February 3, 2021

9 Simple tips to optimize your business newsletter design

Business newsletter design

A business newsletter is a critical tool in your businesses’ content marketing efforts. It enables you to create brand awareness, engage with customers, and establish market leadership, among other things. In fact, a staggering 93% of marketers use content marketing as it makes communicating easy and builds trust. While the benefits of publishing a newsletter are indisputable, there are certain nuances that go into designing one. Here are nine simple tips that can help you craft one that is impactful.

1. Use the inverted pyramid style of writing: When structuring a newsletter, ensure that the most important message is on top, so that it catches the reader’s eye and immediately draws attention to what the newsletter is about. In addition to the position of the content, the font size, font type, size, and color also play an important part in creating a great visual experience.

2. Keep it clean: When it comes to newsletters, brevity is your best friend. Keep the message short, sweet, and simple. Not only does it look visually appealing, but it is also more effective than bombarding readers with a lot of content. Focus on one key idea in one newsletter. For example, if your business newsletter focuses on online businesses, your first edition can talk about the benefits of starting one, and the next one can take it forward by talking about the steps to start one.

3. Use white space smartly: Less is more in a business newsletter. This means you don’t have to fill every vacant inch of space and clutter the newsletter. Using white space effectively helps readers to scan, read, and comprehend the message well. Strategic use of negative space can give prominence to the message you want to put across. A clean layout gives your content the space it deserves and can leave a lasting impact.

4. Use the right colors: Colors are scientifically linked with feelings. Yellow depicts warmth and friendliness, white is linked with purity and cleanliness, red with love and passion, green with money and nature, and so on. Make sure you either choose colors that are in line with your brand ideology or the emotion you want to evoke in the newsletter.

5. Use simple fonts: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. If you want your brand message to be loud and clear, it’s important to use a simple, easy-to-read typeface. Ornate or decorative fonts may look nice, but they strain the eye and may cause your message to get lost. Make sure to choose between two or three simple fonts that are evenly spaced out in all your brand newsletters.

6. Pick relevant images: An image is just as important as the content, if not more. A carefully chosen image can contribute immensely to the look, feel, and impact of the newsletter. While picking an image, make sure it adds emphasis to the content you’re writing and has colors that are consistent with the overall scheme of your business newsletter. Also, avoid large images as they will require a lot of scrolling and can be a turn-off. As a rule of thumb, allocate no more than 30%-35% of the space in your newsletter for the image or illustration.

7. Use different content formats: Keep the reader interested and engaged with a variety of content formats. You can use simple text, video, GIF, or an infographic, depending on what you need to communicate. For instance, a GIF can help your brand be relevant and a video can help create an emotional connection, while an infographic allows you to draw your readers’ attention to important data points. Depending on what the brand message is, choose a format that will create the maximum impact.

8. Optimize for various devices: Today, we use numerous devices to access information online, such as PCs, laptops, tablets, and (most importantly) mobile phones. Make sure that your business newsletter is optimized for each of these devices. Essentially, this means you have to think about how your newsletter will appear on different devices and ensure it can be viewed in its entirety so that readers don’t have to scroll too much sideways or encounter a large amount of white space when they open the newsletter.

9. Have one clear CTA button: The goal of your newsletter is to get your readers to take action, whether it is just visiting your website or purchasing your products. So, it’s imperative to have one clear call-to-action (CTA) button to draw their attention to. Avoid plugging in too many links as it could cause confusion. Make your content simple, yet compelling, so it leads them directly to the CTA button. Also, make sure the CTA button stands out by putting it in a prominent color.

A business newsletter is a powerful tool, allowing you to engage, connect, and inspire your readers. To get the best out of your content marketing efforts, make sure you follow these tips.

Relevant links:

https://neilpatel.com/blog/38-content-marketing-stats-that-every-marketer-needs-to-know/
https://scatter.co.in/7-questions-to-ask-before-accepting-a-freelance-content-writing-assignment/

Contributors: Aishwarya Krishnamurthy, Hari Menon