What is the Secret to an Engaging Newsletter?

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

You could have the most life-changing product or exciting offer, but the fact is not all emails are being opened by subscribers. According to a study by GetMailBird.com, a whopping 35% of emails are left unread. Only a measly 21.50% of emails are being opened. 

Unfortunately, subscription emails often end up being filtered in spam folders, and unless users check these folders, the hard work you put into creating an email will be wasted. And let's face it, many of us only go to spam folders to empty them.

Email marketing remains one of the most effective strategies for digital promotions, but if the email is not connecting with the recipient, your marketing messages will be left unopened in the inbox. This guide outlines ways to create a newsletter that subscribers want to open to ensure a higher engagement rate. 

Top Reasons for a Low Open Rate

Wondering why your messages aren't connecting well with your audience? Here are some reasons why your newsletters are left unread in subscribers' inboxes:

• The subject line is not interesting enough
• The subject line is not relevant enough
• You're sending newsletters too often
• You're sending newsletters infrequently
• Your target audience is not targeted enough 

Newsletters with the highest click rates cover the following topics:

• Hobbies (click rate of 5.01%)
• Media and publishing emails (click rate of 4.62%)

According to MailChimp, the average click rate for all industries is 2.62%.

How to Create Engaging Newsletters

Focus on Topics Subscribers Actually Care About

The reason people sign up for newsletters is the exclusive content. People wouldn't sign up for a newsletter if they didn't like the content. Subscribers have expectations, and if they are not met, they'll be quick to move on to other brands.

With that in mind, do not stray away from topics that your followers find interesting. If the topics are limiting, go online and find ways to broaden the subjects without going too far off because you don't want to put off subscribers. 

Attractive Designs

People are more likely to open an email if the design is nice. That's because humans make decisions based on emotions. We are more likely to make faster decisions if we see what we like. 

A newsletter with a standout design is much more likely to be opened than an email with an unattractive or outdated template. Thankfully, newsletter builders like Flodesk offer dozens of newsletter templates to choose from. These templates are carefully curated to suit various industries, including lifestyle, fashion, beauty, home design, travel, and health. The templates can be customized with your branding elements to give a consistent user experience among subscribers. 

Use Sourced Content for Freshness

There are so many ways to spin existing content into newsletters; you'll have to be creative in crafting the emails to make them even more enjoyable. Apart from creating fresh newsletter content, you can create a round-up of exciting content from other sites, use user-generated content, or reuse old blogs as newsletter content. 

Third-party content

Third-party content enables you to align your brand with market leaders. No matter how big the industry you're in, you'll be able to connect with your readers if you're presenting content from well-known individuals. A quote, a tweet, or a post from an influencer can be used as newsletter content to make the message stick. You can also collect interesting blog post links and present these in a list form that readers can click on at the bottom of the newsletter. 

User-generated content

Most newsletters focus too much on the company and not so much on the audience – why don't you turn the tables and put the spotlight on your followers? 

From your website's comment section or social media convos, post comments, questions, images, or any interesting quotes from your followers. Use these to highlight the message you want to convey to your readers. Using third-party content helps humanise your brand and connect deeply with your readers.

Repurpose old blogs

Check your highest-performing blogs and use these to create new newsletters for subscribers. No matter how loyal your subscribers are, most of them won't dive into the archives to check out your old content. You can breathe life back into old blogs by refreshing the format, updating some infos, and spinning them into a newsletter. You can also embed the old blog links into a newsletter as a “follow-up” write-up to drive traffic to your website. 

Maximise Social Media for Promotions

Everyone and their sister are on social media, so using the most popular platforms to promote exclusive content like newsletters makes sense. Unlike other marketing platforms, brands tend to approach social media marketing in a casual manner because the majority of users are young. 

You can use social media sites your target audience often uses to build some buzz around your newsletter. You can post a teaser or show a snippet of your latest newsletter to get people excited enough to sign up for it. Talk about what readers can expect in your following newsletter, give them a good reason to sign up, and once the excitement builds, your following newsletter will perform better. 

Keep It Straightforward Yet Catchy

Most people don't have the time to go through their inboxes, and when they do, they only spend a few minutes reading messages. You can make the most of what little time people have to spare going through their emails by keeping the content straightforward yet catchy.

Readability is crucial in holding online users' interest. An attention-grabbing headline is a great start. Keep the rest of the content brief yet punchy. Few people are willing to sit down and read a newsletter in front of a computer, so the content should be straightforward and easy to scan. Think casual, short, and easy to digest with eye-catching visuals when writing the newsletter content. 

Attractive Visuals 

Amazing content must have attractive visuals to match. Otherwise, your newsletter won't make much impact on readers. Apart from using customised or exclusive visuals, use your branding elements to give a consistent user experience. Your subscribers should recognise your emails and distinguish them from all other emails they receive. 

Using your branding elements, as well as your brand tone, provides a more personalised feeling to subscribers. Add your custom blog banner to make the newsletter feel like an extension of your website. You can use free photo editing tools like Canva to put together a beautiful newsletter format or choose from the platform's pre-made templates. Whatever you choose, be sure to keep it on-brand and consistent. 

If you're curious about how newsletters can boost your business and improve your revenues, you can start to piece together your first newsletter as early as today. With these tips, we're sure you'll create newsletters subscribers will love reading!

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