Write to be read, not admired
People read your newsletter while waiting for the kettle to boil, standing in a queue, scrolling with their thumb. If it looks like a Rembrandt painting with dense paragraphs, it's too much to take in.
Most people that are going to read your email newsletter will do that while they're waiting for the kettle to boil, or standing in the bathroom, or in a shopping queue. And they'll scroll it with their thumb on their mobile phone.
Where are you as you're reading this now? Hit reply and let me know, just for a laugh.
And if you have loads and loads and loads of colours and it looks like a, you know, Rembrandt painting, it's a lot to take in.
And if there's dense paragraphs, that's a lot to take in, too.
So you need to space everything. There needs to be lots of breathing space in your email newsletter so people can understand it, take it in, and then make sure the links work and stuff like that.
But you are transmitting information, not making a work of art.
A few years ago, there was the argument that email clients didn't let through a lot of HTML and colour and stuff like that. And that has changed. But it's about how easy it is for another human being to read your information.
So, spend less time on the artwork, space out your paragraphs, and more people will read your email.
In the old days, before Brexit, I used to spend hours f@<king about in Mailchimp with grids, photos and styling. About that time I worked with an agency that could charge several hundred for an email template design.
You'll notice I always favour short sentences and lots of spacing.
When I have a point to make, if I can do it using bullet points:
- I will make one line after another
- Like this so it breaks up the page
- About this far into the email or article
Shiny newsletters
I'm subscribed to a lot of coworking space newsletters, and I've noticed the bigger the company the more 'designed' and 'impersonal' the newsletter is.
Simple pro tip: I've noticed those bigger companies sending their glossy, purely marketing emails do it on a more regular basis.
More regularly than smaller companies, who could win by sending more informal and personal email newsletters. I know a lot of longstanding independent coworking space owners that run their newsletters pretty much like I'm writing this to you now.
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