You’re trying to create an email newsletter that’s a true masterpiece. One that stands out in your recipient’s inbox like a queen bee, gets their undivided attention and makes them engage with you.
Did we guess that right?
Relax! We’re no psychics, nor do we have a brain chip to read your mind (not yet, at least 😉). We know all this because we know how you ended up here - in search of inspirational newsletter design examples.
The great news is that you landed in just the right place because this article lists 11 newsletter design examples that will instantly catch your attention and make you go wow.
But before we discuss the examples, let’s quickly run through what exactly is an email newsletter.
What Is an Email Newsletter?
An email newsletter is a periodically sent email containing news, updates, tips, etc., to keep your audience engaged and informed.
And the content, design, and time for sending your email newsletter depend on your goal and audience. Following are the most common types of email newsletters people receive and send.
7 Unique Types of Email Newsletters You Can Send
How your email recipient responds to your newsletter highly depends on what types of the newsletter you send them.
Imagine sending a newsletter about your company’s internal news to a customer. Your customer won’t just ignore it, chances are they might never open your emails in the future, thinking they are irrelevant.
So choose the following newsletter types wisely.
1. Organizational newsletters
This type of newsletter includes internal news related to your company and is sent only to your company’s staff.
The content of this type of newsletter features the milestones that your company has achieved, new job vacancies, company updates, wishes for anniversaries or birthdays, etc.
2. Consumer newsletters
This newsletter features news, updates, and milestones your company wants to share with its consumers, such as thank you notes for loyal customers, information about how the company’s customer base has changed, any upcoming store launches, etc.
3. Curated newsletters
A curated newsletter consists of popular and interesting industry-related content collected and assembled in one newsletter.
This type of newsletter engages your users with abundant information related to a specific topic that they are interested in. So, as a result, curated newsletters help you nurture relationships with customers and boost engagement.
4. Promotional newsletters
Promotional newsletters increase sales and promote your brand by featuring new or upgraded products or services for your customers to buy.
They also talk about promotional sales or discounted products and encourage impulsive buying. Currently, very few companies send promotional newsletters, but the ones that do totally vouch for their success.
5. Practical newsletters
This one is our personal favorite. Practical newsletters include tips and hacks on how to use your product or service.
For instance, if you’re a company that helps people build websites, your practical newsletter can contain useful information like X tips to improve your website’s performance or build a website in X steps.
6. Round-up newsletters
As the name suggests, this type of newsletter consists of monthly, weekly, or yearly round-ups. The aim is to give insight to your customers about everything that has happened in that particular time frame.
7. Seasonal newsletters
These newsletters are sent on special occasions such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc. And they feature special offers or products for that particular season or occasion.
For example, if you’re a card company, your seasonal newsletter will include cards or tips to create them for events like Mother’s Day or the Autumn season (depending on the event or season)
Quite a variety to choose from, right? So, ensure you understand your email's intent, know your audience, and pick the type of newsletter that best fits your email's goal.
Wait, we just talked about the types, but how will you create the best newsletter? Let’s discuss.
Components That Make Top-Notch Email Newsletters
Now that you know what an email newsletter is and what its types are, let’s talk about the basic components that make an email newsletter.
Catchy email header
The top of any email belongs to the header, so try to make it as catchy as possible. You absolutely must add your brand’s logo here, so readers immediately know who the email is by.
Whereas adding elements such as links to your website, menu bars, and social media icons is completely optional.
Conversion-worthy email copy
Then comes your email copy. This is the part that conveys your message and truly converts your audience. So, try keeping your email copy conversational and precise. And avoid using unnecessary jargon. Keep it simple; write your email as you’d talk to a friend.
Eye-catching visuals
Your newsletter’s design is going to decide the fate of its performance. After all, visuals speak louder than words.
Try to make your newsletter as visually captivating as possible by adding interactive elements in your email, such as GIFs, videos, or CSS animations, because interactive elements improve your email’s click-through rate by 200%.
The best way out will be to leverage pre-designed newsletter templates, like the ones we have at Unlayer. These newsletter templates will save you time and the cost of hiring a new designer or developer. Also, they’ll help improve your newsletter’s conversion like crazy.
Prominent and descriptive CTAs
Call To Action (CTA) buttons in your emails are the roadways to revenue. Ensure that you place them at a prominent spot and label the purpose on them clearly.
Informative footer
And don’t forget the footer AKA the final blocks of your email. You can add social media links, addresses, or legal disclaimers here. There’s a crucial reason you should always add the footer: it saves you from landing in the spam folder.
And these are all the essential elements that you need to create a newsletter. Now, let’s go through some inspirational designs.
11 Newsletter Design Examples That Made Our Eyes Pop
It’s time for us to talk about the real deal - the prettiest newsletter design examples in town.
Here’s the thing: we collected some of the most visually appealing and engagement-worthy newsletters design examples to inspire us. But then we thought, why not assemble them and share them with everyone?
So here we are, sharing them with all of you. Let’s look at these newsletters one by one.
1. Unlayer
Unlayer is a user-friendly and embeddable email and landing page builder that enables users to create well-designed and responsive email templates and landing pages.
In July (2022), Unlayer sent out the above-mentioned promotional newsletter to introduce their new feature, team collaboration. Needless to say, the design team has done a remarkable job, and the newsletter design speaks volumes.
This newsletter starts by giving a heads up about the email's content in the header, which has a navy blue background - the same as Unlayer’s brand color.
Then, in the next section, they introduced their new feature, team collaboration, as a GIF. And this section has a white background for contrast purposes and a cleaner look.
Just look at how incredible the GIF in this email looks. This GIF is followed by a detailed description of the feature and a prominent CTA.
We may be biased towards Unlayer, but even you’ll agree that this is one of the finest-looking promotional newsletters you’ve seen in a while. So, take notes.
2. The Radavist
The Radavist is a group of people who share their love for cycling. They basically talk about and feature everything related to cycling on their website.
They sent this amazing newsletter with their brand’s name prominently written on top because they know how important email branding is.
Beneath the email header, they shared a bike’s review and some bike-related accessories their readers can purchase.
We loved how they separated each section with a different background (either through images or colors), making it easy for readers to understand when a new piece of information is being introduced.
3. DocuSign
DocuSign is an e-signature technology.
They sent this simple-looking yet informational newsletter to help their subscribers understand what DocuSign is all about.
First, they introduced their technology in their email header. This is followed by a CTA that redirects the readers to a page that gives more information about DocuSign.
Beneath that, they added small paragraphs such as how to create forms, how verification ID work, etc. These instructions have a small written paragraph and a relatable picture alongside it.
Notice how they didn’t use many colors in their emails as they understood that too many colors could be distracting and take away attention from the email copy.
Keep this newsletter design in mind if you want to send a newsletter with a lot of important information.
4. Domino
Domino is a guide for stylish home accessories and furniture. So their newsletters mostly revolve around what's trending in that sphere and DIY tips their readers can benefit from.
This newsletter is one such example. On the top, they added an image of a cutter that’s made of wood but remarkably looks like marble. This image pops out against the white and baby pink background, giving it all the attention it deserves.
Beneath that, they included images of trendy house accessories, an influencer’s interview, tips to decorate small washrooms, and so on. We loved how they used a zig-zag pattern to share images, relatable information, and CTAs.
It looks quite neat and makes it easy to scan the information.
This newsletter was pretty enough to make us scroll up and down thrice, at least. So we’d totally recommend you to take inspiration from it.
5. Sketch
Sketch is a platform that enables all designers to find inspiration, tips, and tools to create their designs. Basically, it’s a hub for all budding and experienced designers.
They sent this captivating email newsletter that we couldn’t help engaging with. Their newsletter has its logo on a plain white background for contrast purposes. Beneath that, they include an image and texts telling the readers about their real-time collaboration with the Mac app.
The information is written against a white background so that the animated design gets all the attention it is worthy of.
Then they introduce a featured extension against a black background. As you can see, the dark background makes the features stand out perfectly.
And below that, there’s another section that includes tips for creating designs. We loved how they separated the different sections, making the newsletter look incredible.
6. It’s Nice That
It’s Nice That features all sorts of creative work on its website and social media platforms so people can find inspiration from amazing artwork.
This newsletter for daily round-up stole our hearts because of its bright and peppy colors. Plus, we love how they featured an illustrator’s interview, behind-the-scenes footage from events, and a quote of the day so neatly.
Also, we appreciate how they kept a touch of their branding color - purple - to make this newsletter more recognizable. It can easily catch an email recipient’s attention from a crowded inbox, can’t it?
7. Namecheap
Namecheap promises to deliver people the best domains. Well, we can’t comment on the “best” domains part, but we can admit that they sent us one of the best email newsletters we’ve seen.
They used a minimalist email design and did complete justice to it. This newsletter consists of a list of blogs. Each blog in the list has a relatable icon and a CTA button against it.
Also, we couldn’t ignore the cute little animation of a hedgehog in the email header, which is a branding element that Namecheap uses on their website and emails.
It’s amazing to see designs that meet their purpose without trying too hard, just like this one.
8. Canva
Canva is a design tool that has made its mark in this competitive world of design tools. And their email newsletters are just as amazing as Canva is itself.
This newsletter gives tips and tricks to readers for creating celebration cards with Canva. They gave a very brief introduction to what the email is about at the start. This is followed by a section with tips for creating cards with Canva.
Notice how Canva used its brand colors in the CTAs. This is the kind of attention to detail we love to see in designs.
9. Webflow
Webflow is a renowned name in the world of website builders. They sent this newsletter to announce their collaboration with Lottie for After Effects.
We admire how they used an exclusive color palette for this campaign. It added a unique identity to the campaign, which is also reflected throughout this newsletter.
This announcement newsletter has Webflow’s logo at the top, followed by an image, content, and a CTA. Every one of these elements refers back to the announcement.
10. Figma
Like we said earlier, peppy color themes and us = a match made in heaven.
Figma is another tool that has enabled designers across the globe to create jaw-dropping designs.
They sent this vibrant newsletter to introduce their new features and updates. This newsletter has the most attractive email header we’ve seen in a while, perfect for grasping anyone’s attention.
They wrote a little paragraph below the gorgeous email header to explain what this newsletter is all about. This paragraph is followed by a list of new features and updates, each accompanied by a relatable icon.
Lastly, at the bottom, there’s a prominent CTA button that gives a recap of everything.
We really enjoyed viewing this email, just like your newsletter recipients should enjoy viewing yours. So, take inspiration from this masterpiece to create something truly delightful.
11. Zeus Jones
Pause for a moment and answer this. At first glance, doesn’t this newsletter email design look like a galaxy with tiny stars and planets?
Well, that’s how Zeus Jones represents itself.
This newsletter design perfectly replicates their website’s design, making their newsletter easily recognizable in whatever inbox it lands in.
Also, we love how they introduced Zeus Jones in this newsletter. And regardless of the fact that the content was too much to read, it looks quite presentable here against the dark background. So, it's safe to say that they mastered the art of adding appropriate background colors to emails.
And these are our stars for the moment. We hope you got all the ideas, inspirations, and tips you needed. Speaking of tips, we have listed five useful tips below that’ll make your newsletter outperform all others.
5 Fruitful Tips to Design Ravishing Newsletters
We know, now you’re bouncing off the walls because multiple ideas are hitting you. But wait, before you start designing your newsletter, understand the following tips and try to incorporate them into your newsletter campaign.
1. Personalize your emails
It’s 2022, and you're not in the game if you haven’t personalized your email newsletter. After all, 55% of email marketers have made email personalization their priority, and so should you.
You can personalize your newsletter by choosing the right colors for your recipients. For example, if you’re sending email newsletters on Mother’s Day to all females, you can choose pink or purple colors in your newsletter.
2. Write important information above the fold
Don’t forget to include the most important information (such as percentage of promotion or name of a new feature) above the fold.
3. Select an appropriate layout
Layouts play a significant role in how your recipients perceive information. So, choose a layout that suits your audience and the goals of your email and is easily scannable.
4. Ensure responsiveness of the newsletter
If you’re using Unlayer’s pre-designed email templates, you don’t need to worry about this. Otherwise, ensure that your newsletters are responsive on all devices.
5. Don't use loud colors
Avoid using loud colors as they can make your newsletters land in the spam folder.
If you want to use loud colors, try to keep a balance between loud and neutral ones, just like some of the newsletter examples mentioned above did.
Conclusion
And with that, it's a wrap. We hope you enjoyed viewing these amazing newsletter design examples. Now it’s time for you to create a gorgeous newsletter, and we’re certain you’ll nail it.
Cheers!
