Newsletters have been slowly becoming a trend in the digital marketing world. And this is because readers seem to like them and are actively signing up to receive them and it's becoming an essential part of any effective email marketing strategy.
According to a survey, nearly 20% have signed up for at least 6 to 10 newsletters in a span of 12 months.
Keep reading if you want to jump on the newsletter bandwagon like everyone else. In this guide, we'll teach you how to create a newsletter through step-by-step instructions.
Table of contents
How to create an email newsletter in 11 easy steps
- 1. Figure out the purpose of the email newsletter
- 2. Pick the right content
- 3. Build your email list
- 4. Include graphics
- 5. Personalize your newsletter
- 6. Choose a tool and template
- 7. Add a subject line
- 8. Make sure your emails are legally compliant
- 9. Review and test
- 10. Send it to the rest of your subscribers
- 11. Audit and revise
How to create a newsletter?
To create a newsletter, select a platform, curate compelling content, design an eye-catching template, and establish a consistent release schedule. Incorporate attention-grabbing headlines, visuals, and a clear call to action. Foster reader engagement, analyze performance metrics and make optimizations for sustained impact.
In simple terms above are the few steps to create a newsletter which we will dive into detail later, but before let's go through the benefits, use case, importance, and effectiveness of a newsletter.
Use cases of email newsletters
Content creates and businesses use newsletters for different purposes according to marketing needs and email marketing goals.
Promoting new products, services, or special offers
Sharing company news and updates
Providing valuable content to newsletter subscribers
Nurturing potential customers and guiding them to the right solution (Bottom of the funnel)
Generating leads and conversions through targeted campaigns
Educating subscribers on industry trends and best practices
Driving traffic to website and social media platforms
Benefits of email newsletters
Creating an email newsletter is not just an option but an important strategy to stay connected with your audience, ensuring their engagement with your brand. An email newsletter provides several benefits that make it an important element for any business.
Builds brand awareness and customer loyalty
Helps to establish authority and expertise
Provides a direct line of communication with your audience
Increases website traffic, sales, and revenue
Offers a cost-effective marketing solution to reach millions of people with one click
After knowing these staggering newsletter benefits I know you wanted to know the step-by-step process of creating a newsletter email campaign that breaks the word out and amazes your email subscribers.
How to create an email newsletter in 11 easy steps
If you want simple yet effective steps to create an email newsletter that not only informs your subscribers but also engages them and converts more users toward your goal, then follow these steps with actionable direction and expert insights so your email subscribers with for your newsletter.
1. Figure out the purpose of the email newsletter
The first starting point to producing a newsletter is to figure out why you want to create a newsletter in the first place. Think about what you want to acquire through the email newsletter.
Do you want to direct people to your web page or social media site?
Do you want to enlighten your audience about something?
Do you want to get sales?
Or do you simply want to stay in touch with your audience?
For instance, if you're a company, you would want to send a newsletter that aligns with your company's missions or that motivates your employees in great way. You can explore some other company newsletter ideas too.
Once you determine what you want to accomplish, it'll be easier to create a newsletter that helps you achieve it.
💡 Expert Tip: Consider your target audience's needs and segment preferences when defining your newsletter's purpose. Addressing specific interests ensures relevance, engagement, and better alignment with your audience's expectations.
2. Pick the right content
In general, newsletter content has to be either valuable, interesting, informative, educational, or even controversial within your niche. So pick the right topic for your newsletter that is worth reading.
For example, here is a newsletter by Vitamin Stree. They are primarily a brand that aims to change the narrative on gender and identity. They could have covered any topic related to their niche in this newsletter. But they chose to talk about gaslighting because it is a very interesting topic that their audience might relate to and find useful.
3. Build your email list
Now that you have something to say, it's time to find someone who wants to listen. Ask people on your website, social media, and other places if they want to receive email newsletters from you.
And lead them to a landing page where they can submit their email address and sign up if they are interested in your newsletter and become new subscribers. You can also do this before you even start creating your newsletter.
Here's how we at Mailmodo build our contact list and get people to sign up for our newsletter on our website.
💡 Related guide: What Is an Email List and How Can You Build it From Scratch
4. Include graphics
This step is self-explanatory. We all know graphics help capture attention so add them to your newsletter, preferably at the very beginning of it. You can add graphic elements like images, illustrations, gifs, and emojis to make your newsletter design seem more engaging, readable, and visually stunning. And make sure it aligns with brand colors and provides a sleek user experience.
💡 Expert Tip: When you add images or GIFs, include an alt text to ensure your newsletters are accessible.
5. Personalize your newsletter
You can personalize your newsletter to include the reader's first name in the subject line, copy, or preheader, as shown below.
You can also personalize the email based on the data you have on your subscribers. For example, you can personalize the copy of the newsletter to show different content on fashion for men, women, and gender-fluid individuals.
6. Choose a tool and template
You have your content and images ready, but in what order or layout are you going to put it together? This is where it would be helpful to create a template, so it's easy to know what goes where and use it for your future newsletters.
And to create an email template, you need an email template builder. Now you can create your email campaign in an email newsletter software and send it.
💡 Expert Tip: When you are choosing email newsletter software make sure you consider easy to use an email template builder, a large number of email templates, and a full-fledged email marketing solution that is cost-effective.
The reason experts advise you to consider full-fledged email marketing solutions is that if you are starting an email newsletter, in the near future you get lots of subscribers and you may need email automation-triggered campaigns, and other advanced email marketing features. It's not that complicated to choose the best email marketing software for your needs, just study the best email marketing software article that gives you all the details you need to choose an email marketing platform.
7. Add a subject line
The subject line is one of the key elements that influence a person's decision to open an email or not. You need to write a subject line that is short, personalized, and contains a hook to make it compelling and get people to click and open the email.
For example, I recently got a newsletter from M.O.M. with the subject line "📭 The $500B Controversy" followed by the subject line "What on earth is happening in Saudi V…".
Just by reading the subject line and preheader text, you get an idea of what it is about while having no idea what happened. This gets users to open the email as they want to know what happened.
So when creating a subject line, ask yourself these questions to find out if it's compelling enough.
Does it leave the reader on a cliffhanger?
Why do you think someone will click on your email?
Does it create some curiosity?
Does it compel a reader to think about or answer something?
Does the reader feel you are offering them valuable information?
If you are having a hard time on coming up with compelling email subject lines try Mailmodo's AI email subject line generator that helps you to create different versions of email subject lines that you can A/B test also. Apart from that get inspiration from more than 1000+ email subject lines.
8. Make sure your emails are legally compliant
There are two major laws you need to make sure you are compliant with before you send your email. They are CAN-SPAM and GDPR.
To comply with CAN-SPAM, you have to provide a way for people to opt out of your emails and provide the location of your business in the email. You can easily do this by adding an unsubscribe option and your address in your email footer, as shown below.
To comply with GDPR, apart from including an opt-out option, you must ensure that people have permitted you to send them emails. And if you build your mailing list & collect contact information through the methods we have mentioned above; then you don't have to worry about it.
9. Review and test
Check the overall newsletter for any mistakes in the grammar, colors, layout, header, footer, etc., by reviewing it with a peer or superior.
It'll also help you understand where you need to improve - whether your subject lines are not powerful enough or your content is falling flat and needs to be reworked.
After you have reviewed it, it's time to see what your subscribers think of it. But it would not be wise to send it to all of them immediately. So, send test emails to a few people to see how they respond to it.
Are your subscribers attracted to the use of GIFs in your email newsletters?
Are they clicking the buttons you've inserted into the newsletters?
Optimize your email newsletters based on feedback from reviewing and testing your campaigns.
A/B test your email newsletters to understand when is the best time to send them or which subject lines lead to higher open rates.
10. Send it to the rest of your subscribers
Once you have tested your email, it's time to make the leap and send it to the rest of your list.
But if you haven't sent emails to many people before, you might want to start warming up your domain before you send your final newsletter. Otherwise, your newsletters might end up in the spam folder.
If you want more help with domain warm-up, you can sign up for our custom plan, and our experts will assist you. You can book a demo with us to get more information on the topic.
💡 Expert Tip: Make sure to send welcome emails to every new subscriber who joins your email newsletter.
11. Audit and revise
After a few months, it's a good idea to take a look at your newsletter strategy and see if it was able to achieve the goals you set in the beginning. If not, analyze key performance indicators and figure out what's not working.
Is the newsletter design or layout not good enough?
Are people not reading your newsletter?
Are people not even opening the email?
Are your emails not landing in people's inboxes?
Check your email service provider as they usually provide email analytics that contains metrics like open rate, click rate, delivered emails, etc. Once you have found the source of trouble, you can revise it and check again in a few months to see if the changes worked.
💡 Expert Tip: Also sign up for the best email newsletters and take inspiration for your successful newsletter.
Create your first newsletter with Mailmodo
Now that you know how to create a newsletter, it's time to start and create it. If you seek a place to start, we have email newsletter templates that you can customize and use to send your next email marketing campaigns.
But if you want to take it a step further, With the help of the Mailmodo email marketing tool you can add widgets like carousels, forms, etc., to make your newsletter more interactive. You can read our guide to find out how you can make your newsletter interactive using AMP for email.
