Newsletter Template Process

This Newsletter Template Process acts as a guide for you to create an engaging and actionable newsletter that you can send via email to your subscribers.

Introduction:

Record checklist details

Inform your subscribers:

Assess your subscriber landing page

Pre-planning stage:

Define the purpose and the aim of your newsletter

Review your newsletter aim against your business goals

Create an email campaign

Set up your newsletter creation task

Email Employee

Educate your readers

Segment your list

Gather your content:

Gather information

Create a plan

Assign newsletter content plan for review

Provide feedback

Implement feedback

Design your template:

Select your newsletter template

Add in content:

Write your content

Self-review content

Add content body to newsletter template

Assign newsletter for review

Provide feedback

Implement feedback

Create an email subject line:

Start with a call-to-action

Consider the proven successful formulas

Make the subject line personal

Make it clear and brief

Add preview text

Make it easy for people to unsubscribe

Assign subject line and preview text for review

Provide feedback

Implement feedback

Review and test:

Prepare final newsletter for review

Approval: Final newsletter

Test the newsletter

Sources:

Related checklists:

Introduction:

This Newsletter Template Process acts as a guide for you to create an engaging and actionable newsletter that you can send via email to your subscribers. The Newsletter Template Process is designed so you can focus and deliver your newsletter's aim effectively.

Newsletter creation is a marketing process that keeps customers and prospects up to date with your company's developments.

Content such as:

Promotions
Information regarding the industry or your product/service
Your companies participation in conferences and exhibitions
Information regarding new products

can be communicated using a newsletter.

Considering 61% of consumers are shown to prefer contact via email, it makes sense to utilize email as a platform to send your business newsletters electronically.

But why invest time and effort to create a newsletter?

Newsletters are vital to building strong relationships with your customers. In addition to this, newsletters help drive sales, boost your social media following and increase traffic to your website.

To achieve such benefits, your email newsletter must be done correctly.

A lot of newsletters can be described as being as dull as dirty dishwater. This is where this Newsletter Template Process steps in.

This Newsletter Template Process emphasizes the importance of the process to create an effective email newsletter.

As you work through this Newsletter Template Process, you will be presented with form fields, such as long text form fields and multiple-choice questions. You will be required to populate each form field with your own specific data.

Process Street provides more information on how to use each form field in the 'Enter Checklist Details' task.

As a manager, you will work through the pre-planning stage of this template, defining the newsletter's aim. You can then assign tasks associated with newsletter creation to the relevant team member using Process Street's role assignment feature.

Other features you will be presented with in this process include:

Stop tasks that ensure task order.
Conditional logic to create a dynamic template which caters to your specific needs.
Dynamic due date feature to adjust a task's due date.

Record checklist details

In this Newsletter Template Process, you will be presented with the following form fields, which you are required to populate with your own specific data. More information is provided for each form field via linkage to our help pages:

To begin the Newsletter Template Process, enter the required details into the form fields below.

This is a stop task, which means you cannot progress in this Newsletter Template Process until the required form fields are complete.

Full name

Business name

The beginning tasks of this Newsletter Template Process are to be completed by the relevant manager. The manager needs to be assigned using Process Street's role assignment feature.

Manager: Full name

The creation of the newsletter needs to be assigned to the relevant employee. Again, use Process Street's role assignment feature to assign these tasks.

Employee: Full name

You can set a due date for the completion of this newsletter using Process Street's dynamic due date feature below.

The final stage of this Newsletter Template Process will be due 24 hours before this date, and the relevant employee will be notified at this point in time.

The date for newsletter completion

Inform your subscribers:

Assess your subscriber landing page

The first step of this Newsletter Template Process is to make sure that your subscriber landing page informs your subscribers properly in regards to your newsletters.

Have a look at your subscriber landing page and examine this page. Check off each task in the subtask form field below.

1

Newsletter focus and potential content are communicated.
2

The frequency in which newsletters will be sent is communicated.

Pre-planning stage:

Create an email campaign

If the aim of your newsletter does not align with your business goals then you are better off creating an email campaign that is specific to such a goal.

In this, Process Street has your back. Check out Process Street's email campaign processes below.

Email Employee

You are presented with our email widget. Using this widget, you can email the relevant employee to notify them that the newsletter production task is ready to start.

Educate your readers

Your newsletter is providing information to your reader. For example, educating the subscriber about your product/service or the industry.

A small proportion of your newsletter should be dedicated to providing promotional content. You must make sure you also plan what promotional content to include.

You are presented with our subtask checklist. Tick off the task once it has been completed.

You are also provided with our file upload form field. You can upload this plan to this checklist for your records. Alternatively, you can use our website form field, and copy and paste the URL for online documents detailing this plan.

1

Plan what educational topics will be covered in your newsletter.
2

Plan what promotional topic will be covered in your newsletter.

Upload your newsletter content plan

1

Content is timely
2

Content is relevant

Make sure your newsletter content is 90% educational and 10% promotional so as to not put off your subscribers.

Segment your list

''Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like'' - Brian Chesky, co-founder of Airbnb

Segmenting your email subscriber list is a great way to ensure the emails you send are personal and thus targeted. As the quote states above, it is best to create personalized newsletters that your segmented subscriber lists love.

You can enter your email subscriber list in the short text form field provided.

Alternatively, you can upload this segmented list or provide the URL link to online documents using our file upload and website form fields respectively.

Segmented list

Upload segmented list

When you are creating an email subject line, you should know who you are writing to. This allows you to personalize each message and ensures your newsletters are not generic.

Gather your content:

Gather information

Once you have planned the topics of focus for your newsletter, you need to gather information to provide content for each of these topics.

Check off the subtasks below as you do this.

1

Gather information for your educational content.
2

Gather information for your promotional content.

Create a plan

Once you have gathered all the required information for your newsletter, the next stage would be to complete a newsletter plan in terms of content.

The drop-down menu utilizes our conditional logic feature. Selecting 'yes' or 'no' from this form field will direct you to the relevant step in this template.

1

Create a plan for your newsletter

Segmenting your subscriber list is a great way to provide personalized newsletters. Your subscriber list was previously personalized. Find ways to add a personalized message in the body of your email.

1

Identify how content could be personalized.

(1) Does your newsletter plan need reviewing?

Creating a plan is important for ensuring both the correct focus and direction of your newsletter. Plans help you clarify your ideas, choose a clear focus and put your ideas in order.

Provide feedback

Review the newsletter content plan and provide feedback.

Provide feedback 1

Implement feedback

Use this time to implement the feedback provided.

This is a stop task, you cannot progress with this template until all feedback has been implemented as required.

1

Implement feedback provided by team member

Feedback: {{form.Provide_feedback_1}}

Design your template:

Add in content:

Write your content

You have planned your content and obtained a newsletter template for your general layout. Next, you need to write the content of your newsletter.

1

Write body content

Once you have written the body of your newsletter, you must make sure to include a Call-To-Action.

Having lots of different Call-To-Actions reduces the effectiveness of each. It is best practice to have one main call-to-action and then any others are more ''in case you have time' actions.

Write your main call to action.

1

Add the call to action to your content.
2

Add additional, less important, call-to-actions.

Self-review content

Go through your written newsletter content and review this content.

Check off each task in the subtask form field below:

This is a stop task, you cannot progress in this checklist until all required tasks are complete.

1

Grammar and spelling checked
2

Performed multiple read-throughs to make sure the content reads well

Provide feedback

Review the newsletter content plan and provide feedback.

Provide feedback 2

Implement feedback

Use this time to implement the feedback provided.

This is a stop task, you cannot progress with this template until feedback has been implemented as required.

1

Implement feedback provided by team member

Feedback: {{form.Provide_feedback_2}}

Create an email subject line:

Start with a call-to-action

The next stage in creating your email newsletter's subject line is to define a call to action. The call to action can go at the subject line's start to spark action in the reader.

You can enter your chosen call to action in the short text form field provided.

Your call to action: {{form.Write_your_main_call_to_action.}}

1

Add your call-to-action to your email subject line.

Call to actions should make the reader want to 'click'. They should create a sense of urgency. For example, they can set a deadline by stating when an offer ends.

Consider the proven successful formulas

Many successful subject lines follow certain formulas. These forumlas are indicated below:

Question: Ask questions the recipients are likely to ask themselves, this will pique the subscriber's interest as they will want to know the answer.
Benefit: State the benefit of your newsletter in your subject line.
Social proof: Inform your recipients a celebrity or expert has endorsed a product or a feature.
Listing: Lists and numbers are more plausible. Human brains are more drawn to numbers.
Curiosity: Intrigue the recipients with a subject line that arouses their curiosity.
Announcement: Direct and straight to the point.
Discover: Use verbs like ‘discover’ so the subscribers discover a quick solution to their problem.
Big mistake: No one likes to be wrong, highlight to the recipient why they should do something.
The result: Directly state the results the recipient will get if they take a certain action.

Make the subject line personal

List segmentation helps to make your newsletters more personalized. You can personalize the subject line to increase the chance the email newsletter is opened. Add the recipients name or the company name to the subject line.

Define how you will work to make the subject line personal.

Emails that include the recipient's name are more likely to be opened than other emails.

Make it clear and brief

You may have thought up of a few different subject lines to use. You can perform A/B testing to determine which subject line works the best. You are presented with two short text form fields that will allow you to perform such testing.

Enter subject line A

Enter subject line B

Once you have entered the possible subject lines you could use, have a look at these subject lines to see if they contain the required features as follows:

Check off each task in the subtask form field.

1

The subject line contains keywords.
2

The subject line contains action verbs.
3

The subject line is kept within 50 characters.
4

Filler words are removed from the subject line.
5

Numbers are used as opposed to words, where relevant.

Just as your subject line should contain certain features, there are also features that your subject line should not contain.

Assess your subject line and make sure it doesn't contain the below features. Check off the tasks in the subtask form field below for confirmation that your subject line doesn't contain the specified feature.

1

False promises
2

Use of capital letters
3

Use of ''spammy'' words

''Spammy words'' are often commercial messages which readers will try to avoid. Find a full detailed list of 'spam' words to avoid here.

Add preview text

Pull a snippet of text from the body of your email and add this as preview text, which should be displayed under the sender's name.

Use our long text form field to define what preview text you will be using.

Define what preview test you will add

When you don't add preview text, text will be automatically pulled from your email. This could mess up your format and put off recipients. You can use preview text as an extension to generate further interest.

Make it easy for people to unsubscribe

Although this may seem counter-intuitive, if you want to maintain an active and engaged subscriber list then providing an option of subscribers to unsubscribe is key.