Did you know that your customers love newsletters? Recent surveys have shown that 90 percent of consumers prefer to receive company updates through email newsletters. But that doesn’t mean you can phone in your next email. If you want to build a solid relationship with your subscribers and ensure that they look forward to your messages, you need to continue to familiarize yourself with email newsletter best practices. Now that summer is winding down, it’s time to bring your newsletter back to school. Follow these tips to create engaging newsletters for the fall season and beyond.

Make sure your newsletter is scannable

This newsletter design best practice should be top of mind throughout the year. But if you made a mistake and accidentally created messages that were too long or crammed text and photos into your emails, now is the time to reset your design process. The holiday season is a major source of income — and it’s fast approaching. You don’t want to discourage readers before you’ve even had a chance to launch your winter promotional campaigns. So start creating easy to scan newsletters.

• Break content into small chunks of three or four sentences to make it easier for subscribers to mentally process the information.
• Create bulleted or numbered lists where appropriate (i.e. when listing tips, writing steps for a how-to guide, or presenting brief company updates).
• Use headings for each section, so readers can quickly get the gist of the email before digging in.
• Don’t skimp on white space. Give your readers a break by making sure there is plenty of blank space around text, images, and graphics.

Remember, you might have great content with tons of useful tips and information, but if it’s all buried in a wall of text, it’s likely to get ignored. Check out this email from Tasting Table to see how the company balances spaces, images, and text:

Create a fall-themed tutorial, checklist, or guide

The goal of a newsletter – and really all of its content – should always be to add value to the lives of your readers. If your content isn’t going to entertain, inform, or solve a problem, there’s no real reason for anyone to click on your posts. Sure, it’s not always easy to come up with compelling ideasbut the good news is that you have a built-in theme and a starting point with seasonal newsletters.

Think about all the ways your business is uniquely equipped to help subscribers prepare for the season. A clothing retailer could celebrate the return of sweater weather with a report on fall trends, a plumber or contractor could provide advice on home waterproofing, and a landscaper could offer fall pruning and gardening advice. . Think about what your readers want this time of year and create educational content that will help them satisfy that need.

Have fun with copying

Want to add flair to your newsletter copy? Get punished. With seasonal content, there are so many opportunities to weave in puns, emojis, and fun phrases. Subject lines and titles are the best places to try out your clever fall pun. In this example from Petco, cute fall-themed headlines are used to showcase tips for pets:

Start now

Early risers get the clicks on emails, so start creating your newsletters long before they need to go out. This will give you plenty of time to review messages before they are sent, allowing you to check for typos and perfect your email layout. It will also make life a little less stressful. You have so much to do to keep your business running smoothly, and you shouldn’t have to scramble to send your emails on time.

Pay attention to upcoming events, promotions and other important dates that you want to mention in your newsletter. For fall, this could include Veterans Day, Halloween, the start of basketball and football seasons, and Thanksgiving.

Newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with your target customers, increase website traffic, and highlight the benefits of using your products and services. Make sure your subscribers enjoy your posts by referring to these newsletter best practices throughout the year.