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Posts Tagged ‘email newsletters’

e-newsletter design

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

How to improve your email newsletters;

Getting the layout and content right for an e-newsletter is a creative technique and ultimately effects how your readers perceive your brand. If you’re involved with this process then read on as we’ve put together a few pointers to steer you in the right direction.

• Promote your logo to be instantly recognisable.

You might already use a company logo on your designs, but is this large enough so that people know who their email is from before they press the delete button? Also, repetition of design elements and the use of company colours will also help promote and re-enforce the identity.

• Talk to your audience using jargon free terminology.

Heavy use of Jargon in headers and content is off putting. Be educational but also remember who you are writing for.

• Titles should fit in with the theme and guide your readers through the layout.

Using bolded sub headings and strong emphasis points with italics will provide structure and clarity, instantly informing what lays ahead. Avoid obvious and boring titles and keep away from underlining text as this creates confusion with hyperlinks.

• Don't make your e-newsletter like a music poster with loud backgrounds and block text (unless you are a music promoter).

Be subtle with the contrast and ensure colours complement each other, using sufficient contrast between text and background.

• A lot can be said about white space in design techniques.

Use this space wisely to control and give relaxation to the reader’s eye. Text will be much easier to follow resulting in a far great experience.

• Don’t add borders and shading just for the sake of it.

Your layout should have enough natural alignment through the use of placed images and text, without the need for harsh borders and containers.

• As a rule, no more than two font types.

Structure can be added using different font sizes and emphasis such as bold or italic. Plan your layout with header 1 , header 2, sub 1, sub 2 etc. Be consistent throughout and stay away from overly decorative text, unless appropriate to your brand.

• Try to add images but keep them relevant to your story or products.

Avoid making your e-newsletter into a photo album (unless you’re a photographer). We hope the above tips will help go towards improving the layout and design of your e-newsletters, resulting in a greater experience for your readers. If this all seems a bit too much then why not pass it on to us, we would gladly take this over for you as part of our integrated email newsletter service.

Tags: e-newsletter, email newsletters
Posted in How To Do..., Internet Marketing | No Comments »

Spring clean your newsletters

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

By Carl Da-Costa-Greaves

Whether you’re creating your own email newsletters or writing for someone else, if you’re anything like me, you will always be looking for ways to improve, even going right back to the drawing board. With growing competition online and new technologies emerging every day, the last thing you want to do is get left behind by your competitors.

Why reinvent your email newsletters?

You‘ve been writing email newsletters for your business, publishing them and distributing them for years so why change now? A few reasons might be because: • Your users are reading the same newsletter, making the message monotonous as there’s not much more to read that they don’t already know about you. • In the age of the digital era there is so much more information that can be collated quite quickly, such as product profiles, feedback reviews, testimonials etc. If this type of information has got you the reputation you have today then you should share this pride with your readers so they know exactly where their suppliers brand stands in market. • Think big and think different. Why do the same things others are doing?
How to be different

Now you know why your newsletter may need changing, it’s time to work out how you can make it different. Writing good email newsletters requires absolute creativity that you need to put in from the start. Some areas to think about are: • Interest your readers by tapping them into the wider knowledge base of your industry. By doing this you are showing a willingness to educate outside of your own products, adding innovative generic industry information. • Change the design of your newsletter. Why stick to the same boring way of presenting your newsletter? Play with colours and design styles. Use other interesting newsletters that catch your eye for ideas, design patterns and choice of colours. • Add some reviews and testimonials about the products and services of your business. This will help your readers gain faith in your brand. • Keep your readers regularly updated; once a day is too much, once every 6 months and they will forget you. • Leave your readers in anticipation for the next publication. You can do this by dropping some hints about upcoming offers in your next editions. If you haven’t changed your email newsletter in the last 2 years then the chances are it’s going to look a bit outdated. Leverage the power of email marketing and try incorporating some of the ideas above the next time you publish.

Tags: creativity, email newsletters, Internet Marketing, spring clean
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Growing your email marketing lists

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

In previous posts we’ve discussed how to write winning email newsletters. However, If you’ve just started out in business or only recently started capturing email addresses through sign up forms etc then you probably don't have a big list to send your email marketing campaigns or email newsletters to. So what do you do?

Here are some inspirational ideas to grow your opt-in email marketing list:

• Place your email newsletter signup form on your home page. Or if this doesn’t fit with the look and feel of your design then have a visual cue, or noticeable link to take users directly to the signup form page.

• Link to your signup form from every page of your website (you might even add a link to your footer or side navigation).

• Place a link to your email signup form in your email signature (ask everyone in your company to do the same).

• Offer free giveaways to one lucky subscriber (it can be an exclusive promotional discount or a limited edition offer of some sort).

• Post free whitepapers or helpful articles on your site. They'll get downloaded and hopefully spread around the web if you offer them for free and with no registration. Inside your whitepaper you could place your add or promotion of your newsletter and the benefits of signing up (see above).

• Send out personal, one-to-one emails to all your clients who haven’t already opted-in and ask them to please sign up to your newsletter.

• In your "Contact Us" form on your website, add a checkbox to "signup to our newsletter"

Already Have a List of Customers?

What if you already have a customer list with email contact details of people that you've been doing business with for years? Just because they're your customers it doesn't necessarily mean that they want to start receiving your email newsletters. For example, if you run a small consultancy business with a about 25 clients who are very close to you. If you just assume they'd want your newsletter and you automatically subscribe them to your list without their permission, you're just going to irritate a lot of them (or worse, get yourself reported as a spammer). If you've got an online store you're probably sitting on a huge email list of customers who have purchased something from you in the past. But if they didn't check a box for email marketing, or if you haven't emailed them anything in years, you shouldn't start sending them emails out of the blue. So what can you do? If you have a list of customer email addresses and you want to start sending them email marketing, but you don't have their permission yet, ask them for permission by sending a "Re-Introduction Email." It can be extremely effective in re-energising dormant contacts and will certainly help you on your way to increasing your opt-in subscribers.

Tags: email marketing, email marketing campaigns, email newsletters
Posted in Internet Marketing | No Comments »