Newsletter Design:

Make your newsletters look epic

Layout is the way in which the individual elements are arranged on the page or the screen; composition is the nature in which the single parts together make up a whole. The adage of the sum being greater than the parts is true here: your newsletter design should match your content, and your design elements should also create something bigger in unison.

What might ring of grandeur is quite simple when you apply it in practice. For every element you insert into your design, ask yourself the guiding question: does this serve a purpose other than looking fancy? For example, a change in background color can help divide your content into sections, but just switching colors for the sake of it is probably not a solid choice.

The following article in The Atlantic uses paragraphs of similar length to manage the expectations of their readers and create a uniform looking body of text in which other elements and types of content break up at regular intervals.

Other than enticing headlines, compelling covers draw the interest of your readers and make them want to read on or click through. This goes for both your article overview or front page as well as the cover image of individual posts in your newsletter.

The cover page for this NURSE.com edition presents its headline in front of a full-width image that encapsulates the theme of the newsletter, followed by featured content in an easy-to-navigate format.

Don’t forget the visual aspects of your newsletter encompass your text content as well. Paragraphs and headlines in themselves create an image that can be pleasing or straining on the eye. Pro newsletter design tip: Favor short headlines with explanatory subtitles Short headlines have the advantage that readers can process the information quicker while looking less like a divider or block between lines of text. If necessary, short headlines or long paragraphs can be supplemented with a subtitle or explanatory summary. Drop caps for the beginning or important paragraphs help to further guide the eye of the reader.

When to use columns in your newsletter design? While multiple columns can make an online newsletter harder to read, you can sparingly use a two-column layout to make individual paragraphs and elements stand out. From a technical perspective, you’ll be limited to desktop viewers only. For mobile, a flowing responsive design that adapts a single column of content to the respective screen is still the best approach. Pro newsletter design tip:

Double columns enrich your design - but make sure your content fits on a single screen But where you can fit two columns next to each other on a desktop screen, you can save screen real estate for a summary, for example, or have the explanation for a complex diagram, chart or image right next to the element in question.

White space defines the ratios and proportions of spacing elements, and it exists on a micro and macro level. You'll find micro white space between lines, paragraphs, grid images, menu items and even individual letters. Macro white space surrounds the entire layout and keeps larger elements such as whole content blocks apart. If your content elements are the stars, macro white space is the universe.

Healthcare: This industry emphasizes readability while portraying professional reliability. Dynamic, yet professional and strong - modern serif fonts that give the reader a sense of security such as Droid Serif and Arapey are paired with modern serifs like Overpass or Roboto. Refrain from using handwritten fonts and other fanciful scripts that are too playful to be taken seriously. However, modern healthcare and health-tech companies, as well as biotech startups, elect clean and modern sans serif fonts for bold statements and a fresh, forward-looking representation.

Banking and finance In this sector, you also want to convey the professionalism, security, and reliability of your brand and company. But because fintech is disrupting the industry, startups, as well as traditional banks, tend to go for modern fonts to convey that they're not old and stale. Montserrat, Futura, Overpass, and Arsenal are solid choices to project stability, reliability, and strength. Avoid rounded edges and playful font faces and choose fonts with personality. The highly readable DIN Pro and Asap for body text make a great pairing. Insurance Similarly to the preceding two, this sector requires fonts that speak of security, reliability and professionalism. Avenir, Brandon Grotesque, Calluna, Lato, Tiempos and Crimson are good font choices for an insurance newsletter.

Colors play a significant role in influencing our behavior and color psychology is an integral part of branding and marketing to affect feelings. The palette you choose for your newsletter design is a tool to help you attract, influence and retain your audience. The following are observations on color usage and palette pickings for newsletters in various industries:Healthcare Blue and green are natural colors that speak to the calmness, professionalism and reliability the healthcare and medical sectors want to convey. Screaming, flashy and gaudy colors are avoided to not scare customers off. Though brown and earthy tones might also seem natural, the healthcare industry associates lack of sophistication with it. Instead, complement blue and green tones with a balanced amount of shades of red and orange to add warmth, happiness, and optimism.

Banking and finance: This sector seeks to establish trust and invoke stability and reliability with toned-down colors like blue and white. While green is said to be the color of money, the association with nature is also strong and appears to be reserved for ethical or environmentally friendly banking.  Choose a primary color as a feature and pair it with a secondary color for contrast. Other than blue, black and red are common colors in banking and finance, adding ambition and security as well as power and passion to blue's sense of loyalty and trustworthiness. Passiveness, softness and lack of strength are avoided in this sector, so you'll hardly see pink, purple, or brown. Insurance This sector follows banking and finance, aiming for security and professionalism, success and wealth. Bold and slightly darkened blue and green tones represent insurance companies and products. A professional corporate image can be asserted with lots of white and hints of blue and green. Dominant colors with black and white speak of high value, with black representing luxury and class. Startups and more personal insurance agencies opt for vibrant shades and their modern look and cheerful confidence. Personal insurance companies with a broad audience tend to go for warm, welcoming colors and portray friendliness, enthusiasm and a human touch with red and orange. Academics and Education This sector traditionally focuses more on function than trends and doesn't change aesthetics and newsletter designs as frequently as other industries. As a rule of thumb, the age of students is a factor with warmer colors like red, orange, and yellow aimed at younger learners. Color colors such as blue and green are aimed at high school and higher students. Blue stands for sophistication, calm and professionalism and works well with science and math subjects. Yellow can lend a touch of creativity to languages and fine arts, whereas the balance of green is associated with counseling and social learning. In the range of orange and peach tones, you'll find palettes suitable for athletics and media. Retail and e-commerce: The online shopping experience is often marked by stand-out, vibrant colors that communicate your brand message loud and clear and create a positive impression and association. The number one rule is to not go against your established brand guidelines. Choice radiant and bright hues such as red, orange, yellow and green make great contrasting pairings with blue and black. Bold impressions are lasting in this sector and warm colors convey a dynamic, optimistic sense and speak of power and confidence. Gray, tones, and shades are commonly avoided in this industry to skirt the association with lack of confidence, dullness or pessimism. For a wider palette, you can combine a pure hue with white to create tints

Headlines

Likewise the pairing of cover or feature image and headline of an individual article constitutes a premise that raises expectations and stokes curiosity for your newsletter.

Pro newsletter design tip:

Come in strong with a bold and short headline So you’ll want to come in strong and grab the attention not only with a bold and short headline, but also a compelling cover. After that, deliver quickly and early on the promise of the premise: present the strongest argument, the most interesting content or the most fascinating visual element so as not to disappoint readers. Fulfilling this promise is the opposite of clickbait: your readers continue because they’re satisfied, not because you’ve left them hanging after you’ve lured them in.

The following factors contribute to the :

• Size: larger elements attract more attention
• Color: bright and flashy colors grab attention
• Contrast: the reader’s eyes drift toward contrasted colors
• Alignment: elements that break out of an array or fixed alignment stand out
• Repetition: readers perceive a relationship between content elements when styles or patterns are repeated
• Proximity: elements grouped closely together also appear related
• White space: space around elements helps them stand out

A quick way to lose your readers’ interest is to include irrelevant content. The best newsletters are not sales-driven; they are rich with fact-driven information and tell stories.

Beginning of a feature on : the first three lines in bold elaborate on the headline, followed by a visually striking first paragraph with a drop cap to draw the reader in.

To further set paragraphs or headers apart, you can use illustrations, icons, or an icon font. However, don’t overdo it as a lot of different small and stylized images can quickly overload your newsletter. This visual design element works well with only a few paragraphs per post.

If you plan on creating multiple newsletters, you and anyone else working on the publication will benefit from creating a style guide that addresses your newsletter design. Your brand guidelines should of course inform your style guide, both other than that, let the lessons you learned from your first newsletter issue form the foundation of your guide. Here are key aspects to consider for a newsletter style guide: which elements take precedence over others, be it in size, color, position or other highlight. Primary functions and messages should stand out without information of a lower hierarchy being lost. anything associated with your brand or corporate identity should be used consistently and appear in consistent places. Apart from the usage of brand colors, pay attention to background, stand-out colors, and styling for headlines, links, and other text elements. Record your palette or color pairings in your style guide. Decide whether you use a majority of photos, illustrations, or more technical visual content such as charts and diagrams. Be consistent in how you style images. Remember that legibility, readability, scannability, and navigation inform the use of typography and the visual aspects of fonts and text as well as their sizes and arrangement. Record your font pairings in your style guide. user interface elements should feature a consistent design as well, both in looks and functionality. This includes buttons, pagination, CTA styles as well as forms and lists.