Elements of a successful newsletter: 5 - The Design

This is the fifth in a series of posts about the elements of a successful newsletter. 

5. The Design

This is an overview of newsletter design. I'll go into more detail in later posts.

There are 2 key things to remember:

1) Your design should make your newsletter easy to read

2) Your design should reflect the brand -- the ethos -- of your business

Clearly, you want your design to contribute to getting your newsletter read. That means there should be no barriers between your design and the reader. Readers shouldn't have to squint to read  tiny text, it should be clear where articles start and end, your headlines should be big enough to look like headlines, and your pictures should be big enough to see what is actually in the picture.

Second, your design should reflect your business' brand.

Now, the word 'brand' is much used and overused...and sometimes people don't know what it means. Indeed, many small businesses don't consider branding at all.

Your brand is everything your business stands for. It's whether you are corporate or home-based, whether you are formal or informal, whether you are upscale or downscale, high-priced or low-priced. It's where you stand in the marketplace; it's your company's DNA.

So your newsletter design should reflect that. If your business is small and friendly, then make your design match -- don't make your newsletter look like a corporate publication. If your business is upscale, don't put out a newsletter full of mistakes that looks like it's been put together on the kitchen table. If appearances matter in what you do, then make your newsletter look fantastic also.

Those are the basics. I'll write more about the details of design in later posts.

(Photo on this post by asifthebes)