The following questions we want to ask ourselves as we maintain the current trends of Email Marketing and receive the best results.

Does presenting the content in your email newsletter impact the results you receive?

What should an email newsletter look like?

How do you arrange it so that the newsletter draws customers to your site?

Does the layout depend on the topic and target market you are trying to sell your product to?

Email Newsletter vs. Website
The first concept to grasp is that email newsletters are not websites! When you send a newsletter, customers are not expecting your website. Obviously, you want your newsletter to continue branding your website, remaining strong with the overall image, but a newsletter should have a very different layout from your website. Think about the word Newsletter, what other forms of news do we look at and how do they draw us in? Newsletters should have a similar feel as a newspaper or a magazine. Newspapers always give you the main topic of the article first. Your reader should be able to figure out the main idea of your email newsletter from the first glance at the top of the email. Think about how a magazine or a newspaper pulls you in with headlines and teasing featured articles. You want to do the same as you setup your newsletter. One idea to consider is to bullet point the main topics of the newsletter at the top of the page. The bullet points can also work as a table of contents linking to different parts of the newsletter. Remember to draw your readers in with key points, maintaining a layout of news and not a website.

Email Blasts vs. Full Articles
Deciding what your content is about is influential to formatting the newsletter layout. You want to have a clear goal whether your newsletter will drive traffic to your site or build your reputation and relationship with the reader. If you want to drive traffic to your site, don’t give the complete information in the newsletter. Build links to your website that will tease readers to click on them. Skillful ‘teasers’will drive traffic to your site. If you decide your newsletter is more about relationships and reputation, then your newsletter should provide the complete information, giving the full content to the reader.

Prioritizing Content
To organize content, you want to target the reading styles, putting more emphasis on certain areas of your newsletter. Some readers skim subject lines and may never look at the email, others will skim the main headers and key bullet points of the newsletter. The following are the areas that are important to emphasize in your newsletter:

• Dynamic Subject Lines

Some readers look at the subject lines of their emails, if it doesn’t appeal to them, they will delete the email without opening it. Making your subject line dynamic is a crucial aspect to bringing results.

• Call to Action

You always want to make it easy for your reader to take the actions you are wanting; in your newsletters have a primary place for the reader to click your call to action.

• Sectioning your Newsletter

Placing your content in sections, help readers gain the main points, and makes it simple for readers to quickly find the area of the newsletter they are most interested in.

• Headlines

It is easier for readers to get the main point of your newsletter, if they have headlines to outline the key points. Headlines go along with sectioning your newsletter, helping to organize the content for readers.

• Image Blocking

You want to make sure your newsletter can be read even if the pictures are not displaying. Make sure your layout allows for this aspect, readers can still read your newsletter even without the pictures.

Conclusive Testing
Remember the above key points as you think about the layout of your next email newsletter. You may want to test different layouts to see what works best for your. This will help you see the impact layouts have on your results. With tracking programs, you can try different types of newsletters and track the actions of your readers.

There are many different ways to layout a newsletter; however here is example template highlighting placement and key attributes discussed in the article:

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