Email newsletter design guidelines
I’ve written an article for Smashing Magazine about email newsletter design guidelines (full article). This is the summary of the article.
Newsletters can be a powerful marketing and communication tool between you and your customers. From our previous usability testing for various clients, we know that users often decline to subscribe to a newsletter, to avoid being overwhelmed by the amount of emails that arrive in their inbox. They are more likely to sign up for a newsletter when they can see the benefits in subscribing, and to continue the subscription when the newsletters bring enjoyment to them.
Getting the sign up right
To encourage users to subscribe to your newsletter, you could:
- Tell your users what they will get: Let them know what the newsletter consists of and the benefits they will receive by signing up. Remember to keep your promises about these benefits so that users don’t lose their trust in you.
- Give a preview of your newsletter: Alternatively, you can also provide a preview of what the newsletters look like and how often they will be sent out (e.g. once a month or once a fortnight).
- Give rewards for signing up: For example free gifts, vouchers or a discount code.
- Keep your questions short and simple: When it comes to forms, keep the questions short and simple.
Newsletter examplesGetting your newsletter subject line and content right
From our previous experience, we find that when users receive a newsletter, they often look at the sender and the subject line to see if it is something of interest to them. They also look for up to date content. Things that you should pay attention to when creating and sending out your newsletters include:
- Use attractive subject lines: Specific offers such as ‘25% Off Just For You’ work better than general offers such as ‘Sizzling Summer Deals’ in your subject line.
- Provide useful and well written content: Offer content which users would not normally research. Users often scan through a newsletter to look for topics which are of interest to them. Clearly show a few different topics in the newsletter with easily scanned headings.
- Offer content which is relevant to your readers: This includes relevant offers, products, images and recommended content.
- Give exclusive offers to your subscribers: You can always make your readers feel privileged by including exclusive discounts or promotion codes in the newsletter.
Tips for designing your newsletters
You can design your newsletter in various ways – in a catalogue style, as a summary page of your e-commerce site, or by focusing solely on your monthly promoted product or service.
- Keep it simple and straightforward: Regardless which style you are going for, keep it simple and easy to scan. Avoid squeezing too much information onto the page.
- Make good use of images, numbers and colours: Be wary when using them. Don’t overuse them.
- Use layout which is suitable for your content: You can design your newsletter in a one-column or multi-column layout, or a mixture of both. Each design has its pros and cons. Some designs work better for certain types of newsletter (e.g. a heavy text one) than others.
- Be creative: You can also use another approach to spice up your newsletter, for example by using fictional characters who users can easily relate to (see the full article for examples).
- Be wary when providing a table of content: Sometimes you might want to have a table of content (TOC) on your newsletter for quick scanning. This can be useful when you have a lot to announce in the newsletter. Be wary when presenting your TOC as i they are easily mistaken for external links which will stop readers from using them.
- Be wary of putting adverts on a newsletter: When putting adverts on your newsletter, make sure they blend into your content.
Tools and features that can be included
There are some features which could be included in your newsletter: an option to unsubscribe (but be wary not to over emphasise it), a link to change the subscriber’s email address, to view the newsletter in a browser and to quick share the newsletter with their friends. Other examples include Follow us on Twitter, Be Our Fan on Facebook, Watch Us on YouTube.
In the full article, each guideline mentioned above was accompanied by good and bad examples.
About the author
Chui Chui has done a lot of work with accessibility and written several papers on the subject. She is great at making really complex problems simple. Chui Chui loves food, and is very fond of sugared squid! Email Chui Chui, or call +44 (0)117 946 3930
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Yes, I completely agree, especially regards the design of e-newsletters that simplicity is paramount as readers generally scan the communication very quickly. Here, negative space can be useful, which is not the norm as companies tend to cram too much information into these communications. Regards content, definitely useful information is key and endorses the sender’s position in their field. As an example, in producing a schools e-newsletter for the Avon Wildlife Trust I developed educational resources that helped schools improve their environment for wildlife, such as bird boxes.
Excellent Article, keep up the good work.