Newsletter Template Design: Three Ways to Tell if Yours is Ineffective

The newsletter has become a common tool for businesses across numerous industries. Today, you can find them published all throughout the web on topics that range from the stock market to stay at home moms. If you are marketing a newsletter, then there is no doubt that you want to have a professional look that appeals to your readers. Fortunately, numerous templates exist that can help you turn this want into a reality. These templates can be a real time saver as they provide the solid foundation that forms the basis of your publication. Because the layout gives you a great deal of flexibility, it is pretty easy to go overboard and actually apply too much to the design. So how do you know if your newsletter is too crowded and ineffective? Here are a few ways you can tell:

Newsletter templates allow you to get very creative when it comes to colors.  However, if you do not proceed with caution, this freedom could make your newsletter look crowded and render it ineffective.  When tending to your design, try to stay away from loud or distractive colors that might take the reader’s attention from your content.  This is especially true for your background.  Two colors you may want to avoid entirely are red and magenta.  These two shades are quite obnoxious and tend to do nothing but put a strain on the reader’s eyes and should therefore, only be used for plaintext.  The color red has also been known to trigger spam filters, which is something you definitely want to avoid.  Although colors set the mood for your newsletter, they should remain in the background and never grab the reader’s attention to the point where they are not focusing on the content.   

A telltale sign that your newsletter template is overcrowded is the presence of too many graphics.  Sure, graphics can give your publication a professional look, but only when they are used sparingly.  There are two main reasons you want to take it easy on the graphics.  For one, too much graphical content significantly increases the chances of your mail being tagged as spam, which ultimately decreases the probability of making it to your readers.  Secondly, graphics are more difficult to process so depending on connection speed, you could end up doing nothing but annoying recipients. 

A good newsletter is one that maintains perfect a balance of text, images and content in general.  Without balance, your message will not only appear crowded, but lack the consistency needed to keep the reader’s interest.  One of the best ways to ensure readers stay onboard is to make efficient use of the white space provided in the template.  White space gives readers an often needed break from the visual spectacle of graphics and colors, adding organization to your newsletter template and thus, encouraging them to read the content.  The lack of appropriate breaks in content could also make your publication appear crowded.  You can overcome this by simply including borders between text areas and information link segments.  This is the information you want the reader to digest as it will help to increase conversions and sales.