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Email Marketing Guide 2: Email design & content

4. Email newswletter content

Your content is probably the most important element to get right when creating an email newsletter. Your email newsletter content should be useful and relevant to the target audience and it should be written clearly so that readers immediately understand the benefits.

Here is a list of things to remember when creating content for an email newsletter:

• Set a tone - Give your email newsletter a voice and a tone. Will it be coming 'from' someone? Is it going to be formal, trendy, encouraging or corporate, etc.
• Select topics and establish an ongoing publishing schedule - Consider the topics you plan to include on a regular basis and decide how frequently your email newsletter should be sent.
• Create the template - Design a template that effectively showcases your planned content - ensure ease of navigation and how it will look in various email software packages.
• "Scanability" is key - Plan on creating email newsletter content that is easy to scan, to absorb and invites clicking.
• Follow the 80/20 rule - 80% information and 20% marketing. Don't try to cram as much material as you can into each issue. Five main articles (or topics) per email newsletter is a good rule of thumb. It allows people to scan quickly to find what interests them, without getting overwhelmed. Remember that each article has a job to do - in that it relates to what you're trying to accomplish with the mailing and what you want to emphasise about the company's products or services.
• Include a synopsis/executive brief - One way to present longer articles in an email newsletter is to provide a 'synopsis' or 'executive brief' on the home page that clicks through to the full article. They should each be 35 - 45 words long. This caters to the scanners and will also provide increased statistical information from any click-throughs.
• Length of content - Each article word count should be kept between 300 - 700 words. Again, think website and the way people are reading. If there are valid reasons for longer articles, break up the article into segments and onto separate pages.
• Images - Consider the selective use of images. They should be compressed without sacrificing quality and be hosted on a server - not sent as attachments. Images have proven to add visual appeal, a personal touch and helps break up the text in the layout.
• Content ideas - Product/services info. Contributions by industry experts. Case studies, quotes, humour and competitions. Industry news, product usage tips, white papers and helpful links.
• Spell check - Make sure the content has been reviewed by at least two people before it is sent to ensure that all the content has been proofread.

Related article: How much content should I have in my email newsletter?

Areas covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Email newsletter subject lines
• Email newsletter layout
• > Email newsletter content
• Personalised email newsletters
• Email call to action