Here are three interesting facts for you to mull over:

• 50% of users buy products or services from marketing emails at least once a month.
• Users open 22% of all email newsletters within the first hour of sending.  
• 59% of users confirmed email newsletters had influenced their purchase decisions. 

You know the importance of email newsletters. However, you’re confused about how to design those newsletters to have better open rates and conversions. What are the best practices?

This article will offer the answer. In the next five minutes, learn 6 best practices in creative newsletter design for email marketing we employ in SeekThem so you have a clearer idea. 

6 best practices in creative newsletter design for email marketing

 

1. Use a clean and minimalist design

The average human has an attention span of 8.25 seconds. Furthermore, 58% of users skim through the web content. Add these two facts and what do you realize?

You must offer the ‘big picture’ information in a clear and precise way. Add too much clutter and the reader will close even the best email newsletters before they get to the real information.

We at SeekThem solve the issue by opting for a clean and minimalist design so that your newsletter doesn’t get lost among the 50 unread emails in the average user’s inbox. 

We achieve the same by using:

• Clean typography
• A visual hierarchy
• Monochromatic color schemes and color blocking
• Fun animations to add contrast and character

Furthermore, our designers create bespoke templates for each newsletter campaign that far outweigh the free email newsletter templates everyone else uses. 

 

2. Keep the branding consistent

Why is that important? Users receive over 100 emails each day on average. If they can’t distinguish your newsletter from others, chances are the user will never open the newsletter. That’s why keeping the branding consistent is one of the email design best practices. 

Furthermore, consistent branding:

• Builds trust among the users.
• Allows the users to find the desired information with ease as they’re familiar with the layout and structure.
• Prevents the newsletter from landing in the spam section. 

Here’s what we do to keep the branding consistent:

• Develop a style guide that includes elements such as tone, colors, fonts, and trademarks. Everyone involved in the newsletter creation process follows this guide; whether they’re from the copy team or the legal. 
• Create different templates for each newsletter campaign so we always have a framework to rely upon.
• Share the style guide and templates with all the key stakeholders for review and suggestions. 

Read More: This is how you are losing money with your bad design

 

3. Offer engaging content

Here’s what we do to craft the same:

• Create a catchy subject line. Miss that and the users won’t open the newsletter. Using power words such as ‘Help,’ ‘Secret,’ ‘Behind the scenes’ work wonders. 
• Begin the introduction with a hook. The hook can be a bold statement, provocative question, or the promise to share a secret.
• Offer multiple content types such as a behind-the-scene story, a how-to guide, or a promotional offer in form of images or videos.
• Add customer testimonials.
• Share employee stories.
• Share a link to a relevant blog.   

 

4. Use an enticing call to action (CTAs)

Including a strong call to action is one of the best practices in email newsletter design as the step guides users to take action.

Check out how we make sure the call to action is enticing:

• We define the purpose of the CTA. We figure out what we want the user to do, why should they do the task, and how would they know what they should do.
• We use power words that tease the reader and explain what they will see if they click too. The words include ‘Learn more,’ ‘Show me how,’ and ‘Get 50% off today.’
• We opt for a 44X44 pt size for CTA buttons — which is the dimension Apple suggests for touch targets — and offer enough whitespace so users can find the CTA with ease as well. 
• Choose contrasting colors with the background for the CTA to stand out. 

 

5. Make the newsletter mobile-responsive

Users read 42% of all email newsletters on mobile devices. That’s why we make sure the email newsletter is always mobile-responsive.  

Here’s how we achieve the same:

• We use single-column layouts of a maximum of 600X640 pixels. The size is best suited for mobile devices.
• We use font sizes of up to 13 pixels for body texts which is the optimum size for mobile devices. Furthermore, we use up to 22 pixels font size for headlines as well. 
• We usually keep the essential design elements in the upper portion of the email. However, we decide on the same after analyzing the branding and brand tone of the company we’re working with.
• We optimize the images to make them crisp on mobile screens as well.    

 

6. Use A/B testing to figure out the effectiveness of the newsletter

Here’s how we make sure the A/B testing is effective:

• We decide which parts of the email newsletter we’re going to test — the subject line, the call to action, the headline, the body text, or something else.
• We decide whether we’re going to test the newsletter with the entire mailing list or parts of it. Note that the larger the test sample, the more accurate the test results will be. 
• We test a single variable at a time to get the best results. If you must test multiple variables at a time, go for multivariate testing over A/B testing.  

 

Best practices in creative newsletter design for email marketing — the marketing strategy that offers high ROI

For every $1 spent, email marketing offers a whooping $36 ROI. Thus, you should put your best foot forward while designing email newsletters.

Now that you know the 6 best practices in creative newsletter design for email marketing, the information will help you make the most out of email newsletters.