10 Email Newsletter Design Best Practices

Create Impressive Email Newsletters with 40 Email Newsletter Tips on 10 Design Best Practices

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Learn how to create impressive email newsletters with these 10 Email Newsletter Design Best Practices, created by Don Nicholas and Email Marketing Expert, Jeanne Jennings.

Inside this white paper you’ll learn:

10 email design best practices on the most important elements of an impressive email newsletter…
40 tips to adhere to these email design best practices that will increase open rates, facilitate a community and increase response rates…
How to score your email newsletter against these best practices…
How other publishers adhere to these best practices, with examples from nine different email newsletters…

Learn the key strategies for boosting email conversion rates, open rates, delivery rates and more…

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10 Email Newsletter Design Best Practices:

Create Impressive Email Newsletters with 40 Email Newsletter Tips on 10 Design Best Practices

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Claim your FREE copy of 10 Email Newsletter Design Best Practices: Create Impressive Email Newsletters with 40 Email Newsletter Tips on 10 Design Best Practices!

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Create Impressive Email Newsletters with 40 Email Newsletter Tips on 10 Design Best Practices

The metrics for email marketing make the platform very measurable and adjustable, but without benchmarks how will you know what adjustments to make?

To measure an email campaign without benchmarks is to guess at its effectiveness—and blind guesses rarely make money.

Email Newsletter Design Best Practice #1

Delivery

If your email newsletter doesn’t get delivered to the recipient’s inbox, the chance of it being read greatly decreases.

Getting through Internet Service Provider (ISP) filters requires a mix of technology and relationships; most email service providers (ESP) provide what you need. Harder is getting through filters that reside on the recipient’s desktop, like those offered by Microsoft Outlook, McAfee and Cloudmark.

The timing of your delivery can also make or break your ability to reach readers. The email newsletter should be sent at regular intervals and delivered at an appropriate day/time (weekdays during business hours for B2B, weekends or evenings for B2C).

Email Newsletter Design Best Practice #2

From Line

The from line of an email newsletter should clearly identify the sender and be quickly recognizable to the recipient. Studies have shown that when viewing their inbox, readers start by looking at the from line; engaging readers here has been shown to increase open rates.

Each email should actually have two entries in the from line—the display or friendly from address and the actual from address.

Email Newsletter Design Best Practice #3

Subject Line

The subject line should be engaging, benefit oriented and talk about the content of this issue of the email newsletter. The key message in the subject line should be first; subject lines are often truncated. When writing subject lines companies should be sure they don’t sound “spammy” by avoiding over-the-top claims and language favored by less reputable emailers.

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Email Newsletter Design Best Practice #4

Preview Pane

The preview pane is the top 2” to 4” of the email newsletter; many email clients show readers a “preview pane” window as they scroll their inbox. This area is another tool that should be used to engage readers.

Email Newsletter Design Best Practice #5

First Screen

The first screen, which includes the preview pane, is another part of your email newsletter’s prime real estate. It should include an opening paragraph that draws people into the issue with reasons why they should take a minute and read it right now.

Email Newsletter Design Best Practice #6

Look & Feel

If your email newsletter doesn’t look engaging, people will be less likely to jump in and read it. It should have a design that’s appealing to the eye and draws people in. This design should be consistent with that of your Website/landing pages, so there’s no disconnect and the relationship between them is clear.

The email newsletter should use images to support the content and business goals, but not overuse them. It should be easy to skim, with short paragraphs, bullet points and ample white space.

Claim your FREE copy of 10 Email Newsletter Design Best Practices: Create Impressive Email Newsletters with 40 Email Newsletter Tips on 10 Design Best Practices!

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Email Newsletter Design Best Practice #7

Content & Tools of Engagement

The email newsletter should provide benefit-oriented content that engages the reader. It should promote two-way communication and community-building with things like surveys, polls, links to discussion boards and ways to provide feedback to/communicate with the editor(s).

Email Newsletter Design Best Practice #8

Business Goals

Every email newsletter should have a reason for being: its business goal. The content of the email newsletter should reflect and support this. You should be able to clearly justify and defend the business purpose behind every email you send and every item in these emails.

Email Newsletter Design Best Practice #9

Footer

Readers have come to expect to find certain information in the footer of an email newsletter. Some of it, like a way to unsubscribe, is required by CAN-SPAM regulations (assuming the email’s purpose is promotional, not transactional). Other information is just best practice, like including a link to a subscription management page where readers can change their preferences or update their email address.

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Email Newsletter Design Best Practice #10

Other

There are two other things your email newsletter should do: match what you told your subscribers at sign-up and serve as an acquisition tool for new subscribers.

Making sure that the frequency of the send and the content are consistent with what subscribers were told when they signed up is key. Also key—asking readers to share your email newsletter with their friends and colleagues and providing those who receive a forwarded issue an easy way to sign-up themselves.

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