10 Ways Freelance Writers Can Create a Killer Newsletter

Ever since the evolution of marketing, nothing has been more consistent in terms of returns like email marketing and newsletters.

Email marketing is known as one of the proven tactics that yields maximum return on Investment (ROI) of marketing efforts and money.

According to research by Litmus, companies get returns worth $36 for every dollar spent on emails. It is an ideal way to grow relationships with customers and promote products.

Further, newsletters are an indispensable medium of providing information to all your customers at once.

In this article, we are going to discuss a few ways which you can implement to create a newsletter that is both informative and engaging.

10 Ways freelance writers can create a killer newsletter

Businesses often leverage the power of newsletters to build an audience for their services. Whether it is about a milestone your freelance business has achieved or about publishing a great new article, you can deliver all kinds of information to your clients with your own newsletter campaign.

As newsletter is a valuable marketing resource, it’s high time you understand what it takes to create a killer newsletter.

Let’s explore the top 10 tips to create a killer newsletter that converts!

1. Find your audience and build a mailing list

The first step in creating a killer newsletter is to find your target audience and create a mailing list.

A target audience can be from a specific location, age group, or even people with similar likings. If you are an established marketer, determining the target audience for your newsletter campaigns won’t be difficult for you.

As you know your target audience, you will understand what they like. Hence, you can tailor your newsletters and its content accordingly.

You can make your mailing list by doing research based on keywords. For example, if you are starting a tech newsletter, you’ll find your target audience on forums, coding websites and similar places. You can redirect them to subscribe to your newsletters.

After knowing your target audience, creating a mailing list is essential. Always try to create an authentic mailing list with real emails that are related to your target audience.

Having more emails on the list increases your chances of success, but the quality of the mailing list also plays a significant role. If your mailing list is full of random email ids, your newsletter won’t reach a significant audience, and your efforts will go in vain.

A newsletter campaign is as effective as the accuracy of the underlying mailing lists, so build one where everything is well-researched and aligned to your goals.

2. Make sure you have a goal

Whether you are formulating your next marketing strategy or creating your newsletters, there is only so much you can do if you do not have a goal.

If you don’t have a goal for your newsletter, how would you expect your subscribers to know what they should do after reading your newsletter?

A few of the common goals that you can have for your newsletter may include:

• Driving conversions or sales
• Increasing your social media presence
• Downloading a new ebook
• Promoting your service offering

There are many other goals your company might have but these will serve as a great starting point.

3. Have a catchy subject line

The average email opening rate is 21.33%.

This is a significantly less number, and it roughly translates that only one out of four emails are opened. With such a low margin, you need to do something extra to be one of them that excites the audience as soon as they see your email.

Here, you need to be more creative with your subject line and make sure it is catchy enough.

No matter how well your newsletter is designed and how informative it is, it serves no purpose if it is not opened.

A few examples of attention-grabbing headlines that you can try:

• Uh-oh Your Subscription Is Expiring!
• How I’ve Gained 100,000+ Followers Across Platforms
• Get This Now Before It’s Too Late
• What LinkedIn Has Given Me (brutally honest email)

Further, this will generate curiosity among people about what they’ve missed in the past month. It will inspire them to open your previous email and newsletters.

4. Write a great opening line

Once your readers have opened your email, now what.

How will you entice them to read further?

Here the opening line or the first line of the email plays a great role. Most of the browsers today show a portion of the message that is within the email. And for that the readers do not even need to open their email.

The big question is what would you write in the opening line.

Make sure to address them by their first name as it sounds very authentic. Also make sure to start your email by sharing an experience that will immediately catch their attention because they will be able to relate with your story and message.

5. Include relevant content

Have you ever wondered what makes a great newsletter? Relevant content, of course.

It is an obvious factor that people will unsubscribe from your newsletter if they do not find your content relevant. Click here to read some great newsletter examples to help inspire your own.

You can observe from the examples, that it is very important for you to always stay focussed on your content goals and be specific to your brand.

It’s always recommended to stay away from controversial topics in your newsletter.

One of the ways to ensure that you are always able to deliver relevant content is letting the subscribers choose what they would like to hear from you. They can also choose the frequency at which they want to hear from you.

How can you do that?

Make sure to include these customization options when your readers sign up for your newsletter.

6. Personalize emails for every newsletter

No one likes to read the same format again and again. While creating a killer newsletter, experiment with different forms and content ideas to keep the spark alive.

If you follow a standardized newsletter design for content and graphics, people will get bored sooner. The best way to refrain from this is by introducing excellent graphics and personalized content forms for all the newsletters.

As you deliver newsletters weekly or monthly, you’ll get enough time for personalization. Utilize the time between two newsletters and put in efforts to come up with trending newsletters ideas.

This will make people come back for new things, and they'll open your newsletters as soon as they are delivered.

7. Don’t spam your recipient’s inbox

While email marketing and sending newsletters, you don’t need to bombard your recipient’s inbox. Never spam your audience with too many emails. Your emails will start landing in the spam folder if you do so, and you'll lose credibility.

Once you start spamming your customer’s mailbox, they will start getting annoyed and there will be very less chances of you being able to run a killer newsletter service.

If you are in for the long run, then remember this essential tip, and your patience will reward you in a better way.

8. Include sharing options

If you need to have a killer newsletter, you'll need to expand. The best and easiest way to extend the newsletter is by providing people some sharing options inside the email only.

Provide social integrations at the end of your emails, so people can easily share your newsletter with their friends and colleagues.

Sharing options embedded in the newsletters will help people promote your work, and your newsletter will get more visibility from the audience.

9. End with a call-to-action (CTA)

The core aim of any company sending out newsletters is to promote and market its product or services.

Hence the closing line or CTA is very important while creating your newsletters.

As the name recommends, a call to action drives customers' attention towards the services and pleads them to take action. A well-crafted and to-the-point call to action can help turn your simple newsletter into a six-figure income.

Always place your CTA at high visibility spots on your email newsletter.

For example, you can provide a Click Here button below every service mentioned in the newsletter using which the reader can explore more about the benefits and offerings.

CTAs can provide a significant boost to your newsletter's reach, and you can add new users with well-placed CTA buttons.

10. Evaluate its ROI

The last step is to keep analyzing your efforts and returns. If you get great returns on your efforts in this segment, you should be fine.

You should primarily consider the following when evaluating the ROI of your newsletter:

• Bounce rates
• Open rates
• Number of subscribers
• Click-through rates
• Number of shares

You can also take a look at the formats that gave you the optimum results and try sticking to that strategy.

If you see that some of your newsletters haven’t done too well, you need to dig deep and find out what didn’t work well. Was the goal not clear enough? Did the newsletter not have relevant content? Once you identify the correct reasons, it will be easier for you to make the changes.

Conclusion

The bottom line is not to get carried away with too many aspects at the same time while creating a newsletter as a freelance writer.

Newsletters are an effective means of communication with your target audience. The best way to make your newsletter successful is to understand the mindset of your readers and then work on your newsletter. You will definitely see higher conversion rates if you do it correctly.