Things like automation and segmentation are an important part of your email marketing strategy. Another critical need is for you to get your email newsletter design down to a T.
To help you do this, we’ve put together a list of my top eight tips for designing email newsletters. They are:
- Personalize your subject lines
- Nail your layouts
- Create engaging content
- Include clear CTAs
- Add eye-catching visuals
- Use newsletter templates
- Customize the header and footer
- Pay attention to the fonts
We’ve also included five of the best email newsletter design trends for 2024 to get you up to speed.
8 Email Newsletter Design Tips
A Good newsletter design is the bedrock of any successful email newsletter template. Even if you get your automation and segmentation right, a poorly designed newsletter template won’t achieve the results you’re looking for.
Below are eight tips for designing engaging newsletter emails that’ll boost your engagement rates and get users to convert.
1. Personalize Your Subject Lines
The subject line of your newsletter is the second thing a recipient sees when they receive your email (after they see who the email is from). It needs to grab their attention and make them want to open it.
The subject line should clearly tell the reader what your email is about and should hint at how it can provide them with value. It can be personalized with the reader’s name, too.
When emails have personalized subject lines, they’re more appealing to users and they’re far more likely to open them. Studies have shown that readers are 26% more likely to open an email if the subject line is personalized.
2. Nail Your Layouts
Consider the layout of your newsletter emails. The optimal layout for your newsletter depends on the type of content. However, as a general rule, you should use single-column layouts when the content is focused on one particular marketing aspect. For example, this newsletter from Serpstat focuses on one main issue, common technical SEO issues, so it uses single-column formatting.
If your newsletter covers several different topics (e.g. product upgrades, industry insights, and upcoming events), it’s wise to go for a multi-column or combination layout.
Whichever newsletter layout you choose, it needs to be mobile-friendly. This means your design and the coding of the width, length, and size dimensions should be responsively compatible with mobile devices.
Here are some other newsletter design best practices for designing layouts without using email templates:
- Use a maximum of three columns to ensure your newsletter is formatted for mobile devices. Odds are you’ll be “stacking” these columns in a mobile view as it is.
- Use proper lines and spacing to clearly differentiate sections that deal with different topics.
- Unless your newsletter is your “product,” avoiding adding too much content to each column. If you do, your email may format into one very long column in the mobile version.
3. Create Engaging Content
Whether you’re sending your newsletter to a brand-new subscriber or your major customers, the content must be engaging and valuable. Make sure it addresses the needs, pain points, and interests of your target audience. It should also be tailored to align with their stage in the buyer’s journey.
To keep your newsletters engaging, mix up the content types you use. Some effective content types for email newsletters include:
- How-to guides and videos.
- Customer testimonials and reviews.
- Employee spotlight emails.
- Excerpts from a relevant blog post.
- Videos and articles from your site that have high engagement rates.
For example, Mangools provides links to valuable, relevant content on its site that expand on the topics covered in the newsletter:
4. Include Clear CTAs
The ultimate goal of all marketing email campaigns is to increase conversions and revenue. A conversion might be a user signing up for a service, making a purchase, or following you on social media.
To encourage users to convert, you need to include a CTA button in your newsletter emails. This could be at the start or end of your email, or both.
Use clear and concise language and consider the color and size of the button. It should stand out but not be an eyesore. Take a look at this CTA from Serpstat’s newsletter:
5. Add Eye-Catching Visuals
Your newsletters should include visuals that break up walls of text and enhance the aesthetic appeal of your emails. The most effective newsletter emails typically include a “hero” image, which is a large visual placed at the top of the email. I really like this one from Futurity’s newsletter:
If you do include one, ensure the key text within the image is above the fold so users don’t have to scroll to read it.
If you want to feature products in your newsletter, take some high-quality photos yourself. This gives you the chance to present the products in the best possible light.
6. Use Newsletter Templates
You might want complete control and design all of your emails from scratch. Note that this can be very time-consuming and quickly eat into your resources. If you’re worried about resources, take advantage of paid or free email newsletter templates.
If you use an ESP, you should have access to a library of pre-built templates that can be modified with a drag-and-drop editor (if not, you’re using the wrong ESP). You can also download free templates from various sites online.
Using a paid or free email newsletter template allows you to create newsletters in a fraction of the time it would take you to do it from scratch.
ESPs like Klaviyo or HubSpot include newsletter templates that enable customizable branding, dynamic product feeds, and much more.
Here are some of the templates from one of my favorite ESPs on the market, MailChimp:
7. Customize The Header And Footer
Whether you use newsletter templates or take a DIY approach, you should always customize the header and footer of your emails.
The header is the first thing a recipient sees when they open your email, so it must make an impact. It should contain your brand’s logo and use a color scheme consistent with your other marketing channels. This is a simple yet effective example from Morning Brew’s newsletter:
It could also include:
- A navigation menu bar.
- Important information about things like returns and shipping fees.
- Your social media icons so users can start following you.
- Graphics and images to reinforce your brand identity.
- A brief statement that communicates the value proposition of your product/service.
The footer might not get as much attention as the header but it’s still important. It usually includes things like:
- An unsubscribe link (this is legally required).
- Your brand’s contact information (also legally required).
- The brand’s tagline, logo, and other imagery as appropriate.
- Links to your social media channels.
- Legal disclaimers.
- FAQs.
8. Choose Proper “Fallback” Fonts
Imagine spending ages designing your email newsletters but, when your recipients receive them, they have to download additional font files before they can read them. If that happens, most users may simply abandon your newsletters altogether.
That’s why it’s so important to either solely use or code in as a “fallback” web-safe fonts when you’re designing your newsletters.
Web-safe fonts are pre-installed on the vast majority of operating systems. You can be certain they’ll be properly displayed across most devices and browsers.
The most commonly used web-safe fonts include:
- Arial (sans-serif)
- Verdana (sans-serif)
- Tahoma (sans-serif)
- Georgia (serif)
- Trebuchet MS (sans-serif)
- Courier New (monospace)
- Times New Roman (sans-serif)
Here, Healthline keeps it nice and simple by using Arial (sans-serif):
Designing effective email newsletters can be a lot of work. Why not let InboxArmy do it for you? Our comprehensive email marketing service is built to handle all aspects of your email campaigns, and we’ll create newsletters for your brand that subscribers can’t wait to open.
5 Email Newsletter Design Trends For 2024
Now, let’s take a look at the current trends in designing email newsletters, so you can start incorporating them into your own designs.
1. Gamification
Gamification involves embedding interactive game elements into email newsletters. This is a great way to make your emails immersive and keep users fully engaged. It also encourages users to spend more time interacting with your emails, and it’s been shown to increase open rates by up to 30%.
To gamify your newsletter emails, you can use a gamification platform like Stripo. Or, if you have the skills, you can code the game elements yourself.
2. Cinemagraphs
You’re almost certainly aware of GIFs but you might not have heard of cinemagraphs. They’re more subtle looping animations than GIFs and, when done properly, they create a fairly mesmerizing effect.
If you use them, ensure they’re placed strategically within your newsletters so that they highlight important elements like CTAs or product features.
3. Accessibility and Inclusivity
In 2024, brands are increasingly paying serious attention to the accessibility and inclusivity of their digital marketing output, including their email newsletters.
In particular (and rightfully so), marketers ensure their emails include things like semantic HTML aspects and alt text for images. This makes emails more accessible to visually impaired users who rely on screen readers.
The steps you take to improve the accessibility of your newsletters will also improve the overall user experience. These include:
- Using clear color contrasts
- Using highly legible fonts
- Structuring your emails hierarchically
- Strategic use of white space
This newsletter excerpt from Wellness Wire is a good example of how to structure a newsletter hierarchically and it uses a clear, legible font that improves its accessibility:
4. Dark Mode Compatibility
Many users now choose to view emails in dark mode as it’s easier on the eye and uses less battery power. To meet the demand, most email clients like Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, and Apple Mail now have a dark mode option. You need to ensure the design of your newsletters translates well into dark mode.
To achieve this, follow steps like:
- Inverting the colors in your emails for dark mode.
- Use transparent images that adapt to dark mode.
- Check your color contrasts in dark mode before sending your newsletters.
- Avoid embedding text in images as this doesn’t adapt well to dark mode.
5. Dynamic Content
You should already be using dynamic content in your email newsletters, as it’s becoming ever more important. If you’re not, now’s the time to begin!
If content is dynamic, it means it automatically changes based on data about the recipient. This data includes things like demographics, location, and purchase history.
For example, let’s say you have a dynamic content block at the start of your newsletter and the email is sent to a customer who has bought a specific product in the past. Based on this data, the dynamic content could automatically change to display an image of an upgrade for that particular product. This allows for increased personalization and relevance and, ultimately, can improve conversion rates.
Here, the dynamic content has clearly changed based on my purchase history:
Final Thoughts
Proper email design is absolutely vital for many different reasons. It improves accessibility, increases user engagement, and can boost your conversion rates. Overall, my top tip is to use an email marketing platform when designing your email newsletters.
This will make it way easier to implement all the tips suggested here. Or, for even more success, use InboxArmy. We can even design customized newsletter email templates as part of our email template production service.
After covering all these email newsletter design best practices and trends, you can take inspiration from some real-time newsletter examples we have curated.
FAQs
Does dynamic content slow down email loading times?
If your dynamic content is overly complex or poorly executed, it could. If you use a high-quality ESP, dynamic content shouldn’t slow down your email loading times.
What legal requirements do I need to consider when designing email newsletters?
From a design perspective, you must be sure to include unsubscribe links and your contact information. Beyond email design, you need to bear in mind these other legal considerations:
- Gaining explicit consent from recipients before sending them marketing emails (to comply with GDPR regulations).
- Ensuring opt-out requests comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
- Including information about your data processing activities.
