It all starts with usability.
For an email newsletter to be effective it must first be engaging. The reader must be able to quickly scan the contents for topics of interest. Information should be presented in easy-to-skim ‘chunks’ with headlines that are both descriptive and succinct. Create an expectation with your headline and deliver on that expectation in your content. The layout of the newsletter should contain sufficient ‘white space’ between the different news items so as to not overwhelm your reader with too much informational density. It should be easy to tell at a glance what is worth reading and what is not. The use of all-uppercase formatting should be avoided. An Austin State (Texas) University study showed that the use of all caps may affect a reader’s willingness to open the email.

Make it easy to unsubscribe.
Realize that some subscribers will inevitably decide they no longer wish to receive your email newsletters. If there is not an immediate and obvious way to unsubscribe, many users will simply flag the email as spam, thereby increasing the likelihood of you getting blacklisted by your ISP. It’s better to lose a subscriber than to lose an entire subscriber base by losing the privilege of  being able to deliver your email newsletters.

If you’ve succeeded in creating a well designed, scannable layout, then there’s only one thing left to do: provide useful and interesting content. This is where it can get tricky as not everyone is a born writer. Remember, there are plenty of publishers offering the exact same information. What sets them apart is their ability to offer an insightful perspective, a way of looking at things that might otherwise be overlooked. Pre-digest the tedious or complicated information and offer a Cliff’s Notes version. You want to make your reader think, but not too hard. Don’t be afraid to let a little of your personality shine through in what you’re writing–people relate to other people more than they relate to abstract concepts.

In closing, giving your reader a sense for who you are and what you believe makes you more tangible, more than just an impersonal voice on the other end of an internet connection. And be sincere. Write in a manner that reflects your actual style of communication. It’s as easy as 1-2-3!