You have about 11 seconds, and that is it. That is all the time that you have to grab someone’s attention in a newsletter. After that, they click away, never to open it up again. This is why it is so important that you know how to design an awesome company newsletter that people will actually want to read. Here are a few tips to make your newsletter appeal to even the speediest of readers.
1. Split it up
In today’s world we are constantly bombarded with short, to-the-point content, so it is important that you know how to properly format your newsletter text. Delivering a couple long paragraphs to your audience is one of the worst things you can do. If your readers open up the email and see endless lines of text, then they might feel overwhelmed by its sheer volume and not finish it.
Instead, choose to break up the newsletter into smaller distinct sections and give each section its own headline that stands out and accurately describes the content that follows (Kinda like this blog post 😊) This will help readers easily skim through the document and locate where the information they want is located.
2. Important Stuff First
It is crucial that you are not only splitting up the information but properly organizing it as well. When you are constructing a newsletter, you must be aware of what information is going to be most sought out by your readers. Putting this information, or at least most of it, near the top where people can easily see it is important will coerce them into reading the rest of the newsletter. If you choose to put it further down in the newsletter, then many people might not see it because they will skim the first part, not see anything of interest, and just exit out of it.
3. Avoid Plain Text
Both the above steps talked about what to do with your plain text within a newsletter, but the truth is that it is better not to use only plain text. Text, simply put, is boring. Sure, there are certain things you can do to make it slightly more appealing such as bolding or italicizing it, but that still does not make it overly attractive to the reader’s eyes. A much better strategy is to use other forms to explain the same information that you would normally use text for. Try using lists or even some simple infographics. This will get the same key points, be shorter and will instantly grab the reader’s attention.
If you follow these techniques, then you will be well on your way to creating a newsletter than can be properly scanned and absorbed within seconds, ensuring that you are not losing out on interested readers.
You can learn more about creating amazing company newsletters and other internal communication by contacting us today.
