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10 tips on how to write a good email newsletter
In our inaugural blog post, we'd like to offer some tips on one of the most fundamental challenges in newsletter creation: how to write a good newsletter. Learning how to write a good newsletter takes time. There's a lot of trial and error involved as you craft a publication that really appeals and speaks to your audience. But it's all vital learning on your way to writing a good email newsletter and positioning yourself as a trusted source on your chosen topic. Whether you're just starting out, or are a seasoned publisher with a thriving readership, here are a few tips from our editorial team on how to write a good email newsletter: 1. Do you need a newsletter? Before we answer the question of how to write a good email newsletter, first step back and ask yourself: Do you need to send a newsletter? How will you (or your business) truly benefit from it? Do you have enough content to publish regularly? Are you genuinely trying to inform and educate a reader on a certain topic, or are you trying to sell a product to them? If you can answer those questions clearly, then a newsletter is probably a great fit for you. 2. Get inspired by the newsletters you read If you're thinking about starting a newsletter from scratch, it's a good bet that you subscribe to a few already – this is a great place to start for inspiration. Scour your inbox for the newsletters you really like to read, and then consider: By thinking critically about the newsletter content you already subscribe to, you'll start to get an idea of what you want to include in your own. And, if you're already writing a newsletter, you may even find a few things to add or improve. And don’t be afraid to do a quick Google search for examples of great newsletters . 3. Maintain a good content balance Newsletters should be informational. You’re trying to educating a reader on a certain topic by sharing your expertise. But that’s not to say that your newsletter shouldn’t include any promotional content - you’re trying to get people to subscribe, after all. As a general rule of thumb, try to maintain a 90 / 10 split when writing your newsletter content – 90% educational / 10% promotional. In practice, this could be as simple as writing about your topic before closing with a link to your subscription page. 4. Have a clear goal in mind Before you commit to writing a newsletter, ensure that you have a clear goal in mind. What exactly are you trying to achieve? For example, free and paid newsletters can have very different purposes, including: It could be one, none or all of those reasons above. But whatever it is, make sure everything you write, publish and send is geared towards that goal. 5. Set your publishing schedule Consistency is key when writing a good newsletter. Publishing consistently, and at regular intervals, creates an expectation from your audience on when they will receive your content – and that’s an expectation you will need to live up to. Be mindful that writing newsletter content can be very time consuming – especially if you’re suffering from writer’s block. Find a publishing schedule that doesn’t overstretch your resources or risks compromising your content quality. 6. Keep your newsletter design simple You can always tell whether a newsletter has been designed professionally. Good newsletters keep the template design clean and simple – limited colours, slick logos, simple imagery and relevant calls to action. If you’re building an email template from scratch, it always pays to reach out to a professional designer for their input. They can advise you on layout, colour palettes and help you craft a newsletter that works on both desktop and smart devices. With Scriber, you can take advantage of our pre-built responsive newsletter template (above), professionally designed to work seamlessly on every device. 7. Get creative with your subject lines Subject lines really do matter when writing a good newsletter. Think of it like this: If the body copy in your newsletter is the movie, the subject line is the trailer. It’s the first thing people see when your newsletter lands in their inbox and will determine whether they open it or not... Great subject lines are hard to write, especially when you consider how different devices show a different amount of characters. At Scriber, we recommend keeping your subject line to 25-30 characters to ensure readability across all devices. The content of your subject line matters too. You can always find examples of good and bad subject lines in your own inbox, so have a look through and see what resonates with you. Here are a few tips for crafting a winning subject line: If you need some inspiration, you can find lots of guidance on great subject line examples by performing a quick Google search. 8. Keep it concise Always be aware that most readers are time-poor, and that is one resource you should not take for granted. Readers should be able to skim-read and get what they need from your newsletter quickly and easily. When writing a newsletter, you should always where possible: Let your content speak for itself; you don’t need never-ending blocks of text to communicate your depth of knowledge. 9. Break up your text It’s really easy to get caught up writing your newsletter and find yourself with huge blocks of text that are difficult to read. This is where newsletter formatting becomes important – if your newsletter is a massive block of text lacking styling, your readership stats will suffer. Break up those paragraphs with images, numbered or bulleted lists and pull quotes. It’ll make it easier to read, easier to scroll and easier to understand. 10. Test, test, test and test again Once you’re publishing your newsletter regularly, you’ll want to start improving it. In content publishing, testing is the best way to both improve your content and understand your audience. Test everything such as: You can run an infinite amount of tests, and it pays to approach it methodically. Only ever test one variable at a time so you can find your clear winner. Then, make a note of that information and use that data point to inform your next test. Writing a newsletter from scratch? Try Scriber. If you’re just starting out on the journey of writing an email newsletter, Scriber can help you tick off the points from the list above. With Scriber, you can create your online publication and start writing a great newsletter with our professional and device-responsive template in minutes. It’s easy to get started – just sign up for free today .
The Blog Team
Mar 30, 2022 · 6 min read
7 tips on how to price your paid email newsletter
How do you price an email newsletter correctly? It’s a good question with no simple answer - here’s a few things to consider when pricing yours.
The Blog Team
Jul 29, 2022 · 6 min read
7 tips to communicate complex information effectively
Email newsletters offer a way for subject-matter experts to share their insights with people who genuinely want to know more about a topic. If you're the expert, it can sometimes be challenging to convey your insights, in all their complexity, to the average reader. This is why it really pays to become skilled at communicating complex information effectively. Few of your followers will be as expert as you are on the topic on which you are commenting, and most will be time-poor. You will be competing against many other claims on their attention. Moreover, your followers might not all be native English speakers. To help you master this trickiest of skills – and straight from our team of expert editors – here are some tips to help you communicate complex information effectively. 1. Be concise. Using as fewer words as possible is key to communicating complex information effectively. We wrote about the value of keeping things concise in our very first blog post on how to write a good email newsletter . Though your subscribers want to hear from you, they don’t want to have to hunt through a long email newsletter to find what interests them. Recognising that your followers may not be able to devote as much time to your email newsletters as you would ideally like is half the battle. Pare down your introductory messages to the most compelling words and phrases to draw your audience in. 2. Avoid jargon. Always remember that your reader will likely not be as expert on your topic as you are. As the newsletter author, it’s your responsibility to communicate complex information and your substantial expertise to your audience in language they understand. Steer clear of jargon altogether . If it’s unavoidable, use clear terms to explain your meaning shortly afterward. You will not lose followers by avoiding jargon , defining potentially unfamiliar terms and reiterating contextual information, but you may gain some. 3. Tell a story. More and more, storytelling is becoming a critical skill for content writers to master. At Scriber, we have learned that our most compelling content tells a clear story , often with a personal angle. Perhaps you have travelled to the country or have used the product about which you are writing. Don’t be afraid of the personal touch – adding personality to your writing is a great way to engage your readers. 4. Use hyperlinks Hyperlinks are a writer’s best friend. They allow you to signpost your own content within an email newsletter, or provide readers with additional, external information that is relevant to your topic. They also allow your audience to choose (or not) to delve deeper into background articles, explainers, videos and other related material. Plus, it’s far easier to link to existing content than trying to re-write it all over again. Just don’t over do it. 5. Use relevant images and charts Another tip from our first blog post on how to write a good newsletter is the effective use of imagery and charts. Complex information can often be communicated very powerfully in chart form. Visualising your data sets not only make that data easier to understand, but also give the reader welcome relief when scrolling through large blocks of text. Likewise, high-quality imagery can also illustrate your points and help break up a sea of intimidating text in written content. But don't go overboard – keep your images relevant and of a consistently high quality. Online image repositories like Unsplash or Pixabay are a great way to get started with free imagery. Looking for a good way to visualise your data? Try Datawrapper . 6. Use sub-headings and bulleted lists A key part of communicating complex information effectively is to make sure your writing is easy to read. Break up long and complex text passages with sub-headings and lists wherever you can. They can help you make your points more clearly and make it easier for diverted readers to return to a half-consumed piece. This is also a great way to make your newsletter more mobile friendly , and easier to skim-read (for subscribers that don’t have enough time to read your newsletter top to bottom) as discussed in our earlier blog post. 7. Return to your key points. When communicating complex information, repetition can be a powerful tool. Reiterating your key points throughout the piece can be especially useful to consumers of content on mobile, where screen real estate is smaller, attention spans can be shorter and competition for that attention more intense. Do you have your own tips? Let us know. If you have your own tips on communicating complex information effectively, let us know at hello@scriber.to and we’ll add the best ones to this blog post.
The Blog Team
May 13, 2022 · 4 min read
11 ways to make your email newsletter more mobile friendly
The competition for our attention has never been greater. And on mobile the reader is only ever a swipe or tap away from leaving for something better… or at least something that looks better. That’s why knowing how to make an email newsletter more mobile friendly is so important to digital publishers and content writers. According to Statista’s recent survey, mobile accounted for 54.4% of all global web traffic in Q4 2021 – meaning the majority of all online content consumption now happens on smart devices. As a content creator, that means you need to be mindful of how your content reads on smartphones, tablets and the constraints of the smaller screen. If you’re already using Scriber for your content creation, you already know that our editor is designed to allow your content to work seamlessly across all devices. However, it's still good practice for content creators to think about how their newsletter will display on mobile screens. So, to help you make your email newsletter more mobile friendly, here's 11 tips straight from our editorial and design team. 1. Use responsive design Responsive design is a staple of contemporary web and email infrastructure and is considered to be the gold-standard for anybody looking to create any kind of web content. Though you’ve probably heard the terms “responsive” and “mobile friendly” used interchangeably, there is a clear difference between the two: Using the specific example of newsletters, responsive design is critical as email newsletters are often very copy heavy. Ensuring that content is both legible and accessible on a mobile device is of vital importance. Fortunately, Scriber’s email and web template is all responsive as standard (see below) – so you can always be sure your email newsletter is mobile friendly. If you’re not currently using Scriber, we’d recommend enlisting the aid of a seasoned web designer to help you build your responsive templates. 2. Watch your word count On mobile, word count matters when trying to make your email newsletter more mobile friendly. It goes without saying that a physically smaller screen means less space for your content to render on, so ensuring that your copy is as concise as possible is vital to avoid scroll fatigue or loss of reader interest. Short punchy sentences work well, but variety keeps things interesting. Mix it up with the occasional longer sentence (but not too long). And, once you've finished writing, it's always good to go back over your work and trim as many words as possible that don't need to be there. 3. Keep your paragraphs short This ties in with the previous point about keeping the reduced screen size of a mobile device in mind. Remember the early internet when pages were crammed with stuff? Nowadays, web users realise it’s a distraction and that less is more. Enormous blocks of copy are difficult enough to read on a desktop. On a mobile screen, a large paragraph can seemingly go on forever. So, keep your paragraphs short – 3 to 4 sentences maximum. No one enjoys reading a long unbroken stream of text on mobile. 4. Keep it single column The single column really is a best practice standard for all mobile-responsive design and it applies to both email and web templates. The reason for this is the unique shape of smartphone screens – they are longer and narrower than their desktop (or tablet) counterparts. By keeping everything in one column, you’re automatically producing mobile-friendly content. The same logic applies to tables – lots of columns can render off screen and reduce the overall quality of your content. The good news? Scriber’s templates are single-column by default – so you can check this one off your list. 5. Use relevant images sparingly Images add variety and value to your email newsletter. A killer chart can show in an instant what would otherwise require hundreds of words to explain. But using too many images in your newsletter can result in a never-ending scroll for your reader – and create the impression that you are padding out your content. Keep them sparse and keep them relevant (unlike the example above). 6. Use high quality, optimised images Every time you add an image to your email newsletter, you are increasing its download size and loading time. Large images can severely impact the speed at which your newsletter opens, or even set off spam filters that could stop your newsletter being delivered altogether. Conversely, small, blurry and pixelated images look amateurish. When using images, optimise them for web and email by either saving them as a JPEG or PNG, and keeping them below 100kb where possible. If you’re not sure how to optimise your images, there are some great free options online that can do the job such as as TinyPNG and Optimizilla . 7. Start with a summary On smaller screens, only a relatively small amount of content is visible – so there is no time for a long ponderous opening. Kick off your email with a snappy summary of what your newsletter is about, why it is important and why the reader should read it. If you are not sure why your newsletter is interesting, relevant and the best around on the topic, take it as a sign that you may need to adjust it. On Scriber, our template includes a Subtitle section for your summaries. So you can also check this one off the list. 8. Use sub-headings This might seem an obvious way to make your email newsletter more mobile friendly, but you’d be amazed at how many writers forget to use sub-headings effectively. The vast majority of your readers will skim-read your newsletter to find something that interests them. As such, you need to make that skim-read process as easy as possible. That’s where effective sub-headings come in. It should be possible to read only the sub-headings and have a good summary of the whole newsletter. Sub-headings also create white space in your newsletter, which helps draw the eyes of your reader back to your content. And snappy, well-written sub-headings will grab a reader’s attention even if it’s something there weren’t specifically looking for. Triple win. 9. Use bullets and lists Another obvious way to make your email newsletter more mobile friendly is to use lists in your copy. On mobile, short lists or a few bullets are a much easier way for a reader to absorb information than a long paragraph, and it may help to structure your thoughts better too. Clearly, not every newsletter needs to be a series of lists. But if you have a sentence explaining three or four key points, try dividing it into bullet points. You’ll make it is easier for the reader to grasp your point quickly. 10. Don't over-style It is tempting to get funky with formatting, but there really is nothing worse for a reader than a newsletter full of bold paragraphs, underlined sentences or needless capitalisation for emphasis. It's distracting and makes it hard to know where to look. At Scriber, our simple editor uses a clean, crisp style that provides an enjoyable experience for the reader and ensures your writing is the focus. We also provide pre-set heading styles and link formatting, so there is no need to try and remember different font sizes or underline any hyperlinks. You may want to use italics for publications you are referencing, or perhaps very occasionally if you really want to emphasise a particular word. Don’t go overboard though... Image Source: Swiftdigital . 11. Test. Your. Newsletter. We cannot stress the importance of this last point enough. Once you've crafted your newsletter, you should always send yourself a test. And, once you've seen it in your inbox, you should ALWAYS view it on your mobile, too. As mentioned in our earlier post on how to improve your newsletter , testing should always be a vital part of your writing routine. You'll see your work in a totally different light and spot potential issues you didn't even know were there. Make your newsletter more mobile friendly with Scriber Whether you’re starting from scratch or already publishing your newsletter, Scriber’s responsive templates and simple editor can help you make your email newsletter more mobile friendly. To get started, just sign up for free today .
The Blog Team
Apr 21, 2022 · 8 min read
5 reasons why you should start writing a free newsletter
There really is no better way to build a successful newsletter than by starting with a free product. Free newsletters give you a way to test out your newsletter, refine your content and build a loyal following. Over time, you’ll gain a large enough following that will allow you to start monetising your content. Some of the most popular newsletters out there all began as freebies before blooming into content giants. We all have to start somewhere, and that's exactly why you should consider starting your newsletter journey with a free one. Still not convinced? Here's our top 5 reasons why you should start writing a free newsletter. 1. Build a loyal following A free newsletter is a lead generator and a great way to start building your audience. It allows you to be discovered by potential new readers and, if they like what they see, become a loyal fan. They may even be ready to pay for extra information, services or expertise from you. On Scriber, we’ve made the process of contact management simple so that you can focus on writing. You can build your audience from scratch through good old-fashioned self-promotion, or bring over your existing readers using our simple uploader tool in your Dashboard. You can even add individual subscribers to your publication on a case-by-case basis, so you’re always in full control of who’s reading your content. 2. Reach a wider audience Starting a free newsletter enables you to reach a large potential audience. With no paywall, readers are much more likely to both discover you and give you a try. This gives you the best chance of finding your super fans… the readers that love what you say, want more of it, and are prepared to pay. 3. Demonstrate your expertise Free newsletters are also one of the best ways to showcase what you have to offer. Anyone can claim to be an expert, but writing and publishing regularly on a topic means you can prove it. You don’t need to give everything away in a free newsletter, but by consistently producing valuable content you provide your readers with real evidence of what you can deliver, and begin to establish you as a subject matter expert. 4. Keep in touch with your readers A free newsletter enables you to keep in touch with your audience. Even if they are not ready or willing to spend on a paid subscription straight away, you can continually remind them of what you have to offer. It also creates a direct line of communication between you and your readers, giving them the opportunity to provide invaluable feedback that could help to shape and improve your offering. 5. The first step to content monetisation If you’ve built a large and loyal following, the next step is simple: make some money! At Scriber, we'll soon be introducing paid content options to help you take that next step to monetising your newsletter and give yourself a bit more financial independence. Unlike other publishing tools, creators on Scriber will keep 90% of their generated income – with no hidden transaction fees. To be one of the first to hear about our paid content rollout, simply subscribe to this blog. Start a free newsletter today with Scriber Join the many financial newsletter writers who already use Scriber to share their insights with their audiences. Sign up today to create an online publication and send your free newsletter.
The Blog Team
Mar 23, 2022 · 3 min read