An informative newsletter will help to develop a powerful and profitable mailing list but to do this you must ensure that your newsletter content is as strong as it can be. Too many newsletter authors make the mistake of over-selling. Customers and leads will soon become bored of reading page after page of marketing material and instead want to be informed, educated, excited, and even entertained.

Newsletter Design

The design of your newsletter is likely to be the first thing you tackle. Most newsletters come in either plain text or HTML format but possibly your best bet is to opt for both. Give your visitors the option of whether they view your newsletter content in HTML or plain text.

The design should be simple with little clutter on the page. Let the content do the talking. While there is room for some advertisements, if required, make them relevant and meaningful and don’t let them get in the way of the content itself. The sole purpose of a newsletter should be to give news to readers.

Company branding is also very important. Ensure that your newsletter design is similar to that of your website design. If you have a logo then include this too. Use a similar scheme to that of your site. Readers will remember your design, your logo, and, therefore, your name.

Setting up a template before you send your first newsletter is the best way to proceed. Using a consistent newsletter design will save you time and help readers easily digest the information they want. Subsequently, it will help you make sales.

Newsletter Content

Newsletter content falls into several different categories. Depending on the type of website or business you run as well as the purpose of your newsletter you may want to include several or even all of these in your newsletters.

News.

It makes sense that a newsletter would contain news. New and informative news should be the main feature of your newsletter. Avoid the temptation to fill a newsletter with nothing more than advertisements.

Features.

Features can include how-to articles, guides, tips, and other factual and informative pieces. Gear any features you include towards the readers of your newsletter. Consider who will be reading and whom you believe you should be appealing to.

Regular Columns.

A series of articles or pieces related to a single topic will keep your readers reading. Using regular columns as newsletter content is an exceptional way to ensure that you attract more customers and retains more of them too.

Advertising.

Notice how advertising falls some way down this list? That’s the way you should approach the advertising of your own products. Certainly include adverts and banners or even a short article but ensure that there is enough genuine content within the rest of your newsletter to ensure that readers have a reason to believe your advert.

Content Resources

There are numerous resources on the web that give you access to free content. These can prove invaluable for the average newsletter editor with regards to bulking up the information contained in your letter. However, it is always a good idea to include original content that is geared specifically towards your own newsletter, your own site, and your own customers.

Newsletter Factors

Newsletters are supposed to be regular submissions. Whether you intend to send a weekly, monthly, or quarterly newsletter you must keep to your promises. How often you send them will depend on how much free time you can dedicate. A quarterly newsletter is unlikely to yield great results because customers will have forgotten they even signed up for the newsletter. In my opinion, even monthly can be too infrequent. Fortnightly, or weekly if the topic can sustain it, would be about ideal. But always make sure you get a quality newsletter out on time every time.

The length of a newsletter, or the amount of newsletter content, is another valid debate. You need the newsletter to provide the information you want to get across without becoming verbose and, frankly, dull. E-Newsletters should be quite different to paper publications.

The human brain cannot digest information as quickly or as effectively when read on a monitor. Make sentences short, paragraphs short, and your newsletter short. Some companies and sites send out newsletters that contain just one article of 500 to 600 words with a short advertising section and these can work well. Others include longer articles or maybe two or three sections. You should certainly attempt to reduce your newsletter content to 2,000 words at the very most.

Conclusions

A newsletter can be an extremely powerful Internet marketing tool. Readers love to get something for nothing, especially information. By reducing the amount of advertising and increasing the amount of genuinely useful and informative newsletter content it is possible to build an email list that will continue to purchase from you for years to come. Newsletter design and newsletter content are equally important, both giving you the opportunity to maximize the effect of your marketing campaigns and subsequently make you more money.

About WebWiseWords

Not everyone can dedicate the necessary time or write compelling newsletter content on a regular basis. WebWiseWords offers a newsletter writing service that enables you to continue with the core areas of your business unheeded. Whether you’re looking for a full newsletter design, the newsletter content itself, or a single article we can help. For more information or to sign up for the weekly Internet marketing newsletter visit the WebWiseWords site or email info@webwisewords.com.