Focus on the basics

First, make certain that your email design focuses on the basics, not advanced items that may not display correctly on some email systems.  If you are only getting a small percentage of hits from your email newsletter templates, you may want to take a look at the basic html email design.  Is it cluttered?  Does it make use of best strategies and coding?  Is it focused around your marketing goals, or is it only loosely put together?

Create a plan, and stick to it!

This ties into item number two in the best email newsletter templates list: have a plan.  The greatest email template design in the world may not bring in more customers if you don’t have a marketing plan behind it.  Make a calendar of emails you plan to send out, and mark down things like important topics to cover and the goal of each email.

Don’t over send (aka spam)

Item three further expands on this plan.  Take a look at your calendar and see just how many emails you plan on sending out this year.  Ask yourself if each of these marketing emails is necessary.  Can you send fewer yet more relevant emails?  How many emails are too many?

Interact with your readers

Finally, work on making your emails a bit more social.  Cold emails that look like sales papers no longer get the attention of the average email reader.  You need to do something to make your emails personable.  Be sure that your unique voice comes through your marketing emails.  This doesn’t mean you should be completely informal, but don’t hesitate to let your personality show through.

For example, I needed to find a way to list information about upcoming events and specials in my emails while at the same time relaying some other important business news.  You want to be sure that you don’t immediately lead off with something that sounds like “hey, come and buy this.”  Instead, you want to make sure that the opening of your email marketing template starts off with some basic information about the company and what it is that you specialize in or do.  Then, you can weave the other aspects of what you are trying to sell into the email so that it does not seem like you are pushing yourself off on them too strongly.

One way that I have found to accomplish this is by having side bars where I can easily detail the important sales and upcoming events that are going to be taking place in the company while leaving the interior of the message open for the business introduction and greeting.  This way the html email design does not appear to be too cluttered or confusing, and your clientele will be able to browse through the information at their leisure.  Not only this, but since I have been using email newsletter templates I have heard back from several customers that believe this is a far more professional approach and they like the way that the information is relayed better than the standard email technique I used before.