How to Start a Newsletter From Scratch? [Without Regretting It]

With the increasing popularity of social media, emails and newsletters might sound outdated. However, they’ve been around forever, and someone should actually read them, right? With Gmail hitting more than 1.8 billion active users as of the year 2023, you don’t want to miss the opportunity to build an email list to help you interact better with your audience. The good old emails have the biggest ROI out there and they are not going anywhere anytime soon.

In this blog post, we’ve got you covered with all the essentials, along with some nifty tips and tricks, to help you create a killer newsletter from scratch:

• What is an email newsletter?
• Why should you start an email newsletter right now?
• How to start off on the right foot?
• The essential elements that make up a well-crafted newsletter.
• What should you consider when choosing the right email service provider for your needs?
• Hassle-free checklist to help you get started with your newsletter right away.

But First, What Is an Email Newsletter?

An email newsletter is like a friendly update that arrives in your inbox. It is a tool marketers, content creators, and businesses in general use when they want to share their content. Also, a newsletter can combine blog posts, articles, news, deals, etc. that have been curated for a group of people who have signed up to receive it.

It is a mixtape of interesting stuff, ranging from blog posts and articles to news updates and cool deals. It’s a one-stop-shop for subscribers to get their daily dose of valuable content. Subscribers receive regular updates in a handy format, saving them the hassle of searching for relevant content on their own. Ultimately, a newsletter creates a sense of community, fosters connections, and provides a reliable way for the sender and subscribers to stay connected.

Starting a newsletter can serve as an excellent foundation for developing a holistic email marketing strategy.

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Why Should You Consider Starting an Email Newsletter Now?

Do you know what is the most essential ingredient in effective communication? Trust. It is the foundation that holds all relationships together no matter if they are personal, B2C or B2B.This is what makes the difference when sending regular, personalized emails to your customers, and reaching out to them personally is what sets you apart and helps you boost their trust.

As email marketing has proven to be more effective than social media marketing, you will never regret starting an email newsletter if you want to. But do keep in mind the following goals that are important regardless the medium:

• building your brand awareness
• generating more leads
• increasing sales
• boost traffic to your website

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How to Start Off on the Right Foot?

At this point everything may seem straightforward, but it’s not that simple. If your newsletter doesn’t reach the recipient, it’s all for nothing. No business or content creator wants their emails to land in the “Spam” folder..

That is why, even before you start brainstorming ideas, you need to be prepared for the challenging part – how to make sure your emails will land in the inbox of your readers.

Two major factors that you need to keep in mind:

Email Sender Reputation

Email sender reputation (or email reputation) is the measure of the trustworthiness and quality of the sender based on their past email sending behavior. This behavior depends on various factors, including the sender’s domain and IP address, the quality of such practices, email engagement, spam complaints, and adherence to email best practices.

Maintaining a positive email reputation builds credibility with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and email service providers (ESPs) and is essential for successful deliverability and engagement with recipients. ISPs and ESPs use email reputation to determine whether to accept or reject emails.

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Email Deliverability

Email deliverability and email reputation are related concepts but they focus on different aspects of the process. While email reputation refers to the overall assessment of the trustworthiness and quality of thesender, email deliverability refers to the success rate of those emails actually reaching recipients’ inboxes without being filtered into spam folders or blocked by internet service providers (ISPs).

If you want to start off on the right foot, you need to ensure that your emails are positioned for successful delivery. Here are a few steps to consider:

1. Authenticate your email domain. By enabling Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), you prove to ISPs that you are indeed who you claim to be, thereby demonstrating your credibility.
2. Establish your IP’s credibility. For instance, when starting out, avoid sending emails to large lists. Instead, opt for smaller batches.
3. Optimize the opt-in process. The best way to achieve this is through double opt-in, which requires a secondary action from the email address owner to confirm their subscription.
4. Use the same sender name. It helps recipients to know you and your brand.
5. Do not buy email lists. Never. They are often filled with inactive users.
6. Avoid spammy content. If something feels spammy to you, it will likely feel the same way to your recipients.

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Brainstorm Ideas and Get Inspiration

While setting up the process properly is fundamental, the most significant factor in achieving success is whether your content is worth reading. People are drawn to what evokes an emotional response or offers useful information and tangible outcomes. When exploring ideas don’t go too wild, keep in mind that simple is better and focus on the following:

• Aligning your business goals with your email marketing goals.
• Understanding your target audience‘s interests, needs, and preferences.
• Keeping up with industry trends, news and relevant topics that interest your audience.
• Paying attention to your customers feedback and listening to their suggestions, comments and questions.
• Looking at what the competition is doing and asking yourself how you can improve upon it.

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You can find inspiration when starting a newsletter from various online sources, like Email Tuna, which offers a wide range of newsletters covering almost every topic imaginable.

The Essential Elements That Make up a Well-Crafted Newsletter

Now that you’ve got the technical stuff sorted, it’s time to dive into a few essential elements that will make your email newsletter well-structured and meaningful.

1. High quality content. Your newsletter should offer valuable and engaging content that speaks to your audience’s interests. This includes informative articles, helpful tips, exclusive offers, or entertaining stories that will capture their attention and keep them coming back for more.
2. Eye-Catching Design. Get creative with your email newsletter design. Use attractive layouts, colours, and appealing fonts. You can also use captivating images to give it a polished and professional look that will leave a lasting impression.
3. Clear Call to Action. What do you want your readers to do after they finish reading your newsletter? Every communication should have a clear call to action that prompts readers to take a desired action, such as visiting your website, making a purchase, subscribing to a service, or sharing a newsletter with others. Make sure the call to action is prominent and compelling.
4. Personalization. Tailoring your newsletter to individual recipients makes it more engaging. Use personalized greetings, segment your audience based on their preferences, and deliver content that resonates with their specific needs and interests.
5. Mobile-Friendly Design. In today’s mobile-centric world, it’s vital to ensure that your email newsletter is mobile-friendly. Optimize it for seamless viewing on various screen sizes, making sure it’s easy to navigate and read on both smartphones and tablets.
6. Engaging Subject Lines. Create compelling subject lines that hook readers and make them eager to open your newsletter. Avoid using spammy subject lines. Instead, opt for something that piques one’s curiosity and highlights the value they will gain from engaging with your content.
7. Interactive Elements. Incorporating interactive elements like user-generated content, polls, surveys, and more can foster interactivity, encourage participation, and enhance the overall reader experience.
8. Relevant Visuals. Visual content can effectively convey information, evoke emotions, and make your newsletter more memorable. Examples of such elements can include images, infographics, GIFs, videos, and more.
9. Social Sharing Options. Add social sharing buttons in your newsletter to make it easy for readers to share your content on their preferred social media platforms.This can help expand your reach, increase brand visibility, and potentially attract new subscribers.
10. Unsubscribe option. The Unsubscribe option is not only a legal requirement, it respects the autonomy and preferences of your subscribers. Honoring unsubscribe requests builds trust and ensures a more engaged and receptive audience.

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Choosing the Right Email Service Provider Made Simple

What Should You Consider When Choosing the Right Email Service Provider for Your Needs?

When selecting the right email service provider for your needs, consider several factors:

• Assess the deliverability rates to ensure your emails reach the intended recipients.
  This involves analyzing how often your emails successfully land in the intended recipients’ inboxes rather than being flagged as spam or ending up in the promotions or junk folders. It ensures that your messages have the best chance of reaching your audience and achieving their intended purpose.
• Evaluate the features and functionality, such as automation capabilities, segmentation options, and A/B testing.
  In the selection process, it is important to assess the service provider’s capability to segment your email list based on specific criteria. This allows for sending targeted messages to different audience segments. Moreover, the ability to conduct A/B testing enables you to optimize campaigns using real-time data and insights.
• Take into account pricing, scalability, customer support, and integration possibilities.
  When selecting an email service provider, it is vital to consider pricing, scalability, customer support, and integration possibilities. Pricing affects your budget, whereas scalability allows for future growth. Customer support ensures prompt assistance, while integration enables seamless workflows with other tools, which ultimately impact the success of your email marketing campaigns.

Hassle-Free Checklist to Help You Get Started With Your Newsletter Right Away

Get started with your newsletter right away with this checklist:

1. Define your goals and target audience.
   Start by determining the purpose of your email newsletter. For instance, you might want to achieve increased brand awareness, improved sales or provide educational content. Market research can help you to understand your potential subscribers’ demographics, interests, and pain points. Thus allowing you to create a more personalized and valuable content that resonates with your followers specific needs and interests.
2. Choose a reliable email service provider.
   When selecting an email service provider, take into account factors such as deliverability rates, features, scalability, customer support, and integration options. Enhanced email deliverability, advanced campaign tools, scalability for growing lists, dependable support, data security, as well as smooth integration with other tools contribute to a more efficient and successful email marketing endeavor.
3. Set up your email list and opt-in process.
   When establishing your email list and opt-in process, prioritize a user-friendly and transparent signup procedure. Obtaining explicit consent from subscribers cultivates an audience that is enthusiastic and engaged. This approach fosters not only trust, it boosts deliverability, enables personalized interactions and adherence to email marketing regulations all of which leads to a more receptive and valuable subscriber base.
4. Craft a compelling and visually appealing template.
   Create an email template that is both captivating and visually appealing, prioritize a well-structured layout, attractive visuals, and compelling content. By doing so, you grab the readers’ attention, enhance brand perception, boost click-through rates, and ultimately maximize the effectiveness of your email campaigns.
5. Plan your content strategy and create engaging content.
   Aim for a varied blend of valuable and captivating content. Integrate pertinent subjects, informative articles, appealing visuals, and personalized messages. This captivates readers, enhances audience engagement, nurtures relationships, establishes credibility, and stimulates desired actions like conversions, leading to a thriving and influential newsletter campaign.
6. Schedule regular newsletter send-outs.
   Maintain a consistent publishing schedule for your newsletter to keep subscribers informed and engaged. This practice enhances brand visibility, cultivates customer loyalty, and establishes reliable channels of communication that build anticipation, and amplify the impact and effectiveness of your newsletter campaigns.
7. Personalize your emails for a more personalized touch.
   Incorporate a personalized touch into your emails through subscriber name usage, audience segmentation, and customized content. This approach cultivates deeper connections, increases engagement, drives conversions, and amplifies the overall effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.
8. Test and optimize your emails for deliverability and engagement.
   To boost deliverability and engagement, test and optimize your emails. Experiment with various elements, including subject lines, layouts, and calls to action, to determine what resonates best. By improving open rates, click-through rates, and overall campaign performance, you’ll achieve greater success and enhance audience satisfaction.
9. Monitor metrics and analyze results to refine your strategy.
   By doing so you can fine-tune your email marketing strategy. Assess important indicators like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. This data-driven approach empowers you to make informed adjustments and optimize your campaigns.
10. Encourage feedback and interact with your subscribers.
    Create a two-way communication by encouraging feedback and engaging with your subscribers. By attentively listening to their opinions, addressing concerns, and providing valuable responses, you foster trust, strengthen relationships, gain insights, and enhance the overall subscriber experience.

Wrap Up

Embarking on the journey of starting an email newsletter holds tremendous potential for your business. It offers an exciting opportunity to connect with your audience and achieve great results. However, to make the most of it, it is crucial to approach it with careful planning and flawless execution. This approach will help you navigate the path smoothly, avoiding any potential regrets that may arise.