Publisher Premium Email Newsletter Templates and Digital Delivery
Selecting a perfect email template is just one step in updating or starting a email list to communicate with your audience. And there’s a number of options to consider to maximize the impact of your beautiful inbox presentation.
Email newsletters are critical tools for groups, organizations, and publishers
An important element of any publisher brand experience is the weekly communication with subscriber audiences via the newsletter. Just a decade ago the terms “online newsletter,” “email newsletter,” and “e-newsletter” defined the digital newsletter delivery; whereas today the newsletter is more often assumed to be digital than print. An email newsletter is often the weekly lifeline to the list of subscribers, members, and opt-in participants who most want to stay engaged with the niche brand.
The importance of email communication to your audience - beyond news, email maintains the storytelling experience for magazine, association, and corporate publishing initiatives
While some organizations still perform the work to layout a monthly print newsletter, the digital newsletter (and digital magazine) are the modern format for effective ongoing audience communication today. Many organizations have continued to maintain printed newsletters as they add digital options and watched the transfer in audience move from print to digital over time. Ultimately the progression and default newsletter delivery will be to digital formats and printed editions will be utilized for novelty, special purpose, and on location physical event handouts. I understand the arguments for keeping the print version of a newsletter publication active – quality paper, ink, something to hold or write upon and familiarity to an older audience in this medium. However, the modern publisher email newsletter design and distribution model changes dramatically when the print layout workflow can be optimized for time and cost in a digital workflow. And quick delivery and access to content on any device (in a world where every person has a mobile device near them all day) is the user experience for our current and future audiences.
Our Featured Solution VERTIQUL by Advontemedia – Full service premium newsletter editions. The agency handles every newsletter digital issue design and sending! You just send the the editorial content. Use the learn more button below for more information. View examples at vertiqul.com
Why weekly email newsletter frequency is typically best
Update: Premium Digital Newsletters – Beyond Template
Visit our new Publish Digital site for full service digital newsletter design solutions.
Email newsletters for organizations, publications, and special interest groups are important because they keep a continuous relationship alive with audience. While a monthly or quarterly newsletter may be easier for publishers to produce, it means that you are on the audience’s mind far fewer times than would be achieved with a weekly fixed communication schedule combined with social media engagement. Even if the content load of the weekly newsletter is slightly higher, it’s best to keep the most relevant items in front of niche audiences. Publishers which plan to receive newsletter sponsorships or advertising, the higher frequency is also much more valuable to those helping to cover your costs. Keeping a visual anchor to the email improves the conversion of the recipient to go and read the full edition of the responsive newsletter online.
Plan a content strategy that allows an anchor content item to be the cornerstone of your ongoing weekly storytelling experience and then add in the smaller news or information that proves to your audience you are timely and relevant to their interests. The newsletter can then begin the engagement dialog and provide links to social media platforms or the website for comments and interaction on the newsletter.
The newsletter email redesign every year and creative changes each send
A regular email newsletter redesign confirms both the functional improvements for the email code and email client / browser compatibility. And the aesthetics of a better designed newsletter ad value to the perception of the sending publisher.
I recommend that you keep the newsletter design simple. Most email campaign platforms already contain a simple email design tool. And for a custom enewsletter designs, all platforms will allow you to import your own html design. One of the best ways to make your newsletter readable is to use modern templates where a newsletter design firm has already given thought to the user experience (ux) presentation and proper code for functional delivery requirements.
Give each newsletter design a featured content element that carries the lead story. In most cases, your newsletter is the gateway communication to the full story on the website. Think about your weekly inbox email as a postcard about your weekly news.
Any while the annual email redesign changes the overall layout and sections, each individual sent should feel slightly different than the previous email. Using a postcard style anchor image the feel often changes based on the hero image utilized. Plus the newsletter designer can make layout adjustments or vary the blocks in the email creative to give it a custom design look from week to week.
Email Newsletter Template Options
Here’s a quick start look at all the high quality layout and templating options available for creating a newsletter base foundation for your in-house or freelance newsletter designer. Many options exist for quick start tools for business or organization based email themes.
Mentioned in the video is the growing number of email builder tools. These live theme builder platforms enable you to drag and drop newsletter sections into a view and adjust for desktop, tablet, and mobile viewports of the email creative. Typography, colors, buttons, and background images are easily placed on the layout rows with the drag and drop visual newsletter template builders.
Once completed, the user downloads their HTML code and assets after entering in a purchase license. Note: If you see that the email template builder agency is hosting fonts or any other asset for the email you’ve created, be sure to save those files and change the url so they are hosted with your own email assets. You don’t want your email to break or not work if the template tool site changes or is no longer hosting fonts or other background files in your email.
While a visual email build tool is easy to use, you’ve still got to host the online versions of the newsletters and use a send delivery platform where you’ll place the template code. If you hire a newsletter designer or use a premium newsletter editions platform, these pros will have the skills to handle the additional details such as:
- Selecting a delivery platform solution (vendors listed below)
- Replicating a “view online” newsletter view and archives
- Crafting a workflow for news and content updates for future sends
- Configuration of the newsletter branding and website opt-in for the email list
Email Template Testing for Platform Deliverability
Testing for deliverability is a great idea for testing that new email template. Of course, your email content will also have an impact on how different email providers may handle your send. This type of advanced tool can also help identify other issues like SPF and DKIM problems. Litmus is a popular provider of email design and marketing tools for this analysis. In addition to using the platform directly, we also use a tool called Inbox Preview by Mailchimp that’s powered by Litmus. This allows our design team to test new email creative designs for deliverability each time we perform a newsletter layout redesign. An alternative newsletter test tools is Email on Acid.
From $55 per month, the email testing tool previews your newsletter design in over 50 email clients and mobile views to confirm perfect display for the user email client inbox presentation.
Email Newsletter Platforms and Tools
The following email newsletter sending platform solutions show the wide range of options available today!
Embed tools for your subscriber lists
Tip: If you’ll be collecting opt-in subscribers, also check out what embed options work for your existing CMS to make it easy to add new subscribers to your list. Often, a minimal UX design approach will be available from the vendor code embed script for your website or member list page. If you choose a raw code option, you’ll need to also style and design the opt-in form using inline css or with changes to your website style sheet.
Newsletter GDPR Compliance
- What is it: GDPR (The EU General Data Protection Regulation ) The aim of the GDPR is to protect all EU citizens from privacy and data breaches in an increasingly data-driven world.
- Who does it effect: The GDPR not only applies to organizations located within the EU but it will also apply to organizations located outside of the EU if they offer goods or services to, or monitor the behavior of, EU data subjects.
- When: Compliance requirement started May 25, 2018
Full details: For any terms and conditions changes, we ask that you reference https://www.eugdpr.org/ and provide us with any specific changes.
GDPR seeks to make it clear to users of your website that they are providing data to your company. Publishers should advise visitors in their public website policy terms, transparency about how that data is handled and how it may be handled or shared in the future.
Many email delivery tools have augmented their list opt-in to make sure their clients are getting proper approvals and can provide suggested text. The email newsletter form should have a checkbox (not pre-checked) that states that the user agrees that they are providing their contact information and understand they may opt-out and provides a link to terms which detail how information is handled and secured – including information of third party platforms who may access this data.
Programmatic and campaign email options
While many email platforms can handle campaign sending and segmentation of lists for reaching niche audiences or even follow up marketing sends to people that may have not opened the original campaign email, another email option from some vendors are transactional 1-to-1 emails sent out programmatically. These are often integrated into a e-commerce application use case or based on other actions a consumer has taken. Email campaign capabilities are also now popular for sales force automation and business development purposes. Consider your growth needs when choosing the core email sending delivery service.
Association AMS email integration
Association membership newsletters may draw content from an existing membership association management solution. These tools have produced very programmatic and data heavy emails historically. Today, these emails can even become truncated within the inbox by web based clients saving the user from such a large inbound delivery. This is another reason that keeping the full email edition on the association website or in a specific digital archive is better long term and also help keep the email notification simple. Segmentation sends can then be performed to members who never clicked to read the email instead of assuming that the email open meant the content was seen. Plus, having an html or responsive newsletter edition on the organization or publication website means that if alternative vendors are used in the future, there’s no migration. Also, keeping members on your own website to read or share the newsletter edition is visually better when the member shares the public content. And if it’s a member only newsletter, the edition can be hosted on a private URL or secured by member login.
Popular Email Campaign Send Platforms
We prepared a list of some traditional and new solutions for email delivery and provided their own self described information to aid in selecting vendors to check out.
| Solution A-Z | Location | Vendor Description | Platform Bio Page |
| Premium Solution vertiqul.com |
Murrieta, CA USA | A premium email editions solution for publications, newsletters, and brochures. | The newsletter that anyone can ready on any device – beautiful presentation. Pair this with any send platform vendor. |
| AWeber www.aweber.com/ |
Chalfont, PA USA | Looking for affordable and easy to use email marketing and autoresponder tools? Click here to start your free email marketing trial with AWeber. | AWeber is an email marketing platform that allows 100,000+ small businesses and entrepreneurs to create and send emails people love |
| Benchmark Email www.benchmarkemail.com |
Los Alamitos, CA USA | Online email marketing solution to engage subscribers, target an audience, send beautiful, responsive emails and track results. | Benchmark Email offers an integrated, automated and robust feature set built to help the enterprise of any size. |
| BombBomb bombbomb.com |
Colorado Springs, CO USA | Simple videos get you face to face with more people more often. Easily record and send video email from Gmail, mobile, or web. | BombBomb makes it easy to build relationships through email, text, and social media. |
| Campaign Monitor www.campaignmonitor.com |
San Francisco, CA USA | Campaign Monitor makes it easy for you to create, send, and optimize your email marketing campaigns. | Simple, powerful email marketing and automation that helps growing businesses. We deliver technology that solves complex problems in a beautifully uncomplicated way. |
| Campayn www.campayn.com |
Toronto, Ontario CANADA | Campayn makes email design a snap. You will have access to dozens of free email templates, and they are all made to be responsive and fit for any device. | The easy and affordable way to build better emails |
| Constant Contact www.constantcontact.com |
Waltham, MA USA | With Constant Contact, you can create effective email marketing and other online marketing campaigns to meet your business goals. | Email marketing, Mobile Marketing and Marketing Automation Software to Capture, Automate, Communicate, Analyse and Generate more Sales. |
| E-goi www.e-goi.com |
Matosinhos PORTUGAL | Email marketing, Mobile Marketing and Marketing Automation Software to Capture, Automate, Communicate, Analyse and Generate more Sales. | Manage your contact lists: Import, remove and add contacts, create forms to grow your database and create campaigns using the free and ready to use templates or with our super simple editor! |
| Emma myemma.com |
Nashville, TN USA | Emma is an email marketing platform that helps over 15,000 brands plan, design, and optimize targeted emails. | Emma’s digital marketing platform makes it easy to create beautifully designed emails that drive results. |
| FreshMail freshmail.com |
London EC2V 7RS, UK | Access your FreshMail account from anywhere. Your files and data, as well as FreshMails tools, are secure in a dedicated cloud and are always ready to meet | FreshMail’s mission is to provide the most user-friendly solution for building relations between brand and customer. |
| GetResponse www.getresponse.com |
Boston MA USA | Email marketing from GetResponse. Send email newsletters, campaigns, online surveys and follow-up autoresponders. | More than 350,000 customers in 182 countries trust GetResponse, the world’s easiest email marketing platform, now available in 21 different languages. |
| iContact www.icontact.com |
Morrisville, North Carolina USA | Easy email marketing for beginners and pros. Create effective campaigns and segment subscribers with iContact’s award-winning software! | Since 2003, small and medium businesses worldwide have achieved significant results by turning to iContact’s best-in-class automation and email marketing solutions and knowledgeable team members. |
| Infusionsoft www.infusionsoft.com |
Chandler, Arizona USA | Use Infusionsoft to automate your small business sales and marketing, while combining your CRM, email marketing, lead capture and e-commerce in one place. | Unlike other software companies, we are solely focused on small business. We accelerate small business growth with technology, sales and marketing strategy, and a community of industry leaders, business owners, coaches, and consultants. |
| Mad Mimi madmimi.com |
Scottsdale, AZ USA | Mad Mimi makes it simple to send HTML email newsletters, grow your subscribers and manage your email list. Sign up for a free email marketing account today! | Originally, we didn’t set out to create an unusually good email marketing company. We had simply set out to create an unusually good email. We needed something stylish, simple and easy to make, to promote our little music company. |
| MailChimp mailchimp.com |
Atlanta, GA USA | MailChimp provides marketing automation for e-commerce businesses. Send beautiful emails, connect your e-commerce store, advertise, and build your brand | Mailchimp by The Rocket Science Group – We democratize technology for small businesses, creating innovative products that empower our customers to grow. |
| Mailigen mailigen.com |
New York City, NY USA | Create, deliver and track emails for desktop & mobile. Email marketing automation. 24/7 Customer Service. | We wanted to create a platform that would help people connect digitally, but just like any entrepreneur, we fell down and got back up many times before Mailigen even managed to take its first steps. |
| Mailjet www.mailjet.com |
Location not found/listed | Deliver marketing and transactional email in one account to optimise your customer’s email experience. | Mailjet is an easy-to-use all-in-one e-mail platform. With our transactional and marketing e-mail solution, it’s never been easier to get your emails into the inbox! Mailjet is Europe’s leading e-mail solution, with over 100,000 customers in 150 countries. |
| MailUp www.mailup.com |
San Francisco CA USA | MailUp is your complete email and SMS delivery solution that combines powerful email marketing tools with SMTP relay and plugins for e-commerce, CRM, and CMS systems | Advanced Marketing Automation features, bespoke consultancy, training resources and solid expertise. MailUp offers you and your company everything you need to shape effective Email & SMS Marketing strategies. |
| Sendicate sendicate.net |
Location not found/listed | Sendicate is an email app that brings together simplicity and design to simply send emails to people who matter. | Sendicate is an email app that brings together simplicity and design to simply send emails to people who matter. |
| SendinBlue sendloop.com |
Location not found/listed | Join over 50,000 companies on the most easy-to-use all-in-one email marketing, SMS, transactional email (SMTP), and marketing automation platform. | SendinBlue was built for you! Our humble beginnings as a digital agency opened our eyes to the needs of growing businesses: marketers need tools that can efficiently scale as they mature. |
| Sendloop sendloop.com |
156 2nd Street, San Francisco 94105 California, United States | Build a long-lasting communication with your customers. Marketing automation and email marketing are the two most powerful channels. | With more than 19 years of experience in email marketing industry, Sendloop is serving to more than 36,000 customers in 180 countries… |
| Sign-Up.to www.signupto.com |
St Andrew’s House, West Street, Woking, GU21 6EB | Email marketing software and services. Marketing automation, SMS, social media and more. Award-winning support and services. | We’re 100% dedicated to e-marketing. We believe that dedication brings focus. As our customer you’ll benefit from the undivided focus and attention to detail which results from having |
| Sendy sendy.co |
Location not found/listed | A self hosted newsletter application that lets you send trackable emails via Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) at 100x cheaper than other hosted solutions. | Sendy is a self hosted email newsletter application that lets you send trackable emails via Amazon Simple Email Service (SES). This makes it possible for you to send authenticated bulk emails at an insanely low price without sacrificing deliverability. |
| Sendwithus sendwithus.com |
San Francisco, CA USA | Take control of your transactional email. sendwithus is the missing tool for marketers to manage and optimize transactional emails. | Sendwithus is a cloud-based communications management platform that enables organizations to maximize their email potential. |
| SendPulse sendpulse.com |
New York, NY USA | Hundreds of our clients tested that email + web push increase email open rate by 30%. With Artificial Intelligence technology SendPulse will increase these numbers even more. | SendPulse is a fast, intuitive, and affordable way to send emails, sms, web push, and smtp email that will help you grow your business and increase brand awareness. |
| SendGrid sendgrid.com |
Denver, CO USA | Delivering your transactional and marketing emails through the world’s largest cloud-based email delivery platform. Send with confidence. | SendGrid developed an industry-disrupting, cloud-based email service to solve the challenges of reliably delivering emails on behalf of growing companies. |
| VerticalResponse www.verticalresponse.com |
San Francisco, CA United States | Email Marketing by VerticalResponse makes it easy to send email newsletters, offers, invitations and autoresponders to grow your business. It’s free! | VerticalResponse, a subsidiary of Deluxe Corporation, helps you grow your business and connect with your customers wherever they are. Our full suite of online tools lets you do all your marketing – email, social media, mobile and more – easily from one account. |
| Vision6 www.vision6.com.au |
Fortitude Valley Queensland, Australia | Email marketing, social media marketing & SMS marketing software. Create messages for emails, sms & amp; social media, manage leads and contacts. Learn more here | Vision6 is a provider of email and SMS marketing software designed especially for marketing and agency professionals. |
Premium Email Newsletter Editions Solutions
For in-house publishing teams with graphic designers and newsletter themers who can code the HTML5 it’s worth the effort to create a responsive template that the marketing professionals can use each week as they develop content. An online vertical scroll newsletter edition provides the ability to present more content uncluttered to audience clicking the postcard style email in their inbox.
Upgrade the newsletter to a “weekly edition” or periodic “digital magazine”
Another look at the vertical, scrollable, premium newsletter service by VERTIQUL where the publisher team provides the content for each weekly or monthly newsletter edition and in several days you are sent a preview version for approval. This is a full service platform solution with advertising and revenue capabilities when the newsletter contains and sponsor or advertising and is included in the publisher media kit.
The email is still initiated by email using any of the popular email newsletter vendors and the postcard style inbox email launches the full newsletter edition on any device. The full newsletter edition is then positioned as a weekly or monthly edition with more sections and advertising sponsor capabilities.
New setups or publishers that love their existing tool can use premium newsletter editions since the designed newsletters are fully hosted on your own sub domains and it’s only the notification email sent through the send platform.
As you can see, there’s more to choosing a email solution than just the template. But this overview provides you the best practice methods of getting started and also exposes a full service option if you want everything done in a completely hosted service.