How to Write a Compelling Email Newsletter That People Want to Read
Key Takeaways
1. Send newsletters to engage and provide value, not just to sell
2. Tailor content to match the interests and needs of your readers
3. Grab attention with interesting and curiosity-inducing subject lines
4. Offer content that educates, entertains, or offers practical advice
5. Keep content brief and visually engaging with relevant images and graphics
These days, almost every business you interact with online wants to “keep in touch” with offers, alerts, updates or advice via email.
If you’ve ever received an “email newsletter” (let’s use this generic term for all emails that serve one of the above functions) you’ll quickly know whether it’s of interest to you.
All too often, email newsletters fly wide of the mark because they’re simply not relevant to the intended recipient. This is usually because they contain nothing that is useful, interesting or entertaining to the reader.
In this blog, we explain how to write an email newsletter that’s engaging, captures attention and retains interest.
If you want your audience to look forward to reading your email newsletters, use these seven top tips as a checklist to to ensure you’re making the most of your time.
Know why you’re sending an email newsletter
There needs to be a big overlap between why you’re sending your newsletter and why your audience will want to read it.
The number one reason to send a newsletter is to engage your target recipients.
It’s your way of saying “We want to offer you the benefits of our expertise, so here’s some free advice that you can put into practice. Oh, and by the way, if ever you need help in this area, we have the expertise, so just get in touch!”
Too many newsletters are self-promotional and salesy. On the other hand, recipients are much more open to being educated on “how to do things” or being offered something for free, so give them what they want!
Understand who you’re writing for
A key requirement for email newsletters is that they need to be relevant to the audience.
So, before you write your first word, make sure you have a clear understanding of who your audience is.
What are their interests and motivations? What problems are they facing that need solving? How will the content you are writing about help them address these issues.
There’s no point sending an email about SEO or Pay Per Click marketing to a Human Resources Director.
Craft a compelling subject line
The subject line is your first (and sometimes only) opportunity to capture your audience’s attention. It should instantly grab attention, intriguing them enough to encourage them to take the next step and actually click to open the email.
Avoid spammy techniques such as clickbait, but make your subject line interesting enough to spark curiosity and maximise your open rate.
Provide value
How your audience defines value depends on how well you’ve executed (1) and (2) above.
Every piece of content in your newsletter should provide value to your readers. To do this, it needs to be one or more of the following:
- Educational
- Entertaining
- Inspirational
- Research/industry insight-focused
- Offer practical tips.
In other words, it needs to provide readers with something useful so that they remain open to receiving future newsletters and do not unsubscribe.
Keep your content concise and readable
Attention span in today’s information-rich world is at an all-time low.
Readers are typically time-poor, and simply don’t have the time (or the motivation) to read masses of content, even if it does fulfil one of the criteria in (4). Instead, they appreciate brevity.
To achieve this, keep paragraphs short, use bullet points and apply subheadings to break up your text, making it easy to scan.
Plus: don’t be tempted to offer too much information. Sometimes, less is more. In other words, a single, well-written sentence can be more impactful than a lengthy paragraph.
Your goal is to communicate your message as efficiently as possible without sacrificing quality or depth.
Use visuals
As well as being relevant and providing useful content, your newsletter should be visually attractive.
Incorporate relevant images, graphics or videos to break up text and add a visual element to your newsletter.
People intuitively prefer visual content, so incorporating visuals will make your newsletter more engaging and convey your message more effectively.
Include a clear call-to-action (CTA)
Remember why you’re sending your newsletter.
What do you want readers to do after reading it? Whether it’s visiting your website, reading an expertly written ‘how to’ blog, registering for a webinar or going to an offer landing page, make sure your CTA is both clear and compelling.
A good CTA can significantly increase engagement and conversion rates.
Final Word
Once you’ve prepared your newsletter with compelling content and is formatted correctly, don’t forget to monitor its performance!
By reviewing metrics like open rates, click-through rates and monitoring which pieces attract the most clicks, you’ll be able to determine what your readers find most compelling.
In turn, this will help you refine subsequent newsletters and improve your overall approach.
And finally, if you need help with email newsletter marketing for your business, just get in touch with our marketing experts at C4B at hello@c4bmedia.com.
