The eight rules of custom eNewsletter design

These days a regular eNewsletter is an essential ingredient of communicating effectively with customers for most online businesses, and ensuring your eNewsletter is tailored to your industry and is consistent with your brand and your website design is now the norm. But with so many different agencies, tools and templates all offering eNewsletter services, how do you know which is the right approach for your business?

If having a professionally designed eNewsletter is right for your business then you'll probably want to be sure you're following the right process. Fortunately this is actually quite simple providing you follow a few simple rules:

Rule #1 - Hire a good designer

This is a great place to start. Why? Because a good designer will give you confidence in the end result, leaving you to focus on what you do well - managing your business. A professionally designed newsletter that has been custom designed means it is designed for purpose and will maximise your chances of getting through to your audience effectively. A word of caution though - make sure you select a designer that has a solid track-record of eNewsletter design.

A designer that has experience with printed brochures won't necessarily know the ins-and-outs of digital communication, for example. So do your research thoroughly and if in doubt hire a website design agency! In many cases a website design agency will offer great value on an eNewsletter design, particularly if they are also designing your website for you.

Rule #2 - Market research

Yes, there's a real art to any piece of web design work, including eNewsletters - understanding your brand, the end user and their goal-oriented mindset, the technicalities of the email software itself, and knowing the different email clients in which your newsletter will be viewed. These are all parts of good eNewsletter design and come with industry experience. But don't forget that a large part of the design equation is you, the client. And design being largely subjective means that you should always have a say in the presentation of the end product. Ensuring you get the right aesthetic feel for you and your business is essential, and you know your business better than anyone!

So the best way to engage in the the process is to collect samples of what you like and don't like and where possible analyse what it is about each that you like/dislike. This initial research can act as a great starting point in the briefing process with your web designer or website design agency and will ultimately end up with both parties being happy with the end result!

Rule #3 - Design vs functionality

Just because it's an eNewsletter doesn't mean it can't look great! And just because it looks great doesn't mean it has to be hard to work with! The secret to designing a custom eNewsletter is really about striking the right balance between design and usability of the template itself.

The best system will allow you complete control over every aspect of the design. But not everybody wants this high-level of design control so its important to discuss with your web designer or website design agency how the system works, and determine what level of design involvement you are going to need. Being reliant on advanced layout skills each time you want to communicate with your audience is not usually a good idea, even if the end result is a high-impact bespoke mail-out.

Rule #4 - Allow for change

As is always the case with any form of web design - allow for change! Your website is a constantly evolving platform that responds to changes in industry trends and styles and adapts to whatever your business is doing in the real world, so just like your website your eNewsletter also needs to provide you with enough flexibility to evolve it over time. Ask your web designer or web agency about an eNewsletter layout that is adaptable and can be easily re-styled without having to start the design process from scratch each time.

Simple techniques like being able to create multiple branded banners at the top of your eNewsletter can be a simple feature allowing you to create bespoke campaigns and adapt your message as you need to.

Rule #5 - Hire a good designer

Notice how this rule appears twice? That's because it's an important one! If you're in any doubt about the creation, maintenance and management of your email campaign then a good web designer or agency will be right behind you to help and advise you along the way, and if you need them to - take care of your entire eNewsletter campaign on your behalf.

In this case all you really need to do is provide them with your content and they'll take care of the rest. Most web designers and web design agencies provide this as an ongoing or ad-hoc service and with the right template in place it's probably not as expensive as you might think!

Rule #6 - Analytics

This part goes without saying. If you are using your eNewsletter to drive customers to your website then you need to make sure you have the tools in place to properly analyse traffic generated from your eNewsletter. There are a number of website and eNewsletter-specific analytics tools out there in the marketplace, each one ranging from the very sophisticated (and very expensive) to the very basic (and less expensive).

Understand what you need to effectively manage your data in the first instance and if in doubt start small and grow. But be sure to select a product that will grow with you as your skills advance.

Rule #7 - Integration

Try to find a platform that allows all aspects of your online business to connect and communicate together in a seamless package. If your eNewsletter 'talks' to your website then you won't have to spend so much time trying to work out what's happening across each and will have more time to concentrate on your business, which is what it's really all about!

Rule #8 - Hire a good designer

OK, so I don't need to say it again.