How to Create Custom Newsletter Design

Newsletters are your best bet to reaching both your potential and existing customers. Numerous studies have suggested that email generates more income for businesses that practice them than other popular marketing channels. 

Imagine having a list of folks that are interested in your business, and they’ve asked to be given updates on the latest information from your business. They’ll like to be informed when you have new offers. This way, you’re further selling to individuals that are already interested in your product/service. 

If properly done, newsletters have the potential to give you that breakthrough you desire for your business. It’s also extremely cost-effective to use. 

But what should email newsletters look like? 

I’m going to help you make sense of what a perfect email newsletter should look like and how to create one with Adobe Photoshop. We’re using Adobe Photoshop because it’s the most common and not because it’s the best you can find in the market. After designing the email newsletter, you can now use email marketing software to send your email to your subscribers’ list. 

Email marketing software is essential to helping you build your email list, send your email campaigns to multiple email accounts, and perform other helpful functions. Due to its importance, you need a very effective marketing software like SendX to manage your email marketing strategy. If you hold your email marketing strategy in high esteem, then you might want to see how SendX can help your business.  

What is an Email Newsletter? 

Except you just opened your first email account, I’m certain that you’ve gotten at least an email newsletter before. Entrepreneurs and businesses usually prioritize this marketing tool because it’s cheap to use, and it aids proper communication between the business and customers. 

 For example, if you’re into the makeup business, you can send out newsletters that invite your current and potential customers to read about tips on choosing makeup products. You should also send them offers and give them sneak peeks of your latest product. 

If you own a blog, you can release a newsletter that consists of an article that has a captivating headline. This way, your email reader can read the newsletter and will visit your website if they find the newsletter interesting. 

Your customers will always have your brand at the back of their minds if you keep sending the emails at regular intervals. 

What is the purpose of sending email newsletters? 

There’s no unifying purpose for sending an email newsletter because its usefulness varies from one business to another. Some businesses use it as the main driver of sales by using it to introduce coupons and products that will incentivize both potential and current customers. Quite often, businesses also use email newsletters to build a connection with their customers by giving them information and tips that they’ll find helpful. Some businesses even use it to drive web traffic, while some use it to increase their audience across social media platforms. 

A proper email marketing campaign is one that helps the business achieve its goals and meets the needs of current and potential customers. 

How Email Newsletters Work

Although researchers claim that for every $1 spent on email marketing, $44 will be earned, this hasn’t been the story of some small businesses. And a major reason is that the majority of small businesses see an email newsletter (an important part of email marketing) as a means to update their audience on the news from the company—this is a wrong perception of the marketing tool. Consumers don’t care so much about the details of your company; what they want is something that’ll benefit them. 

As such, you should use your email newsletter to inform them of what you’re offering that will be difficult for them to get elsewhere. You can include call-to-action words that’ll spur them to purchase your service/product. 

For maximum results, you should ensure that your newsletter is easy for your audience to comprehend. 

Steps to Creating a Custom Newsletter Design

If you want a newsletter that will deliver optimum results, then you can’t just create your newsletter anyhow; there are some top-notch practices that you should follow. Here’s a step by step guide to creating a custom newsletter: 

Step 1: The Beginning; Get Your Dimension and Size Right 

To stick with the acceptable way of doing things, you should begin with a specific width for your newsletter and not a liquid/fluid layout. The fixed layout helps to prevent incidences of horizontal scrolls bar that shows anytime you’re not using your device’s full screen. 

Your newsletter should be designed with a width that’s about 550 to 600px, then ensure that all essential info is situated around the top, between 300 to 500px. It is essential that your newsletter adheres to this size because it’s the size of most “preview pane” of desktop clients. 

Step 2: Go to Photoshop and set up your document 

Launch the Photoshop software on your computer and make a document that has an 800px width, 1000px height, and a resolution of about 72dpi. Set the color mode to RGB. 

In the custom newsletter we’re designing here, we opted for a light gray background; you can alter it if you want something different. After that, I designed a 600px large container that will contain the content of my newsletter. As you’ll notice below, I used the color white to fill the container, and I placed it in the middle of the document. 

Step 3: Give users the ability to view the email in any browser they want 

I used a different font to notify readers that they can view the email in any browser of their choice: 

Can’t View the Email’s Content? Open it in another Browser 

It is highly essential that you tell people that they can view the content of the email using other browsers. Also, clients may now want to download the newsletter by default, so you should make it more accessible by putting a link where they can open the newsletter on their mobile browser. 

Step 4: Make an Email Newsletter Header 

First impressions matter a lot because your audience will likely make a decision on what to do about your newsletter at first glance. The Header of your email has the potential to become that weapon that’ll help you catch the attention of your audience—this is because most readers will first look at the Header when previewing or opening the email. As such, you should get creative with creating an eye-catching Header.

Step 5: Create the Main Part of the Newsletter 

Just below your Header, you should make another rectangle and extend that rectangle to the bottom of that page. Then place the content that you’ll like to include in the newsletter in the rectangle that you’ve created. Use the design attributes that have been laid out on your website because it will give you some form of brand uniformity. 

If the content of the newsletter is an article, make sure that you spice things up with interesting pictures where applicable and separate the article fields with a dotted border. 

You can hold the space by duplicating the first entry and replacing the duplicated spots later. Use grid-guides on adobe to insert other entries you want to include, and get rid of the duplicated texts and pics. 

Step 6: Include Relevant Social Media Links 

You can include an area for accessing your social media account and your RSS account if you have one. You should ensure to include a link where your audience can share your newsletter so that more people can see it—thereby widening your scope of influence. If you like to create those links, you can follow the description of how we did ours. 

I first make a 252px wide rectangle, and I added a call-to-action word that can convince our newsletter’s reader to hit the follow button. 

Use the right icon for the social media platforms, and use a color that represents your brand. Try to keep things as simple as you can. 

Place the rectangle that contains social media icons and “Share this with your Friends” at the top of the page. 

While writing the words, try your hands on numerous editing tools on the photoshop software to know which one best fits your design. If you find it difficult to create what you want, then you can read through our photoshop text tips to equip yourself with more knowledge on that. 

Step 7: Add a Footer 

To conclude your design, you should create a Footer. In our design, we created a footer that’ll allow our audience to contact us and to unsubscribe if they no longer want to get emails from us. It is essential that you have a footer that has a button for unsubscribing from your email list. 

Best Practices to make your newsletter effective 

Have a defined goal: As mentioned earlier, it’s the nature of your business that’ll determine your goal. Before creating your newsletter, it’s best to first have your goal in mind. 

If you’re trying to get more web traffic, then you’ll have to tailor the content of your newsletter to one that’ll convince readers to visit your website. Briefly state why they should visit your website, and place some excerpt from your site that’ll make them feel like visiting the website. 

Know the interest of your audience: Use a web analytic tool to know the interest of your target audience. A good analytical tool should be one that will show you the things your subscribers are spending their time on. On getting that information, create content that properly addresses their concerns and interests. 

In Summary 

Newsletters are an essential tool for anyone who takes email marketing seriously. It can help you connect with your target audience and spur them to take actions that are beneficial to your business. We believe that after reading this article, you’ve learned how best to create a custom newsletter design and other tips that can help your marketing campaign.