With 3.9 billion users worldwide, email continues to belong to one of the most popular communication channels in 2020. At the same time, 63% of users prefer to receive information from brands through email.
For businesses, email is one of the main methods of getting in touch with clients. Smart email marketing helps the customer move through the sales funnel, order again, and get involved in the brand’s life.
In this article, we will talk about an educational email newsletter and the essentials you need to pay attention to, from using an email signature generator to adding informative content.
#1 Useful written content
Focus on sending relevant and timely information. Don’t send a newsletter only because you have to.
Be creative. Even if you sell footwear, you definitely can teach your customers something. Maybe you can share a good piece of information about the latest styles of shoes, the ways to care about shoes, or how to pair certain models with certain outfits.
#2 Informative visuals
Sometimes, writing about vital facts and statistics can be really challenging. Readers can get bored easily. Presenting your content using informative visuals can make the difference to how well recipients understand your data and what they remember.
Don’t forget to add one essential component — the alternative text that appears when images can’t be loaded in an email.
However, everything must be based on “moderation.” Gorgeous, compelling images are good, but that doesn’t mean you need lots of them in your emails. Sometimes, you just need to strip away images in favor of a well-written copy.
#3 Proper closing
One of the most obvious ways to end a newsletter email is to use common closing lines such as “Sincerely,” or “Stay tuned,” but you definitely want more website visits and closer relationships with your audience so that they look for a new issue from your great brand and people standing behind it.
If you include a well-designed email signature in your newsletters, you will increase customer engagement. It is a very logical way to close a newsletter with your personal details. For example, “Mia Farrow, CEO of ABC company.” If you add a nice, professional headshot, you will make your email even more personal.
Modern email signature generators also give us the opportunity to add calls to action, banners, and social buttons. See the examples below.
#4 Distinct subject line
Getting attention isn’t easy in today’s content-heavy world. The fact that someone signs up for your emails can’t guarantee that they will open and read your newsletter once they get it in their inbox. Since an email subject line is the first thing your subscribers see once they receive an email, you need to make it clear and attractive.
Many marketers choose to keep the subject line the same all the time to help recipients recognize the email from a favorite brand. However, bear in mind that such subject lines can get old for subscribers quickly. If there is no incentive from the subject to click on, they may simply ignore the email.
Don’t waste this valuable space for filler words like “Hey,” “How are you?” “It’s important,” unless you are Barack Obama.
Try to come up with a new engaging subject line for each educational newsletter you send.
For example:
“5 best products for healthy skin you need to know about”
“How to cope with anxiety in 3 easy steps”
“Instagram vs. Facebook: what’s best for your business in 2020?”
#5 Links to home page
Educational newsletters often suffer from information overload. That’s why it is better to write a brief description of the content in your newsletter and provide a link to read further on your blog. If you do so, your reader won’t be overwhelmed with too much text in the email.
Not only can such an approach ease content consumption, but it also can bring more visitors to your
website and provide opportunities for reconversion.
If a piece of content you are going to send isn’t big, you may still want to include links to your home page. You can either add your logo at the very beginning of the email and link it to your homepage, or use your email signature with calls to action leading to your website or recent content.
#6 Social media Integration
In the era of social media, it’s essential to include social media icons of your networks in your newsletters. This will allow your subscribers to connect with you in more than one way and share your great content with friends. You can place your social media buttons on your email signature or at the bottom of the email.
#7 Option to unsubscribe
This might seem counter-intuitive, but it’s critical if you want to maintain an active, engaged mailing list. Keeping your list clean will help ensure your newsletters aren’t marked SPAM before they reach other recipients.
Don’t confuse your subscribers with weird language like “Alter your communication with us.” Make it clear how to stop receiving your emails.
Conclusion
If you want to sell, you don’t always have to sell. You need to teach. Although educational articles aren’t directly influencing your sales, they help to build trust and connection between brand and consumer.
Once you are ready to turn your educational content into a newsletter, be sure to follow the above steps.
On top of that, keep in mind a few extra things:
- Always proofread your copy. This is especially important for educational content. Do it twice. Unlike blogging, there is no redo or update button for newsletters;
- Pick сolor schemes that match your brand;
- Create compelling calls to action to let people know what you expect them to do. For example, “Share with a friend,” “Download a free eBook,” “Go to blog,” etc.;
- Design your newsletter to display properly on multiple inboxes and devices;
- Brainstorm clickable subject lines;
- Avoid spam triggering words such as “guarantee,” “act now,” “expire,” “limited time only,” “urgent,” etc.;
- No matter the audience, stick to a conversational tone rather than make it seem as if you are talking down to your subscribers;
- Consider segmenting your lists to send more targeted newsletters.
- Measure performance;
- Test, test, test.