Author: Kara McCartney

As a small business owner, what’s the most valuable marketing tool at your disposal? According to the Content Marketing Institute, the overwhelming majority (81%) of marketers believe it’s email newsletters.

Email newsletters are a great way to stay top-of-mind with new and potential customers. Since it can take up to eight touch points (i.e., eight pieces of content) to make a sale, newsletters keep your target audience engaged until they’re primed to buy. With an email newsletter, you can share a variety of topics with your list, including new product lines, upcoming events, new internal hires, company expansions or store openings, and industry updates.

Every small business owner knows the dreaded feeling of laboring over an email campaign, going through multiple rounds of edits, and firing it off to your list of subscribers — only to hear crickets.

The above scenario is a tough yet necessary reminder of the hard truth of email marketing: Just because you send it doesn’t mean your audience will care. Maintaining (and hopefully increasing) email engagement is a battle every business owner must face. But if you combine human psychology, the right email automation platform, and A/B testing, you can draft campaigns your audience wants to read.

What transforms a good email into a great one? It’s not just about choosing a pretty template or selecting the most trendy background colors. Instead, a well-designed email doubles as an effective email — one that boosts conversions and creates a positive user experience (UX) for the recipient.

Email design best practices extend beyond the realm of brand colors, typography, or imagery. Impactful design combines well-outlined body copy, a sectioned layout, and a clear call-to-action (CTA). Lastly, a well-designed email message is one that’s backed by data; meaning, it’s not effective if it doesn’t increase sales for your company.

If you want to grow your email list and secure more sales, you need to keep a close eye on subscriber engagement. By paying attention to email marketing analytics, you can do just that.

Email is one of the most profitable marketing channels at your disposal. Research shows that email results in a 4200% ROI (return on investment), earning you $42 for every $1 spent. In fact, when it came to email marketing last year, the vast majority (81%) of content marketers agreed that their most powerful tool was email newsletters, while over half (57%) of small businesses owners planned to increase spending.

How long should an email newsletter be? How many pixels wide should you make your header image? Below, we answer all your lingering questions surrounding email newsletter size.

Launching an email campaign requires effective copywriting, on-brand design, and the right functionality. Size plays into all three factors: your copy needs to be short and snappy, your design requires a positive user experience, and a well-functioning email (with a high deliverability rate, no less) relies on the correct size of each design element.

Want to capture readers’ attention with your latest email campaign? You’ve got 10 seconds.

Research by Statista states the average person spent 10 seconds reading a single email in 2021 — a stat that’s rarely budged over the past 10 years. In 2011, individuals spent 10.4 seconds reading emails, and in 2018 people dedicated a 10-year high of 13.4 seconds to each message.