5 Ways to Master The Art of Formatting Your Email Newsletter Campaign

Email newsletters are a tried and tested means of optimizing your marketing efforts. But how can you format your newsletters in a way that’s appealing to your target audience? And what can you do to ensure that those all-important conversions come flooding in?

How long should your newsletter become? What should it look like? How big should the visuals be? These questions can become imperative in formatting a successful email marketing campaign that’s set to resonate with your customers.

There are many skills that can go into an email marketing campaign, including copywriting, multimedia content creation, and strong branding. Your copy is likely to be more persuasive than other forms of content, and the user experience must be prioritized to ensure that your target audience can get to grips with the email itself.

But how should a winning newsletter be formatted? Let’s take a deeper look into the art of formatting email newsletter campaigns while exploring some of the key considerations to take along the way:

1. Table of Contents

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   Your Subject Line is an Essential Part of the Process

The single most important part of an email newsletter campaign is your subject line. Why? Because this is the only thing that your recipient will be able to see before making the decision to read the newsletter itself.

So, for all the intrigue about how best to shape an email newsletter, your campaign will be dead before it’s had a chance to get going if your subject line doesn’t resonate.

In addition to this, your preview text or preheader can also play a major role in enticing users to open up your content, as this will be visible below your subject line.

How should you approach your newsletter and subject line? Your approach to these will need to be intriguing and enticing in a way that compels the recipient to click on the email in order to fully display it.

To action this, think about exciting ways to describe the contents of your email, or let them know about any offers coming up in the preheader. Here, personalization can go a long way, and by using platforms like Sender, you can create mail that’s addressed directly to the recipient to make the content appear more personable.

2. Avoid Falling Into Spam Traps

Although we’ve suggested that you should be more persuasive in your language when it comes to email newsletters, you’ll need to avoid falling into the trap of making your newsletter appear to spammy.

If you make your email appear too much like spam, it’s likely that the recipient won’t even bother to open it. What’s worse is that you may fall victim to spam filters and find yourself in a junk folder.

There are many ways to avoid falling into this trap, including:

• Avoid the temptation of using all caps in your subject line. You may be passionate about a product or offer, but it doesn’t mean you should be screaming at your recipient about it. This approach can make your newsletter appear more like a scam message.
• Try to keep the sales language to a minimum. Customers are less trusting of brands that blow their own trumpet too often, and newsletters can be an opportunity to spend more time demonstrating value in a more sustainable way.
• Steer clear of exclamation points. Similarly to using capital letters, this approach is just a little too intense and bewildering for customers.
• Words like ‘free’ can land you in a spam filter. These automated filters are getting smarter with their vetting of emails, and surefire spammy terms like promoting a free product or service is an instant red flag.

Try to approach your newsletter from a place of respect. Assume your customers have been around the block a few times and are wise to salesy language. This approach is likely to lead to more mutual trust throughout your campaigns.

3. Use Visual Elements to Your Advantage

While email newsletters can be engaging as pure copy-based marketing, you may be putting yourself at a disadvantage by failing to incorporate the right visual elements.

Images can help to break up text and retain the interest of readers. This means that you should establish clear sections for visual elements throughout your newsletter. Keep your images relevant, and if you have an active offer on you can fill this space with pictures of the product in question.

As we can see from Powered Template’s array of functional newsletter templates, it’s possible to utilize professionally designed newsletter formats that come equipped with relevant images to help keep readers engaged and to provide marketers with a useful starting point to craft their content.

4. Don’t be Afraid to Go Unconventional

You should never shy away from adopting more unconventional layouts as a means of attracting the attention of your newsletter recipients.

The world of marketing is a congested place, and this means that many companies are attempting to offer something different to win conversions as a reward for their efforts. While a generic email newsletter can help to introduce customers to new offers or seasonal promotions, heading away from the beaten track can help to retain customer interest for longer.

With this in mind, it’s worth getting creative with your layouts. You can still use pre-designed templates as a guide, but be sure to fill the spaces for images and copy with content that you’re unlikely to see replicated by your competitors.

It may even be worth utilizing a more infographic-style approach to your newsletter to help it to stand out. This way different visualizations can be allocated to various areas of your company and you can use color to your advantage as they scroll through each section.

5. Always Remember Your CTA

Never forget to add a functional call-to-action (CTA) to your email. This should be clearly visible in your newsletter and needs to invite the recipient to take action.

Could they visit your online store? Read more info? View a campaign on social media? Your CTA must be the perfect complement to the overall purpose of your email and a visible way of helping you to achieve your goals from the newsletter itself.

There are a few measures to take to ensure that your CTA is as strong as possible. Firstly, you must visualize your CTA, and make it stand out from the rest of your newsletter. Make the button contrasting in color and invite your customer to do something like ‘buy now’ or ‘find out more’.

It’s also worth positioning your CTA above the fold, making it immediately visible to recipients. However, try to avoid overusing your CTA buttons at the same time, as this may come across too spammy. With this in mind, it’s worth positioning one CTA above the fold, and another at the bottom of the email. This will help to encourage recipients to either take immediate action or click through after they’ve consumed all of your content.

Adding Your Own Personal Touch

The beauty of email newsletter campaigns is that your recipients have already shown a degree of interest in signing up for your mailing list. This means that you may have more wiggle room to be a little more idiosyncratic and confident in your pursuit of conversions.

Just remember to uphold your company’s values while catering to your established audience profile. In finding the right balance between persuasion and resourcefulness, you can format your way to an email newsletter campaign that continues to win conversions long into the future.