How to Maximise Your Newsletter Impact to Get More Leads

How can companies double their email newsletter click-through rates, enhance their brand visibility and strengthen relationships with their subscribers, contacts and partners? Read how Versio2 helped one client do exactly that, and find out how you can do the same.

Email newsletters have been around for a long time, but remain a great way to communicate the latest company news and stay in touch with leads, subscribers and partners. 

Their ubiquitous nature and popularity is also their downfall, but therein lies the challenge: how can you keep your newsletter fresh, interesting and something your subscribers regularly look forward to? How can you maintain and hopefully increase your open rates?

Let's first discuss some practical tips when creating newsletters, before we introduce to you a case study from a recent project of ours.

Practical tips for your newsletter design

• Through experience, we’ve found that a subject line with buzzwords relevant to our audience produces better open rates. This matches the advice from MailChimp, a popular newsletter platform: “When it comes to email marketing, the best subject lines tell what’s inside, and the worst subject lines sell what’s inside.”

• Your subject line should grab attention while avoiding anything too sensational – an important consideration in the more conservative European market. Avoid anything too “sales-speak”, instead think creatively. Try asking a question that tells a subscriber that you’re going to give them valuable information.

• Knowing what your audiences’ main pain-points are will help you brainstorm newsletter themes and subject lines. Imagine you’re a subscriber who sees your email – what would make you want to open it? Send test emails to your colleagues and of course yourself, and see how it works in your inbox.

• It’s important to get the header right because it’s the first thing most recipients will see upon opening the email. Make the right first impression – modern, well designed, professional – then add in your newsletter character, branding and so on. Be consistent from the start; your header will give your newsletter a recognisable identity and branding. 

• Include a friendly image and a short introduction from someone that best represents your organisation. A managing director, CEO or other principle figure can give your newsletter the human touch.

• Use icons, a strong slogan or short text in your header to convey a sense of what your subscribers are about to read. Colours and fonts should be consistent with the overall look, feel and layout.

• Headings are important for breaking up your text and allowing readers to get a quick snapshot of your content. Headings allow readers to jump to the text that interests them, and lets you draw attention to important items.

• Similarly, use lots of strong images and visual elements to break up blocks of text and make for a more engaging, interesting experience.

• More people are reading emails on their smartphones, and statistics show it's one of the leading uses of the internet "on the go". Make sure your newsletter design is mobile-friendly, or pick a responsive template that can change its layout automatically depending on screen size.

Thinking strategically: how to drive clicks, traffic and generate leads

• Your newsletter design is just one aspect of your actual newsletter strategy. Remember this is a form of email marketing, so be clear of your objectives. Do you only want to keep people updated, or do you want to drive traffic and capture leads?

• If you want to drive traffic, you need to give people a reason to click and multiple opportunities to do so. Call-to-Actions (CTAs) in the form of banners and text links are hugely important for informing readers of your offers and resources, and directing them to your landing pages where you’ll have lead capture forms.

• Your CTAs should be a mix of graphics and text. Banners, headers and buttons make up some of visual elements, while text links like “Read more” and “Download now” will provide a logical next step at the end of your content items. 

• Include teasers for blog articles hosted on your website, along with interesting thumbnails. These should encourage readers to read more by visiting your blog for valuable information. You can then introduce CTAs for your offers or resources within your blog articles.

• Advanced content such as white papers work very well on newsletters, and give you something to host on a landing page behind a web form. Your subscribers should understand that they are supplying their details again in exchange for a valuable piece of content, as well as agreeing to further communications relevant to your offer. 

Case study: design and content really does generate leads

One client of ours – a Swiss technology provider – asked Versio2 to re-design its newsletter to improve click-throughs, brand visibility in its German and French-speaking key markets, and bolster lead generation.

We not only came with a new design, but a strategy based on the principles above – strong, engaging visuals and valuable content to drive traffic to a landing page.

As a result, newsletter figures in the month following the launch of its new-look newsletter were far in excess of the client’s goal of a 10% increases in click-throughs. Rises of 162% and 170% for the French and German-language newsletters, respectively, surpassed expectations. The following chart shows the German-speaking results only:

Read about the strategy in more detail and its results in Case Study: Newsletter Re-Design for More Leads. If you would like to speak to Versio2 about redesigning your newsletter and defining a new content strategy for your company, please take a moment to read about our Newsletter Design & Campaign Starter Offer »