We’re working on a couple of newsletter templates for a customer and thought it might be good to share our steps for how to create a newsletter in the form of a checklist. That way, you can create your own using our checklist as a guide.
There’s a lot that goes into creating a newsletter, and if you’re a solopreneur it might even feel overwhelming. You have to proofread your copy, create compelling content and calls to action, brainstorm subject lines, avoid spammy text and subjects, be sure it looks good across many devices and inboxes, and of course make sure you don’t run afoul of email law.
Lastly there’s always that sweaty moment when you’re about to click send. Once that button is clicked there’s no going back to make fixes.
Ready? Bookmark this page and come back to it whenever you create an email newsletter.
How to Create an Email Newsletter
The following 12 steps will help you create an email newsletter that’s the best suited to your business or personal goals.
Step 1: Determine Your Newsletter Goals
That’s right, we aren’t starting with what to write. First you must decide what the goals are that you want to achieve with your newsletter and how your newsletter fits into your overall content strategy.
Do you want to generate leads? Increase the number of email contacts in your list? Drive website traffic? After determining your goal we should start to feel a natural flow.
Think beyond of how many people opened it Keep your goals tied to overall business goals. Open rates shouldn’t be ignored because it can help with understanding performance, but it shouldn’t be the only thing you’re looking at when setting goals.
Step 2: Content Gathering
You’ve set your goal. Now wha to do? Content gathering is influenced by how frequently you intend to send your newsletter. You can find content for your newsletter in two ways; actively and passively.
Active content gathering means you’re going out and finding stories to include in your newsletter. Passive content gathering is when you randomly come across content while browsing and save it for when there is a good time to publish.
You can save a lot of time with a passive method. You know the schedule of your newsletter, so over the course of time between issues you can bookmark and and save stories to come back to later when it’s time to get to the work of putting everything together.
Ultimately, how you gather content is your decision. However, the best places to go for your newsletter content are your company blog, social media, lead generation content, or even your company’s internal training program and internal newsletters.
Step 3: Newsletter Template Design
This essential when contemplating how to create a newsletter. You need to have an idea of what your newsletter will look before you begin drafting your copy. By having an idea of the design you’ll know just how much space you have to promote each piece of content.
Squeezing copy into a tiny space is frustrating and it can also waste a lot of time.
Don’t worry about how flashy it is so long as it looks good and isn’t difficult for readers to view in their mobile and desktop email clients. According to Litmus, 46% of people opened email on at least one mobile device. Eamil opens on desktop were only at about 15%.
When thinking about the design, browse some websites for inspiration and don’t be afraid to use the free templates offered by email marketing service providers. You can even purchase templates online, but be careful because you want to make sure it won’t be headache if you’re coding skills aren’t developed and the template doesn’t have built-in functionality for your email marketing service.
Step 4: Set the Size of Your Newsletter
There are so many screen sizes! How are you supposed to know how to set the size of your newsletter email? Fortunately most service providers will be default set the width of the email to 600 pixels with a 30 pixel padding on each side of the body.
If your newsletter content doesn’t fit well within these dimensions, it’s time to rethink your design. It’s best to ensure your content fits within the the standard 600 pixel width.
Luckily, height or length is unlimited. However, that doesn’t mean people want to or will even be willing to scroll through your novel of a newsletter. People and sensitive spam filters like shorter emails. A good rule to follow is that you should make your readers scroll no longer than 1 second when reading. Keep that in mind when thinking about how to create a newsletter that you’re audience will appreciate.
Step 5: Filling in the Body
Now it’s time to fill in your template with words and images. This is what you’re waiting for. This is where all your content is to be absorbed by the reader. For that reason, make sure the body is perfect. Generally people keep the copy short to entice clicks. Although there are some successful newsletters that take the opposite approach to short and sweet. Also, add in images that support your copy.
Edit edit edit! Send it to a colleague or fellow team member to read and see if they identify anything needing correction. Sometimes it helps to have a pair of eyes that’s not as involved in the effort. After sending, you can’t fix the typos.
Step 6: Personalization & Smart Content
The email newsletters I’m most likely to read are those that make me feel like it was written specifically for me. If you want your readers to experience that same personal feeling, follow these steps:
- Segment your subscriber list and choose content that will be loved by each segment of your audience.
- If your service supports it, add in personalization tokens. Don’t go overboard though. A few personal names or recommendations based on past on site interactions are enough. Too much turns impressive into creepy.
- Also if you have the capability, employ smart content. This means readers will see something tailored to the individual. For example, a call to action, or CTA, seen by your leads would be to contact your sales representatives. Existing customers would not see the contact a sales rep CTA, but instead would see a link to purchase tickets to your next customer exclusive event.
Step 7: Choose Your Subject and Set Your Sender Name
Your audience might have its own unique preferences, but often email newsletters with the name of an actual person as the sender tend to do better when studied. Studies have shown increased engagement with opens and click throughs. If you’d like to try your own tests, run some A/B testing to see what works best for your subscribers. Whether you choose a person’s name or something else, be sure it’s something recognizable by the recipients.
Subject lines are a bit more tricky. There are a lot of things to consider when putting together a subject line for an email newsletter. Consider brevity and an actionable value proposition to help craft your subject line. Some really great newsletters have even used something as simple as “Hey”. Use subject line best practices, run some A’B tests and determine what works best for you based upon audience actions.
Step 8: Alt Text & Plain Text Support
Everything should be ready to go. Except for, what if your recipient can’t see the images or the HTML doesn’t display correctly? Alt text and plain text are crucial to overcoming what might happen in your recipient’s inbox.
Alt text is the text you see in place of where a picture hasn’t loaded. Not all email clients will display images, and alt text is way of telling your readers what they would be seeing. This is particularly important for CTA’s. If your CTA is within an image and the image can’t be seen, you won’t be getting that click.
Plain text is used when the HTML doesn’t display as you had intended. Ensure links are clearly visible and that a reader can understand what your email is about without the images.
Step 9: Be Sure You’re in Legal Compliance
Don’t click send until you’re sure all is good on the legal front. What you mostly need to be concerned about is CAN-SPAM and GDPR.
CAN-SPAM: Requires that your email has a footer containing your address and en easy way to unsubscribe.
GDPR: It’s more comprehensive than CAN-SPAM. GDPR requires that email marketing communications to be sent only to manual opt in subscribers. This means you need an “Opt in” tick box that the subscriber must tick themselves. Legal compliance is incredibly important to remember when you create a newsletter.
Step 10: Testing Clients & Email Providers
Not all emails read the same. What? Yeah, that’s right. Not all email service provider read emails in the same way. Something that looks beautiful in Gmail or in Apple’s Mail might look horrendous in Outlook. For that reason you need to test your emails on the more popular browsers and email service providers.
Some platforms have built in testing to help make this easier for you. Hubspot and Mailchimp are two examples. If you have no other means, take the time to create some test accounts so you can be confident your newsletter will look good to everyone.
Step 11: Send Your Email!
You’re sure all recipients are subscribers. Your email has your beautiful branding. Your email is legally compliant. Send! Then wait for the data.
Step 12: Analyze Data & Adjust
A few days have passed and most if not all of your data should be in and ready for analysis. How did your newsletter perform? So.. now what?
Refer back to the goals we established at Step 1. How did you perform towards reaching those goals? Look at what parts of your email received the most clicks and which parts were top contributors to your goal. If you have closed loop analytics (sales team information supporting marketing goals), your measurements will be easy.
Now you can use the data you have gathered to guide the direction of your create a newsletter for your next release. You now will continue to have the insights to effectively communicate to your audience.
Let’s Talk About Your Brand
shane@3catslabs.com | Call +65-3159-4231
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