The Definitive Guide to Email Newsletters

From why you need one to how to create one. You’ll find all the answers here.

Arif ÇAĞLAR

Published in

The Startup

13 min readJan 3, 2022

Email Newsletter: What is this?

An email newsletter is a form of online communication that allows you to send news, tips and updates about your product, business or nonprofit.

To receive these emails, users must provide their email address and join your list. These people could be your potential leads.

At Mobiroller, we do this to keep our users active and to keep in touch with us.

We are constantly planning campaigns and other segment emails.

We don’t just send campaigns. We plan in e-mails such as sample projects, different application ideas and training sets that will guide users to make applications. Thus, we aim to convert users into potential customers. We are constantly trying to trigger it.

Email Newsletter: Why should you use?

Despite the rise of social media and unsolicited spam, email remains the most effective way to nurture leads and increase customer loyalty.

Although email marketing is one of the oldest marketing channels on the internet, it is still used by around 70% of companies. Also, did you know that at least 99% of consumers check their email every day? This cannot be said for any other communication channel. It can be concluded that e-mail is the number 1 communication channel.

Coverage: More than 3.8 billion people use e-mail. Every day, people send and receive an average of 281 billion emails. Business emails make up the majority (about 109 billion) of emails sent daily. If used wisely, email newsletters can quickly reach huge audiences.
Effectiveness: Email marketing conversion rate is the best type of communication. It has proven to be the most common type of email used to interact with customers.
Personalization: Email marketers often take into account the behavior and preferences of their consumers. Personalized e-mails will attract people’s attention and increase their purchase rates. This customization can be used to do it with various groups.
Credibility: It is a good opportunity to highlight your expertise in a particular field and at the same time increase subscribers’ understanding of your credibility.
Relationship: Too many communication channels can be created online. This system has developed a lot, especially with social media. But email newsletters are an excellent channel for building long-term relationships with your audience.

The three most-cited content marketing goals achieved in the last 12 months were:

Creating brand awareness (86%)
Educating audience(s) (79%)
Building credibility/trust (75%)

However, fewer B2B marketers say their efforts delivered success against goals like:

Building subscribed audiences (45%)
Generating sales/revenue (53%)
Building loyalty with existing clients/customers (63%)

Email Newsletter: How to Create?

Here are 8 steps to create the best email newsletter for your business or personal goals. You should use it as a checklist.

Step-1: Figure out your newsletters goal

You should always have a goal in what you do. You must set a goal for the newsletter you want to send.

What do you want to happen as a result of the mail you send? To understand this, you can ask yourself some questions.

Do I want to generate leads? Do I want to drive more traffic to my website? or Want to create more interaction? Asking questions like this will help you determine your target.

Figure out your goal and let the rest of your decisions flow from it.

The important issue here is that your target should not be how many people opened the mail. It has to be something more than that. Mail open and click rate should be a tool to target.

I always review my purpose twice when planning mail. Do I want to generate leads with this mail, or do I want to give users experience? According to my purpose, my content, posting style and design are changing. Even the date and time I will send are changing.

Step-2: Set targeted content

Once you’ve set your mail newsletter target, you’ll need to set content appropriate for that target. Your content should help get you to the goal.

For example, if your goal is to collect leads, you can send an update for the target personas and have them leave a request for you. If this mailing bulletin will be sent for e-commerce, product promotion for purchasing, closed-circuit campaign etc. can be made. But there must be a plan to ensure continuity.

I had set up a “How To Series” for Mobiroller. The purpose of this series was to send users an e-mail every week explaining how to make a type of mobile application. We asked them to leave a request by adding the “Request an Interview” button at the end of the e-mail. Thus, we ensured that interested users enter the sales funnel.

It’s just one of the strategies we do. You can do a similar work. Or you can experiment in different areas. But I want to make an important caveat: you need to know your audience very well to try them.

Step-3: Design your template

You must have a prepared e-mail before sending it. It should draw attention visually and convey the message clearly.

First of all, you will have to examine the mail templates used by different companies. When you decide what to do, you are ready to prepare your mail template. You can prepare your html file for your template without knowing any coding.

You can create a free mail template on the Internet with the Mosaico tool. I would definitely recommend it for beginners. A very easy to use and simple tool. After preparing the template, you can download the html file. You can open it with Notepad++ and delete the ad space from the bottom. The BeeFree tool is also an easy tool to use. Or you can use paid tools.

I started using the Mosaico system. However, I am currently using a paid mail template that I purchased.

Here is a list of free HTML email template builders and editors that we reviewed:

1. BEE -Free Responsive email editor to create beautiful emails, fast

2. Stripo -Drag & Drop email template builder with HTML editor

3. Chamaileon -Collaborative email builder and content management for Businesses, Agencies, Enterprises

4. Moosend Email Editor -Free and user-friendly email editor that also allows you to send

5. Unlayer -Free email editor for responsive email templates

6. MailChimp -Editor of the popular Email marketing platform

7. Mail Designer 365 -Email marketing template and campaign designer for Mac

8. Mail Styler 2 -Email newsletter builder software for Windows

9. Mosaico -Limited open source email template builder

10. Coffeecup -Downloadable Responsive Email Designer software for Desktop and Mac

11. Postcards -Limited online email template builder, with free demo licence

12. Topol -Simple HTML email template builder with drag & drop

Step-4: Choose Email Sending tool and create mailing list

You need to use a tool to send your mails. It is not suitable to send via a mail system such as Gmail. The mail tool you will use should be able to group your audience and present the mail data to you. In addition, you must create your mail audience in order to send your mails.

Here is a list of free email sending tools I reviewed:

1. MailerLite

2. MailChimp

3. Sender

4. Zoho

5. Moosend

6. Omnisend

7. SendPulse

8. EmailOctopus

9. HubSpot

10. Sendinblue

I use the Sendy mailing system in my works. We were able to establish an API connection with Sendy. Thus, Saas companies like us can send incoming users’ data automatically. Continuous mailing list automatically stays up to date. Different customer segmentations can be established.

Step-5: Make sure you’re legally compliant.

There is an important issue that you should pay attention to before testing your mail. Your mail must comply with legal issues. 2 issues you should pay attention to: CAN-SPAM and GDPR.

CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing) Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing (CAN-SPAM) is a law that establishes the rules for commercial email and commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have a business stop emailing them, and outlines the penalties incurred for those who violate the law.

CAN-SPAM requires that you have a footer in your email with your address and an easy way to unsubscribe from your emails if they don’t want to receive them anymore.

There must be an unsubscribe button and the e-mail sending tool you use should give you a link for this button.

GDPR It is a detailed law that states that you collect the information of mail subscribers with their consent and that you can send mail. Consultancy should be sought by lawyers who are experts in the field on this subject.

Step-6: Run spam, mobile and browser tests

You should test the e-mail you have prepared before sending it. To do this test, you can send the mail to yourself. You can open it on mobile and browser and perform button tests. In particular, you should make sure that the action button and the Unsubscribe button are working.

In addition, you should use a test tool so that your mails are not spam. Mail-Tester is a sufficient tool for this job. It examines your e-mail and gives points out of 10. My suggestion is do not send an e-mail below 9.5 and renew the suggested changes and test again. Mail-Tester is a free tool that allows you to do 3 tests per day.

Step-7: Send your email

If you have done all the steps in order, we are ready to send the mail. We set a goal and created content accordingly. Then we designed this content in a mail template. Then we did the tests by paying attention to the legal issues. Now we can send the mail to our target group.

I have shared detailed data about the time of sending mail, the number of sending per month and per week. You should definitely check it out.

Step-8: Analyze and update

Check to see how your email newsletter performed on the goals you set back in step one. See which parts of your email got the most clicks, and which parts of the newsletter contributed most to your goal.

In general, it will take a long time to understand whether your mail is working or not. You can do A/B tests to learn this faster. I will publish my article on how to do A/B testing in the future.

Email Newsletter: Optimize Mail for Mobile Devices!

The e-mail we sent can be seen by users from different devices. Tablet, Desktop or mobile devices are used.

The mail you have prepared will run smoothly for the computer and will look high quality. But we need to make sure that the mobile view is of good quality. Especially when mobile usage has increased so much, it is very important.

To examine this with some sample data:

56% of emails are opened on mobile devices
78% of mobile users delete emails that aren’t optimized for mobile

This data shows the importance of optimizing. You must do this in order for the mail sending to achieve its purpose.

I have a few suggestions for this. Pay attention to the use of visuals rather than text, especially in your e-mails. Users will want to be attracted by seeing rather than reading. However, the image dimensions should not be too high. This may cause the image to be too late or not open. Another suggestion is that the button and design you use should be symmetrical. It should not disturb users. Large buttons above the standard are not suitable.

Email Newsletter: What’s a Good Email Open Rate & Click Rate?

It is not enough just to have done it, it is necessary to analyze and measure success. You have to examine the data and have hypotheses about how it might get better. You can experience them with A/B tests. Now it is useful to examine some of the data shared by HubSpot.

How many email campaigns should you send per month?

I think we agree on sending mail and its importance. But how many emails do we need to send per month? The more we send to email, the more successful it will be? Or does it cause users to miss us?

Companies that send between 16–30 emails per month see a click-through rate that is 2 times higher than companies that send 2 or fewer emails per month.

This data can give you an idea to get started. But you need to do different tests for your target persona and you need to find the right number.

How do open and click rates compare across different company sizes?

So, does this number of emails have anything to do with the size of the company? HubSpot has also done a research on this subject and let’s examine its data.

Companies with 1–10 employees and 26–200 employees: Open and click-through rates are highest when they send 16 to 30 emails per month. Companies with 1 to 10 employees typically get 35.3% open rate and 6.9% click rate, and companies with 26 to 200 employees get 32.3% open rate and 6.3% click rate.
Companies with 11–25 employees: These companies have the highest open rates when they send more than 31 emails per month. The average opening rate is 32.4%. However, they get the most clicks when they send 16–30 emails per month. This click-through rate is 6.7%.
Companies with over 201 employees: The data in this section is somewhat interesting. This category achieved the highest open rate by sending 3–5 e-mails per month. (Click rate 7%)

The conclusion to be drawn from here is that the size of the company affects the number of mails and campaigns we need to send. You, too, should do A/B tests to get the right number for your company. These data can give you an idea to get started. But it certainly does not give the exact results for you.

How do open and click rates differ for B2B and B2C businesses?

It is useful to examine according to your business type for mail sending. Again, the data will give you important clues to get started. Let’s take a look at HubSpot’s research on this topic.

In general, the mail open rate is around 30% for B2B, while the B2C mail open rate is 34.9%.

Although mail opening rate is higher in B2C companies, it has been seen that mail click-through rates are higher in B2B companies.

B2B companies achieved the highest mail click-through rate in sending 16–30 mails per month. (Click rate 6%)

B2C companies achieved the highest mail click-through rate in sending 16–30 mails per month. (Click rate 5.6%)

Email Marketing Statistics

I have included some mail marketing statistics analyzed by different channels. Here are the items that interest you.

1- Click-through Rate

Message Personalization is the number one tactic used by email marketers to improve performance. (HubSpot, 2020)
35% of marketers choose to send three-to-five emails per week to their customers. (HubSpot, 2020)
Promotional emails are the most common email type that marketers are investing in. (HubSpot, 2020)
The industry average email click-through rate is 2.13%. (GetResponse, 2020)
Hobbies have the highest click rate, at 5.01% (Mailchimp, 2019)
Friday is typically the day with highest click-through rates potential, at 2.7%. (Campaign Monitor, 2020)
At 30.5% in 2020, government emails dominate email open rates globally. (Campaign Monitor, 2020)

2- Email Segmentation

Marketers who use segmented campaigns note as much as a 760% increase in revenue. (Campaign Monitor, 2019)
Almost 30% of marketers surveyed use audience segmentation tactics to improve email engagement. (HubSpot, 2020)

3- Email Usage

Roughly 80% of marketers have reported an increase in email engagement over the past 12 months. (HubSpot, 2020)
In 2019, the number of global email users amounted to 3.9 billion. (Statista, 2019)
The number of global email users is set to grow to 4.48 billion users by 2024. (Statista, 2019)
From a study of 1,000 small business owners, email marketing was ranked as the second most effective medium for building brand awareness. (Campaign Monitor, 2019)
Email marketing has the highest return on investment for small businesses. (Campaign Monitor, 2019)
Tuesdays see the highest email open and email unsubscribe rates. (Campaign Monitor, 2019)
The average email deliverability across all email service providers is 79.6%. (EmailToolTester, 2019)
In the U.S., 21% of email opens happens between 9 a.m. and noon. (Litmus, 2019)
The number of global e-mail users is set to grow to 4.48 billion users in 2024. (Statista, 2020)

4- Mobile Email

Mobile-friendly email is the second most-used tactic email marketers to improve their performance. (HubSpot, 2020)
Mobile accounted for 42% of all email opens in 2019. (Litmus, 2019)
Of all emails opened on mobile devices, 66% are read for more than eight seconds. (Litmus, 2019)
40% of people 18 years old and under will always open an email on their mobile device first. (Campaign Monitor, 2019)
Apple iPhone and Gmail are the most popular clients for opening mobile emails. (Campaign Monitor, 2019)
Mobile readers who open emails a second time from their computer are 65% more likely to click through. (Campaign Monitor, 2019)
Nearly 25% of people who open an email on a mobile device will open it again: 70% will stick with their mobile device, and 30% will go elsewhere. (Campaign Monitor, 2019)
40% of consumers say they have at least 50 unread emails in their inbox. (Sinch, 2020)

THANK YOU!

ARİF ÇAĞLAR

arif@mobiroller.com