7 best email newsletter design tips

As you may know, an email newsletter is the perfect way to stay at the forefront of your customers’ minds while providing them with valuable information such as your latest blog posts, expert tips, sales alerts, company news, and more.

In reality, there are many things you can do with email to grow your brand. Nevertheless, the biggest hurdle is getting your subscribers to open, read, and take action on your emails.

For that reason, in this post we’ll tell you how you can design the perfect email newsletter to get your visitors’ attention (even if you’re not a designer).

What is an email newsletter?

Email newsletters are a series of regular recurring emails that contain informative content or a summary of recent offers and content that were published during the week (or month), depending on how often you send emails to your list.

Generally, the content you share in your newsletter depends on your industry. Some industries, such as e-commerce and other retail companies, will feature much more product-oriented content and images, while others will just use their email newsletter to alert readers to a new blog post that was made.

Another reason is to promote, provide value to your subscribers and deepen the relationship, strengthen the relationship and build trust. This way, when you launch a product or have something to sell, there will be much less resistance from your buyers.

7 email newsletter design tips

Now that you know the why of email newsletters, you’re ready to dive into some of the best design practices. In this opportunity, we’ll show you 7 important items.

1. Get your dimensions right

The dimensions of your newsletter are perhaps the most important aspect when launching an email newsletter. If it is too large or too small, it will look strange in email clients’ interfaces. 

In addition, its difficult access will lead to unsubscribes or low open rates, and consequently your emails will be marked as spam. This means that it will not reach your inbox in the first place.

Therefore, it is recommended that you follow the industry standard size of 600 pixels. However, you can also scroll around this number, but most email marketing providers also offer templates that have this standard size.

Remember that to ensure your email looks good on your visitor’s email client, including mobile devices, aim for 600 pixels or a maximum of 640 pixels.

2. Create a compelling (but not overwhelming) header

The header will be the first thing your visitors will see when they open your email. You’ve already gotten your subscribers to open your email, so your header should reassure them that they are in the right place.

Some of the most recognized entrepreneurs have implemented a combination with the same logo used on their site, links that include the brand’s official website and colors related to their company, all to make sure it looks good.

3. Choose colors in alignment with your brand

Keep in mind that the overall design of your newsletter should be aligned with your website and your brand as a whole. Which means a similar color choice, the same logo, and the same font choices (if possible). That way, when a reader clicks through to your website, the experience will be seamless.

Hence, if your website uses primarily red, orange, and yellow, you will want to use these colors throughout your e-newsletter. For example, The Marginalian e-newsletter is basically a carbon copy of the website.

Then, your newsletter will use similar fonts, colors, images, and spacing, and if you click through from the e-newsletter to the website, you will have a nearly identical experience. Another factor to consider with color is the use of complementary colors for buttons and call-to-action (CTA) links. 

This will help them stand out and encourage your subscribers to click. While basic blue hyperlinks grab their attention, a button in a different color will most likely entice them to click more quickly.

4. Include plenty of white space

We have limits on how long our newsletters can be, but there really is no limit to the length of your email newsletter. Then, if you are planning to insert a lot of links, information and products in your email, you will need even more white space to balance your email.

Also, always try to maintain a logical organization in the email so that the newsletter is not exhausting to read.

5. Focus on content over design

Even if you achieve a very attractive design in Internet copies, if the content of your newsletter is boring, it will probably end up in oblivion. Thus, before you start designing your newsletter, you should think about what it will be about. For example,

• Will it be a digest newsletter of the best blog posts on the web?
• Is the goal to showcase your seasonal product selection?
• Are you simply sending a link to a recent blog post you published?
• Do you want to refer your subscribers to an affiliate offer?
• Perhaps you have a content-heavy site and want to showcase some of your most popular posts from the previous week?

Perhaps the most effective thing to do is to create a basic template to start working from. In fact, this is a strategy that many business owners use, and it usually ensures that all of their emails look similar, even if the content, structure, and style of each email is different.

When your readers open an email, you want them to have a similar experience over and over again, right? Well, with the help of the template, you wouldn’t change the design of your website every day or week, so do the same with your emails.

6. Include a compelling CTA

Just because you have a beautiful CTA button doesn’t mean your readers will actually click it. As you’ll see, the CTA is just as important as the button design. But what really makes a good CTA? Well, here we’ll give you some tips to help you get started:

Use actionable language related to the rest of your email.

Your call to action should be active, meaning the language exists in the present. Think of classic examples like “click here” or “sign up.” It should be more personalized, but this is a great place to start.

For a more specific example, let’s say your email highlights the benefits of a product or service you offer and you want your readers to sign up for a free trial. In this case, a CTA like “Start your free 30-day trial today” or “Get your free sample today” would work.

Make the CTA stand out from the rest of your email.

Your CTA should be distinct from the rest of your content. Then, if your subscriber is scanning the email, the CTA will easily grab their attention. To do this, keep the following in mind:

• Use a bright button or text color that is different from the rest of the colors in your email.
• Have plenty of white space around the CTA; don’t bury it next to other content.
• Make your CTA responsive so it looks good whether it’s viewed on a tablet, desktop computer, or mobile device.

The fewer calls to action you have in your email, the better. Overwhelm your reader with things to click on and your click-through rates will suffer. With an email newsletter, you’re usually trying to talk about multiple needs and interests, and you’ll end up with multiple CTAs.

7. Let holidays and seasons inform your design

Throughout the article, we’ve recommended that you stay on the sidelines with colors and fonts when designing your newsletter. Nonetheless, for holidays and seasonal content, you can change things up a bit.

For example, many of your email newsletters that will be sent out during Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the rest of the holiday season will be about the sales you’re running. 

So, you can let the design of your emails reflect that, without losing the goal of getting subscribers to click through to your site and take advantage of the offer.

Closing thoughts

By now you should have a better idea of the reasons why you would like to design an email newsletter, as well as some design best practices to keep in mind when creating yours.

On the other hand, remember that often email marketing providers have pre-designed templates that you will be able to use to implement your ideas, which will represent a head start in designing a beautiful and attractive email newsletter.