Newsletter KPIs are a hard topic for many marketers. Writing and sending the perfect newsletter on a regular basis is an ideal way to maintain customer relationships and promote new products or services.

However, maybe you do send out newsletters already that do not get the results you were hoping for? Or are you just starting to set up your email campaign? 

Then it is time to take a closer look at your goals, branding, and structure of your newsletter. After all, you can easily hire a copywriter to write a great newsletter, but you are responsible for all the pre-sales work.

In this article, we will cover 3 concrete tips to get started right away and increase your sales!

Tip 1: Measure the success of your newsletter with metrics

To measure is to know, and that also applies to your email marketing campaign, such as your newsletters. 

When analyzing the metrics or KPIs, you consider the open rate, click-through rate (CTR), and conversion rate.

Measure the success of your newsletter with metrics

KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are the indicators to measure the performance of your business. These metrics can be the open rate of your newsletter and also the turnover of your company or the number of new employees. They are expressed in different values, such as percentages, currency, or numbers.

Open Rate

The open rate is a KPI that tells you how often your email was opened. After all, you can send your newsletter to a huge customer list, but that does not mean they all will read it. Check how often your email was clicked open for the open rate. For example, if you send out 1000 newsletters in total, and only 300 were opened, it means your open rate is 30%.

Click-through Rate

The newsletter KPIs click-through rate or CTR refers to the number of clicks that customers have made when reading your newsletter, such as clicking a link, image, or button in your email. In other words, these customers found the information in your newsletter interesting enough to click through. 

That already makes a first step towards the purchasing process.

3 Tips For Creating The Perfect Newsletter - Perfect Newsletter

The KPI’s open rate and click-through rate of a newsletter may differ per industry, such as tourism, fashion, or cars. If you use email marketing software like Mailchimp, you will find that they calculate “industry average” for your particular niche. For example, tech newsletters have an average open rate of 21.80% and CTR of 2.78%.

Does your newsletter score higher? Then you have created a successful campaign. Are you not delivering these results? Then it is time to adjust by re-thinking your branding and content (see tip 2 and tip 3).

Conversion Rate

The conversion rate is a last important KPI because it tells you how many customers have completed a certain action. This can be, for example, the purchase of a product, subscription, or service. The conversion rate depends on the purpose of your newsletter and is calculated with the following formula:

The conversion rate in % = the number of purchases or subscriptions / the number of emails delivered successfully X 100

So, you divide the number of product purchases or subscriptions by the number of emails delivered and multiply that by 100.

When you work with professional email software, these KPIs are automatically tracked for you, so you can see and compare your campaign’s success at a glance.

Tip 2: Writing the perfect newsletter through branding

Before customers purchase a product or service from you, you must position yourself in the market through a branding process. First of all, it means that you produce a logo (possibly with a slogan) and style guide, which you further use for your website or brochures. Based on the chosen colors, the language, the style of your logo, etc., your customers will see at a glance what kind of brand you are representing.

email newsletters

Do you have an IT company? Then you go for a no-nonsense look and simple colors. Do you organize children’s parties? Then choose vibrant colors and simple words to the branding process and develop your brand.

By building a clear brand, you lay the foundations of your success. 

Good branding ensures that your customers go through the three crucial steps of the purchasing process: know, like, trust. Customers often only buy from companies they know, like, and trust.

The faster your customers get to know your brand, the faster they will think of you when they need your product or service. Besides, you respond to your readers’ values ​​and interests so that they like you. 

Finally, creating trust is important to convince your customers.

When writing a newsletter, the three elements of “know, like, and trust” come together to promote your brand.

Know

Your newsletter ensures that your customers become aware of your brand so that they immediately think of you when they want to buy a product or service. Your brand awareness includes an immediate recognition of your logo.

Like

By sending out a newsletter, you have an excellent opportunity to build a community of followers. Put links to your social media in your newsletter, set up a promotion with prizes, or ask your readers to respond to any question.

Trust

With a newsletter, you have opportunities to work on the relationship of trust with your customers. Go for a design that is in line with your website and branding to complete a professional look. By sending your email from your own name, you give your newsletter a personal touch (for example, “Elizabeth from Scaleo“).

Certain email software makes it easy to design professional newsletters. You first choose the name of the sender – such as your own name. Then you select a template from the huge library that you further personalize. 

Perfect Newsletter

Because you can also add links to your social media and website, you will have built a newsletter according to the know, like, trust principle to convert optimally (in no time).

Tip 3: Create a perfect newsletter with content

Now that you know more about metrics and branding, it’s time to put together your newsletter. 

You can hire a professional copywriter who will produce great content. 

Do you prefer to write your text yourself? You will notice that writing goes a lot faster if you have done the necessary research first so that you have a clear briefing (either for your copywriter or for yourself).

First, check the purpose of your newsletter and determine KPIs per goal. You can set a general goal for your email campaign, and divide it further into goals per newsletter, such as:

  • General: 20% increase in turnover in the 3rd quarter.
  • Newsletter 1 : 10% growth in customer base with “refer a friend” promotion.
  • Newsletter 2: Increase traffic by 20% to the website with the launch of a new product line.
  • Lastly, newsletter 3: 15% growth in sales with a discount sale price “2. for 1”.

The sender of your newsletter

The second step is to think about the name of the sender you want to use. You want your customers to see immediately from whom they have received an email (remember “trust”?).

You can use a personal name, but also put the name of your company there, such as “Elizabeth from SaaS company Scaleo.” 

Recognition is the first step to ensure the email will be opened.

The subject line of your newsletter

Next, choose the subject line of your email. Emojis result in an increase in the open rate of up to 56%. Go for an emoji that suits your audience and your message for a subject line that stands out in every inbox. 

For your topic, consider your reader’s needs so that you can respond to their needs, such as:

  • Curiosity: “Is this the coolest gadget of 2020?” or “How you can easily save a lot of money with this gadget”
  • Fear of missing out or fear of falling behind on others: “Your chance to win today!” or “Today only: free shipping with every order.”
  • Vanity: “With these fashion tips, you will become the star of every party.” or “These gadgets are hot with celebrities.”

The content in your newsletter

Are you ready to start writing? 

Divide the purpose of your perfect newsletter into different pieces of content. 

Each piece of content has its own title and paragraph. 

Write from your reader’s perspective, so they discover the benefits for them. For example, I’d choose “5 tips to make your affiliate campaign convert” for the title. 

If you start a paragraph, begin by saying: “Boost your affiliate marketing sales with these industry experts’ tips.”

Call to action

In the end, put a clear call or call-to-action (CTA), such as “Discover all the tips here” or “Yes, I want to try affiliate marketing software free.” 

3 Tips For Creating The Perfect Newsletter - Perfect Newsletter

You can opt-in for a simple text with a hyperlink. However, by using visually appealing design elements such as a button – your CTA has a higher Click-Trough-Rate, according to Campaign Monitor

After all, a button is more appealing and encourages you to take action.

Design

Last but not least, polish the design of your perfect newsletter. 

Give each piece of content in your newsletter its own image and/or color to easily segment the newsletter visually. Use the colors and fonts in your style guide for a newsletter that is completely in line with your branding. 

Also, don’t forget your social media links so customers can connect with you on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram.

Conclusion

A perfect newsletter is one of the essential tools to bind customers to you and achieve your business goals. Before getting started, it is important to gather information about relevant terms. Think about your general branding so that you can extend it to your newsletter. 

Finally, design your newsletter with attention to your KPIs and send newsletters out regularly, so maintain your relationship with your leads.

Last Updated on November 28, 2023

Author

Elizabeth is a Senior Content Manager at Scaleo. Currently enjoying the life in Prague and sharing professional affiliate marketing tips. She's been in the online marketing business since 2006 and gladly shares all her insights and ideas on this blog.