So, you’ve decided to give email newsletters a try-congratulations! Email newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with customers, clients, and members. They are low-cost (no paper or printing or postage charges). They are easy to design. And once your design is in place, you can use it month after month.

There are several things you want to keep in mind when designing your first email newsletter:

#1: By “email newsletter” we usually mean a message contained within your email itself, rather than an attachment that the reader must open and read.

#2: If you’ve decided to email your newsletter as an attachment, plan to design it as you would any document and then save as a PDF file. Keep it very short-one or two pages are best-and stick to the proven rules: plenty of white space, graphics to relieve your reader’s eye, and short amounts of text. Remember that many people do not like to download attachments-but if your group is a small one, and you know readers trust you, an email attachment may do just fine.

#3: Seriously consider using an “email service provider” to help you design your email newsletter. An email service provider (easily found on line) will ensure that the design you create for your newsletter will survive going from your outbox to your readers’ inboxes without distortion. In other words, the graphics and boxes will remain in place.

#4: If you are producing email newsletters-that is, messages contained within the email itself-on your own, without the support of an email service provider, make your message design very, very simple. Do not use graphics, and make the message short. In this way, you have a better chance of your message arriving safely-and readable-in your readers’ inboxes.

#5: If you decide to work with an email service provider, you’ll have the advantage of many different templates to choose from in setting up your design. Review the templates and find some that seem to fit your product or your mission. Don’t worry if a template you especially like is shown with photographs or content that has nothing to do with you. The templates-if your service provider meets industry standards-are easy to re-design, including photos of your choice, colors that match your website, and graphics.

#6: Begin to think about images you want to use. Your service provider will have an image gallery where you can store everything from your handwritten signature to an image of a restaurant menu to a photo of your teammates. And these images can be made larger or smaller, each time you use them.

#7: Take a look at Picnik.com and Colorcop.com, two sites that will help you edit photos for uploading (Picnik) and match colors perfectly (Colorcop).

#8: Keep your design simple, now and in the future. In your design, include space for one or, at the most, two articles of no more than 200 words each. If you have longer articles to share, provide a link so readers can look at them on your website. Include a subscription link, a link to your website’s “about” page, and a way for readers to contact you easily.

Once you get comfortable with templates-and this shouldn’t take long-you may even enjoy working with them to make the perfect email newsletter. Good luck!

Copyright (c) 2010 Jane Sherwin. You may reprint this entire article and you must include the copyright info and the following statement: “Jane Sherwin is a writer who helps hospitals and other healthcare facilities communicate their strengths and connect with their readers.”

Author Bio: Learn more about Jane at http://worddrivecommunications.com/index.htm. Subscribe to Jane’s free monthly e-newsletter at http://tinyurl.com/2enrdqx for practical tips on communicating effectively with customers, clients, employees and the public.

Category: Marketing
Keywords: email newsletter,email marketing,enewsletter,e-news,design email newsletter