How to Create an Email Newsletter People Actually Read

对于大多数营销人员来说，这听起来很熟悉。You’re sitting around a conference room, trying to figure out how to best engage your leads and customers, sell more products, or just “stay top-of-mind” for your target audience, and someone decides there’s a solution that can solve all of those problems at once: an email newsletter!

Suddenly you're "volunteered" to do it. And you've got make sure that open and clickthrough rates don’t dip. Oh, and the first one needs to go out tomorrow.

That sound good?

I’ve been in that situation before, and I was terrified. Even though e-newsletters are one of the most common types of emails to send, they are actually some of the hardest to doright。

想王牌你新的电子邮件时事通讯项目,或bob官网官方网站rejuvenate an old one? Below are 10 things you need to make sure to do. And if you're looking for some inspiration, here are some awesome emailbob官网官方网站新闻通讯示例you can check out.

1. Review successful newsletter examples.

Where do you start? Before you get started creating an email newsletter, look at some examples in (and outside of) your industry. We've compiled a list of dozens of our favorite email newsletters into an ultimate lookbook.

Download the Guide for Free

2. Evaluate whether or not you need an email newsletter.

I know it can be kind of scary pushing back on your boss about a project you’ve been handed, but if an email newsletter isn’t right for your marketing, you shouldn’t waste your time working on one.

To figure out what you need to do, first do some research. In your industry, are there successful email newsletters that people like to subscribe to? What’s in them? With the resources you have available to you -- budget, time, and internal support -- could you be successful?

然后，重新检查您的业务目标。他们是否试图增加线索数量？更好的资格导致与销售人员交谈？完成更多交易？保留更多客户？

如果您的行业对电子邮件新闻通讯并不真正感兴趣，或者您的目标不与新闻通讯所能完成的事情保持一致，那么您bob官网官方网站的时间可能会花在创建其他内容之类的东西上，例如为您的博客培养电子邮件工作流或内容。

So gather some data, create a plan-of-action (either for a successful newsletter or another activity), and go chat with your superior. Even if you disagree with his or her vision in doing an email newsletter, your boss will be glad you came prepared with a plan for success.

好吧，假设你发现你shoulddo an email newsletter. What next?

3. Figure out what kind of newsletter you want to send.

One of the biggest problems with email newsletters is that they're often cluttered and unfocused because they're supporting every aspect of your business. Product news goes right next to PR stories, blog posts go next to a random event week … it’s kind of a mess. Email -- whether it’s a newsletter or not -- needs one common thread to hold it together.

帮助降低电子邮件通讯的随机性的一种方法是将其保留到一个非常具体的主题。bob官网官方网站因此，也许它是专门用于一个垂直行业的，而不是与您的公司有关。bob全站app

BuzzFeed的“本周在CATS中”的新闻通讯是一个伟大的，基于主题的电子邮件通bob官网官方网站讯的一个例子。（不要判断...我最近采用了一只小猫，我已经痴迷于猫。）尽管Buzzfeed写下了几乎所有内容，但他们为喜欢阅读有关猫的人提供了一个特定的新闻通讯bob官网官方网站。由于利基市场与特定的兴趣保持一致，因此这些文章有机会获得比在网站上包含内容的新闻通讯中获得更多的参与度。bob官网官方网站

4. Balance your newsletter content to be 90% educational and 10% promotional.

Chances are, your email newsletter subscribers don't want to hear about your products and services 100% of the time. While they may love you and want to hear from you, there’s only so much shilling you can do before they tune out.

Case in point: I have a thing for shoes, and I especially love this one shoe site. I willingly opted in to the company’s email list, but it now sends me emails 2-3 times a day to buy, buy, buy … and when I see it’s sender name pop up in my inbox, I want to scream. If they sent me educational content -- maybe about the latest styles of shoes, or how to pair certain styles with certain outfits -- I might be more inclined to buy from them, or at least start opening their emails again.

不要成为那家公司。bob全站app在您的电子邮件新闻通讯中，摆bob官网官方网站脱自我宣传（大部分时间），并专注于向您的订户提供教育，相关，及时的信息。除非你actually关于您的产品，服务或公司，有一个令人兴奋的大型新闻，忽略了促销bob官网官方网站零件。bob全站app

5. Set expectations on your "Subscribe" page.

Once you’ve figured out your newsletter’s focus and content balance, make sure you’re properly communicating about them on your subscribe landing page.

Get specific. Tell potential subscribers exactly what will be in the newsletter as well as how often they should expect to hear from you. Take a page out of SmartBrief’s book: On the subscribe landing page, it says what'll be in the newsletter和gives potential subscribers a preview link. Check it out:

As a subscriber, wouldn’t that be awesome? You’d go in with open eyes knowing确切地who you'll be receiving email from, what they'll be sending you, and how often they’ll be sending it. As a marketer, having this information up front will help diminish your unsubscribe and spam rates as well.

6. Get creative with email subject lines.

Even if your subscribers sign up for your emails, there’s no guarantee that they will open your emails once they get them in their inbox. Many marketers try increasing familiarity with their subscribers by keeping the subject line the same each day, week, or month that they send it.

But let’s face it, those subject lines get old for subscribers -- and fast. Why? Because there’s no incentive from the subject line to click on that具体的emailright this instant.A better approach would be to try to have a different, creative, engaging subject line for each newsletter you send.

一家做得bob全站app很好的公司是惊喜。这是我最近收到的电子邮件新闻通讯的集合：bob官网官方网站

由于公司的主题行，我已经打开了其中的每一个。bob全站app即使我知道这些电子邮件每天早上都会出现在我的收件箱中，但主题行吸引了我点击。

如果你需要帮助,你的电子邮件时事通讯”bob官网官方网站t lines,查看此食谱。

7. Pick one primary call-to-action.

Okay, part of what makes a newsletter a newsletter is that you’re featuring multiple pieces of content with multiple calls-to-action (CTAs). But, that doesn’t mean you should let those CTAs share equal prominence.

相反，让一个头honcho cta-onemain thing that you would like your subscribers to do. The rest of the CTAs should be “in-case-you-have-time” options. Whether it’s simply to click through to see a blog post or just to forward the email to a friend, make it super simple for your subscribers to know what you want them to do.

Check outSecond Glass下面的电子邮件通bob官网官方网站讯,这是促进寡糖r most recent Wine Riot event in Boston. It's colorful and chock-full of information ... but it's also pretty obvious what they want you to do: purchase tickets for the event. By placing this CTA above all the other pieces of information, Second Glass increases the chance that their email recipients will click on it.

8. Keep design and copy minimal.

Like we said before, a newsletter can easily feel cluttered because of its nature. The trick for email marketers to look uncluttered revolves around two things: concise copy and enough white space in the design.

Concise copy is key -- because you don’tactuallywant to have your subscribers hang out and read your email all day. You want to send them elsewhere (your website or blog, for instance) to actually consume the whole piece of content. Concise copy gives your subscribers a taste of your content -- just enough that they want to click and learn more.

White space is key in email newsletters because it helps visually alleviate the cluttered feel, and on mobile, makes it much easier for people to click the right link.

Look toTom Fishburne's blog post newslettersto see how this should be done. The main blog post has one large comic, a few small paragraphs of introduction, and a link. The rest of the newsletter components are smaller and more visual, making the whole design feel uncluttered an easy to read.

9. Make sure images have alt text.

Given that visual content is incredibly important to the rest of your marketing activities, it’d make sense that you’d want to include them in your emails … right?

Right. But email’s a little bit trickier. Most of the time, people won’t have images enabled, so you’ve got to make sure your images have one essential component: alt text. Alt text is the alternative text that appears when images aren’t loaded in an email. This isespeciallyimportant if your CTAs are images -- you want to make sure people are clicking even without the image enabled.

Each email marketing program is different, buthere is one tutorial for adding alt text to email。

10. Make it easy for people to unsubscribe.

This seems kinda counter-intuitive, but it’s key if you want to maintain an active, engaged subscriber list. Don’t use weird language like “Alter your communication with us.” Don’t hide an unsubscribe button behind an image without alt text. Besides keeping your list healthy,having a clear unsubscribe processwill help ensure your email isn't marked SPAM before it hits the rest of your list's inbox.

Take a look at charity: water's newsletter below to see how to do this right. The link to unsubscribe is bolded and capitalized, making it really easy for you to take action on it (if you wanted). No footer hunting required to uncover where the heck you can change your email settings.

11. Test, test, test.

I know I just listed out nine things you should do to make sure you’re doing email newsletters right, but you’ve also got to find out what works for your company and your list. Just like different cultures of people prefer different things, different groups of email subscribers prefer different things.

因此，使用这些电子邮件新闻通讯的最佳实bob官网官方网站践作为一个起点……然后进行试验以找到您的秘密酱汁。您可以尝试以下几件事：

Short, Funny Subject Lines

All of your subject lines should be on the short side. (They work better that way.) But have you ever tried infusing a little humor into your copy? It could put a smile on your recipients' faces -- and potentially improve your open and clickthrough rates. Below's a really cute subject line example from Airbnb:

CTA Copy & Design

Maybe your readers like loud, bright colors on your CTA -- or maybe drab, bland ones are the way to go. Maybe they prefer really fun, excitable, action-oriented copy -- or maybe a simple "click here" works. Definitely test out your CTA language and copy to see what resonates.

As a good example to follow, Litmus has a ton of CTAs in their email newsletter, but the way that they use color and copy makes them seem very natural and easy-to-read.

No Images

这篇文章中包含的大多数电子邮件都有很多华丽的，引人入胜的图像……但这并不意味着您needthem in your emails. Try stripping away images in favor of seriously well-written copy.

Below is a great example of a plain text email with excellent copyfrom枫牛仔裤。I especially love the P.S. bits toward the end. They increase the spacing between the different CTAs, making it even easier to click on mobile and giving the whole email a less promotional feel.

资料来源：真正的邮件

移动版

More and more people are surfing the web and checking their emails on mobile devices, so you should make sure that whatever design you work with is both visually pleasing and functional. This will ensure that your mobile email is engaging to both desktop and mobile users.

Want to learn more about this?Here's a detailed guidethat walks you through how to optimize your email for mobile devices.

Sender Name

Last but certainly not least is an example from my colleagues running our INBOUND conference. Recently, to alert INBOUND attendees of a special ticket sale, they sent an email from Romeo, our CEO's dog, in honor of the Boston Red Sox's season home opener. And it worked: the email received 7% more opens and 2% more clicks than typical INBOUND emails sent. Even if your CEO doesn't have a dog, running a sender name test could be very worthwhile.

Putting Together Your Newsletter

准备好将新闻通讯放在一起后，请务必遵循上述步骤。bob官网官方网站无论您的新闻通讯的格式如何：bob官网官方网站

• 保持简短而甜美。不要用太多的文字或图像压倒人们。平整事物。即使您选择了无照片的新闻通讯，也可以快速地和关键点，以便将电子邮bob官网官方网站件削减到追逐中，并始终引起人们的注意。
• Make your content valuable. No one wants to open an email with a bunch of advertisements in it. So, include gems of wisdom, tips, and helpful blog posts along the way so the reader feels like they're actually learning something. This will make the subscription feel much more valuable to them.
• Always test your emails. It's embarrassing when a link doesn't work or a design aspect looks wonky. So be sure to send test emails to yourself and a colleague who can give you helpful feedback. Check them on both a computer and a smartphone inbox so you can confirm that both the mobile and desktop designs look good.

Want to start designing but aren't sure how? Use a template! Check out our long list ofeffective email templates免费或非常负担得起。