The Secret to Writing and Designing Newsletters Your Customers Will Actually Read

You send newsletters out month after month in the hopes that your customers will read them. You spend time choosing just the right topics to write about, the right fonts to use and the right images to catch their attention. But how can you guarantee that carefully crafted newsletter that cost you so much time to send (and money to print and mail) won’t get tossed straight in the can the minute your customers see them lying in their mailbox?

Content and design.

Content

It’s not hard to learn how to write content for a newsletter, and yet it’s something that a large number of businesses find themselves struggling with month after month. When writing a newsletter, there are really only three things you have to remember. It has to be relevant, it has to be interesting, and it has to not be loaded with attempts to promote your company and your merchandise. They have sales ads for that.

Are your customers reading what you're writing, or are your direct mail marketing materials going straight in the trash?

Choose topics that are relevant to your industry and, therefore, to your clients. For example, if you ran a print shop you could talk about how to write a newsletter! Remember that this isn’t a lecture, and they’re not going to be tested on it afterwards. Present your information in a fun, engaging and interesting way, and frame it in a way that’s going to relate to them. Even news about selling insurance, which has a tendency to err on the side of “dry as dust” can fascinating if you put it in a way that people want to hear.

Choose catchy, engaging headlines and you’ll have them eating out of the palm of your hand!

If you struggle with your headlines, try running them through the AMI’s Emotional Value Headline Analyzer. Not only will they tell you how you’re doing, they’ll also give you some great tips on how to spice up your news!

Design

Colors and photographs, and a noticeable branding header. People are visual creatures. We see something that catches our interest, we stop and check it out. A bright, interesting graphic (coupled with an engaging headline) will do more to catch your customers’ attention and spark their interest than page after page of well-written content ever will. Why do you think best-selling books always have engaging covers?

It’s all about visual appeal and choosing the right colors, graphics and fonts to portray your company’s image.