Have you started your email newsletter yet? If you said no, I highly recommend (urge) you to get started with building your database. Building and growing your mailing list is what’s going to make a difference to your success.

I’m all for using social media, but if you are serious about growing your business and making sales you I urge you to start building a mailing list.

Newsletters come in all shapes, colours and sizes and it is up to you what you want your newsletter to look like and what content you’ll be sending. There are, however, a few tips and guidelines that will help you create a beautiful and effective newsletter that your readers will actually open and read.

1) Design

Having a simple, easy to read, uncluttered design will help you with creating a beautiful and consistent newsletter. I recommend having one main feature story and perhaps add a few smaller stories or links to your blog. Use graphics and images to make your newsletter visually appealing but don’t go overboard. Keep it uncluttered.

2) Get ideas

I get that you might worry about what to write about. We all get stuck sometimes. Why don’t you subscribe to some newsletters and analyse them on the reasons you DO or DON’T like them. Subscribe to competitor newsletters and others in your field who you admire. Another great resource is MailChimp’s showcase or Campaign Monitor’s Gallery, they’re full of inspiration.

3) Responsiveness

Having a responsive email newsletter platform is very important as a large number of your subscribers will be reading their newsletters on an iPhone, Android, iPad or other digital device, so it needs to look good and work on all devices.

4) Personalise

Sending a newsletter is something that I see as a privilege. You are invited into someone’s inbox, which is a pretty big thing, so try to not only write about business related things but also make it personal and try to have a conversation with your readers. You can invite them to respond by email or you can invite them to join the conversation on your social media platforms.

5) Clear call to action

At the end of your newsletter, tell your readers what you want them to do. This could be a ‘buy now’, ‘book now’, ‘learn more’, ‘sign up’, ‘join the conversation’, ‘ready the blog’ etc. Make it clear. We often have to be told what to do, so make it clear and make it easy.