The email newsletter is one of the most common and useful types of email marketing. Email newsletters can help businesses connect with their customers and build good relationships if done correctly. To be effective, email newsletters must be well-crafted and offer something of value to the reader which will motivate subscribers to open and read. One of the biggest mistakes that newsletters make is lacking this valuable content. With the dozens if not hundreds of emails we receive every day, most people have become very selective about which emails they want to read. Here are 5 tips to help you create an email newsletter that will catch your subscriber’s attention and turn them into recurring readers or better yet, loyal customers.

Catchy Subject Line

Even if your subscribers sign up for your email newsletter, there is no guarantee that they will open your emails. Come up with a creative and engaging subject line that will create a sense of urgency or instruct your readers to do something.

Give It Value

Provide value by either entertaining or providing interesting, useful, and helpful information. Make sure your reader doesn’t mark your email newsletter as spam.

Use Popular Content

There’s a reason why your popular content is popular. It’s because it gives value to readers. Extend the reach of content that is already performing well. If certain content is doing well on your website, there is a good chance that your email subscribers will find it interesting as well.

Keep it Short

Opt for brevity and send emails that are easy to scan. Assume your subscriber is a busy person that has minimal time to check their inbox. To make sure that your newsletter gets read, write short sentences, use simple words, and get to the point. According to a study on email newsletter eye tracking by Jakob Nielsen, “…participants fully read only 19% of newsletters.”

Make it Mobile-Friendly 

According to Litmus, 55% of emails are opened on mobile devices. To get the most opens and clicks, you have to make sure your newsletters are mobile-optimized. Responsive email design is the way to go. You don’t need to know how to code to use responsive design. Most email marketing/management services offer email templates with the mobile-friendly feature.

Make It Easy on the Eyes

It’s super important to make your newsletter easy to read. The best way to do this is by using a clean and easy-to-read font such as Verdana, and not to jam pack the newsletter with too much info. Alleviate the cluttered feel by using white space.