easy to grasp, relatable to the customer and should makes them feel connected. If you miss any of these points then the effectiveness of your newsletter will decrease respectively. Make your subscriber feel special, like you care of every single one of them, even if the same newsletter is being sent to everyone, they should feel that it was customized for them.
Use Automation: Use apps that can send the newsletter for you. Sending newsletter too all your subscribers is a task that can be done through some third party application

These were some tips you can and you should use while designing a newsletter.

Some Apps To Send Newsletters

These applications can be used to send the newsletters for you. Few of these applications are free whereas most of them charge some fee for doing the task of sending newsletter to your subscribers.

Mailchimp:- It allows you to send 12,000 emails free of cost to a list of size up to 2000 subscribers.
Benchmark:- It charges $11.95 per month for unlimited emails to a list size of 600.
Campaigner:- It charges $19.95 per month for a list size up to 1,000 subscribers.
Getresponse:- It charges £10 per month for a list size of 1,000.
Mailjet:- It starts at 200 mails per day for free, then 30,000 emails per month for $7.49.
Mailup:- The price depends upon the speed. The more mails you want to send per day, the more is the charge.

Conclusion

The newsletter is important not only for big companies but for normal bloggers too. Newsletters are a smart way of knowing about your potential customers and then sending them advertisements and offers that may attract them to your website. Try adding it and see the results.

However, success can not be guaranteed in this one too just like all other ways of marketing, but if you do it right, then newsletters can increase your conversion rate and sales.

FAQs

A newsletter is an email sent to our subscribers informing them about the news related to the brand. They are normally sent on a regular basis. Basically, it is an informative email that we send to our subscriber list.

A newsletter is a tool used by businesses and organizations to share relevant and valuable information with their network of customers, prospects and subscribers.