How To Make Email Newsletters

Loes Knetsch ©

How can you make an email newsletter people actually read? Because that’s the reason you send a newsletter. And the best thing would be, that people not only read but also share your newsletter with their contacts. That’s exactly what you want, don’t you? I collected some tips you can use to create an awesome newsletter.

What is the purpose of your newsletter?

The first thing you have the figure out for yourself is, why? Why do you want to make and send a newsletter? What do you want to accomplish with this? Do you want to give an update? Do you want to sell something? Do you have a gift for your subscribers? Or just want to keep your relationship warm?

The purpose of my newsletter is to stay in contact with my subscribers and to inform them about new posts and awesome new programs.

The best results for your newsletter would be:

Acceptance ratio 100%
Open ratio 100%
Read ratio 100%
Click on link ratio 100%
Sign off 0%

Acceptance Ratio

When you work with a double opt-in to sign-up to your newsletter, people have to confirm that they have signed in, the acceptance ratio will be much higher, than when you use a single opt-in to sign up.

Open Ratio

What is the reason that YOU are opening newsletters?

Is it the sender?
Because of the title
The offer displayed?
… name it …

Take a look at the titles and subject lines in your own inbox. Which ones are motivating you to click on?

How to motivate people to open your newsletter? The do’s and the don’ts

The Do’s

Write a catchy title, you find multiple slogan creators here
Come up with an awesome subject line, possibly with numbers

The Don’ts

Never call your newsletter “Newsletter”, not very catchy 🙁
Never use only capitals in your subject line
Don’t use titles like “Newsletter from “your URL”

Example Newsletter

Let me discuss my newsletter.

Newsletter date

Important and relevant is to add a date or period to your newsletter. July 2018, the second quarter of 2018 or weekly newsletter 32, 2018.

Add a catchy title

My title here is: “Everything you need to make your dream come true in 2018”
Find yourself a catchy slogan

Add your website logo

If you don’t have a logo yet, make one. You need to brand yourself. I used my website colors and made a newsletter header.

Add value

Always give your readers something of value. Software programs, sales, e-book, anything that your reader can benefit from.

Add images

Make your newsletter lively and attractive with images. Be creative and original. My example is a screenshot, so you can not really see the original display, but here it is:

Add links to your website

Add links wherever possible. Learn more…, Read more…, link your images, link your titles, link the subject line.

Add links to Social Media

Don’t choose, just place them all on your newsletter. There still are people without Facebook and YouTube accounts out there 😉 But most people have some Social Media account where they can share your newsletter.

Never overload your newsletter with info.

Remember KISS [keep it simple stupid] It’s better to send them over to your website for more information. Keep your newsletter size to one A4 maximum.

Examples for a subject line

Start subject lines

Curiosity is a psychological phenomenon that you can respond to in the subject line of your newsletter. That is even scientifically proven. If we do not know something, it gives us the feeling that we are missing something and we are looking for information to eliminate that loss.

1.	How to create …	4.	Succeed with …	11.	How to make …	16.	Here’s a quick way …
2.	Super easy ways …	5.	Get rid of …	12.	Don’t be fooled …	17.	Stop wasting …
3.	The secret to …	6.	The ugly truth …	13.	How to buy …	18.	How to improve …

Subject lines with numbers

With a number in your subject line, you create an expectation and you indicate exactly what people are going to get. Comparative tests even show that subject lines with numbers do tens of percent better than without numbers.

1.	25 Top …	3.	11 Tips …	5.	3 Brilliant ways …	7.	13 unheard ways …
2.	7 reasons …	4.	5 Ways to get …	6.	17 Tricks …	8.	101 Ideas …

Did you notice that I only used odd numbers? It’s a statistic fact that people click more often on odd numbers than even numbers.

The scarcity subject line

This type is actually as old as the road to Rome. Although we may not like to admit, the fear of fishing behind the net is an ingrained human reflex.

1.	7 days offer …	3.	3 Left …	5.	Sale till 23.59 …	7.	3 Days sale at …
2.	Only today …	4.	Your last change …	6.	Daydeal …	8.	Only this week free …

Subject lines with discounts

1.	30% off …	3.	50% discount …	5.	For $29 to …	7.	Free shipping …
2.	Our newest folder …	4.	21% tax-free …	6.	$5 discount …	8.	Earn $2,50 one click …

How this article made me a better advertiser! Read this...! Click To Tweet

The surprise effect

Our brain likes surprises. A surprise gives us pleasant stimuli. A subject line that generates a smile, offers an unexpected benefit or presents a striking twist of thought, it differs your e-mail from the dozens of other e-mails in the inbox of your newsletter reader.

1.	New in our travel guide! Camping on the moon …	3.	Surprise, surprise! Hmm, no I am not telling yet…
2.	Only today you pay $3 more …	4.	Are you struggling? Let me challenge you …

Conclusion for how to make an email newsletter

Combine.

Combine different types of subject lines. You might have already seen it in some examples: often you can combine the mentioned tactics. If one tactic gives proven results, why not use 2 or 3?

Long subject lines.

Do not make subject lines too long. The rule is to make your subject line not longer than 50 characters. That is quite difficult. I didn’t keep that rule in my newsletter either 🙁 An exception to this rule is when you communicate about a specific subject with a very specific target group. In that case, longer subject lines can work better.

Sender’s data.

Take a good look at your sender’s data. In addition to the subject line, readers of your newsletter are the first to see the sender data. Make sure that you use a company name that is familiar to the reader or that you use a trusted personal name.

Vary.

If you send out a newsletter 12 times a year with very similar subject lines, it will become a bit dull. So with every newsletter, take a look at your previous mailings to prevent you from repeating.

Imagine.

Try to imagine what your readers are concerned about and what their challenges are. Maybe in general, but perhaps also in a specific situation or period (think of the example of the Basic Fit mailing that can be sent shortly after the holiday period). You can combine that basic idea with almost all examples of subject lines in this article.

Use an autoresponder

There are many opportunities online. And a lot of them are free up to 2000 email addresses. When you have built an email list of 2000, you are most likely earning some money online too. So, when that time comes, you are well able to pay some fee for your autoresponder. I made this Newsletter at Laposta, a free to use Dutch autoresponder. I like it a lot because the manual is in Dutch, my native language. But of course, there are more, like Aweber and MailChimp.