Interactive Email Newsletter: How To Write it

The idea behind an interactive email newsletter is to increase your sales and create an inflow of money. This can be through a blog or an eCommerce business. But, it does not go through normal marketing techniques for newsletters. An interactive email’s purpose is to entertain your readers while also encouraging them to fulfil the call to action.

There are so many different forms of interactive content to include in your emails. You can go with a GIF or a quiz. Some businesses choose to post an illustration or may put up a countdown timer. Choosing the best element depends on the niche of your business. Once you identify your niche market you can get a better idea of the kind of content you should use in your emails.

In pochi punti:

1 What Is Interactive Email Newsletter?
2 Benefits And Importance
3 How To Create Interactive Email Newsletter
4 Pros And Cons
5 Top 4 Strategies To Create Interactive Email Newsletter
6 Tips
7 Best Practices
8 Top 4 Interactive Email Newsletter Examples
9 In Conclusion

An interactive email newsletter is an email that contains features that allow a reader to interact with the content. This could include anything that allows the user to have a larger understanding of your content. An interactive newsletter contains features that require a customer to actively participate or engage. Only through this can they fully experience the content that is offered to them.

Some forms of interaction in the email could be by placing the cursor over a picture or clicking on a link. They may also need to tap or swipe to interact with the different content available in the newsletter. Besides that, you could also ask the user to fill out a form or rate their experience. The goal of an interactive email is to create an environment that encourages positive feelings towards your content. It also allows you to go far beyond the occasional image and straight text that you see in normal newsletters.

Besides that, this type of newsletter concerns itself with encouraging an interactive experience. This can be done by adding a functional aspect to the content of the newsletter. Not only does this entertain the reader, but they become curious and invested in the content. This also creates a fun experience for your reader that causes them to view your brand in a positive light.

Benefits And Importance

If you aren’t convinced of the importance of an interactive email newsletter, then you should understand what you can do.

Showcase your new products and features. You can use an interactive email to talk about a new product that is coming out soon. Besides that, you can also tease a new feature that you have added to your business.

Make an announcement or tease an event. Another reason to use interactive emails is that it gives you the perfect platform to see how people will react to something different. You can also create a bit of anticipation and a buzz around your events.

Improve your engagement by email. Many times you may not have a specific cause or product that you can promote. But, you can also use the interactive element to better your metrics. If you want your subscribers to open or click through some content you can do so with interactivity.

There are various ways you can create interactivity in your email newsletter. There are a few elements that are great for an interactive email newsletter.

Animated CSS Button: CTAA CTA is a phrase or word designed to get an immediate response from the reader. As the name suggests, it's usually something that involves a precise action performed by... buttons are a significant element present in email newsletters. But, instead of just a simple button, you can also create an animated button. This button helps draw the user’s attention when they hover over it. It creates a form of entertainment and satisfaction for the user when they do click on the button.

Star Rating: Most businesses choose to add a survey invitation after a customer makes a purchase. There are various surveys that you can add to your email. But, the most popular and user-friendly one is the star rating. This allows the user to stay on the same page instead of being redirected. You should also create a “Thank You” page so the user knows you have received their rating. In addition, you can also have two sets of pages. One for a simple “Thank you” to those who gave you 4-5 stars. The other page can be for those who give you less than that. You can add a google form link. In this, the user can explain what went wrong.

Embedded Multiple Question Survey: If you want to add a longer survey, you can embed your quiz form into the newsletter. This helps to remove any added action for your reader. They can directly answer the quiz in the email.

Rollover Image Effect: Here is another great element to add to your interactivity. This element allows you to showcase different angles of your product. You can also show specific details with this effect. Besides that, you could have a game or snippets of products with this element.

Pros And Cons

Here are some pros to interactive email newsletters:

They help build brand awareness. A majority of marketers believe it to be effective to distinguish themselves from competitors.

Interactive email newsletters also engage an audience. This increases the time that these users dwell on your emails.

It also works like a call to action. A majority of readers will in turn generate leads due to interactive emails.

It even increases the ROI. Many B2B buyers pick visual and interactive email content rather than static.

Here are some cons to interactive email newsletters:

Creating codes for interactive emails is more difficult. Creating certain elements as fancy buttons or add-to-cart can be tricky to do.

Interactive emails may not be supported in all places. Many email clients don’t support interactive coding. It can be viewed the best on Apple devices.

You can’t measure interactive emails easily. Email marketing in general is not a channel that can be tracked easily. Though this might not be a big problem, it does create a turnoff for certain brands.

These emails can also delay or reduce your app and web interactions. The elements may disrupt a user’s experience as they may lead them to a different page.

Here are some of the top 4 strategies to create an interactive email newsletter.

Surveys: A survey is a great tool to bring interactivity into your email newsletter. Using this tool can help increase your response rates as well as your engagement. Besides that, it also helps you to gain feedback from your customers, thus creating value for them.

Infographics: Another great tool to increase your interactivity within emails are infographics. This kind of content works for various audience types. The reason for this is that the majority of people learn best through visuals. Thus infographics are the perfect way to communicate your message to your audience. It is also helpful for sharing information. You may also display your brand in a way that your competitors aren’t. Though it does take more time and effort, the result is worth it. You will see a change in your conversion and engagement rates.

Calculators: Here is another form of content that works great for service-based brands. For instance, if a brand helps clients to make a return on an investment or save money, then a calculator is a good option. You can easily customise a calculator. Besides that, you can call your users to put in their own numbers for answers. This tool also helps your brand to generate leads as people prefer problem-solving tools.

Games: Last but not least is the most entertaining tool you can go for i.e. Games. Using games in your interactive email newsletter gives you chance to communicate your marketing messages with your audience. These can be through quizzes, GIFs, image carousels and so on. You can also have a fun “would you rather” quiz with links to different landing pages.

Tips

Try to keep the interactive elements on your email limited. You shouldn’t overdo these elements as they can disturb your user’s attention span.

Try to experiment with your strategies. There is no surefire way to work with interactive email newsletters. You can be flexible as you begin and test out different techniques.

Keep your interactive email newsletter content accessible. You can have alt text for every GIF, image and other interactive elements. Besides that, you should use colours that have good contrast. You should also create your email thinking about the feature of “Dark Mode”.

Best Practices

Here are some of the best practices and interactive content ideas that can boost your conversions and sales.

Allure your audience with great-quality visuals and guides. It is very important for you to have high-quality images and videos. Pictures help your audience to relate more and keep them invested in your content.

Bring a personal touch to these emails. Besides that, you should make sure that you address your email with their first name. You can also personalise your emails to your audience.
Create a variety of interactive content in your email newsletters. You can have surveys, checklists, calculators, infographics, games, eBooks, videos and scratch cards.

Make use of animation to keep your users’ attention. You can have GIFs or an animated button or logo. This creates a few movements that can keep a user entertained.

If you’re not convinced yet, these are some fabulous examples of interactive email newsletters.

Bose: First on this list is this interesting interactive email newsletter by Bose. This newsletter promotes a sale on Black Friday. They do this without actually showing the message. To do this they use an interactive scratch card which intrigues users.

The Daily Carnage: This is a great example of a daily newsletter. They cover every topic with regard to marketing. An interesting element is their questions of the day that can relate to your topic. You can also see how other users answer the question.

Sephora: You can see an excellent example with Sephora’s interactive email newsletter. They have created a fun quiz with regard to product recommendations. You can answer certain questions and then the tool narrows down some good options for the customer to choose from.

Hatchbuck: This last example shows how you can use fun videos to engage your audience. They could be informative guides or just a simple greeting or introduction video. You should keep your videos short as the file can get too heavy.

In Conclusion

An interactive email newsletter is one that includes features that allow the recipient to interact with the content. This could include anything that helps the user understand your content better. A customer must actively participate or engage in order to receive an interactive newsletter. Only in this way will they be able to fully appreciate the content that is presented to them.

There are numerous types of interactive content that you can include in your emails. You can use a GIF or a quiz. Some businesses may choose to display an illustration or a countdown timer. Choosing the best element is determined by your company’s niche. Once you’ve identified your niche market, you’ll have a better idea of what kind of content to include in your emails. The basic idea is that interactive newsletters go far beyond the occasional image and straight text that you see in normal newsletters.

What are some interesting interactive email newsletters that you have seen? How do you bring interactivity to your emails? Let us know in the comments below.