How Long Should a Newsletter Be to Keep Subscribers Engaged?
In 2016, Boomerang analyzed 40 million emails to determine the factors leading to better conversion rates. Emails with 75-100 words were found to have a 51% email response rate.
In the same study, the response rates drastically dropped to 48% for emails with 200 words and more. Longer emails can overwhelm readers, while shorter emails might not let your core message shine.
Email length can further vary, especially for email newsletters. So, how long should a newsletter be?
The answer depends on a variety of factors including your marketing goals, subscriber preferences, and industry.
In this guide, we’ll explore the right email length for different types of email newsletters, learn the best practices, and find the right optimization methods for capturing and maintaining reader attention.
Factors to Consider When Determining Newsletter Length
To determine the right newsletter length, understand your audiences’ goals and interests, type of email content, and timing.
In addition, consider the following factors in the table below.
| Factor | Aspect to consider |
|---|---|
| Audience preferences | ‣ Understand their attention span ‣ Their content consumption habits |
| Content purpose | ‣ Consider the type of content and its purpose ‣ Determine the frequency and newsletter timing |
| Content quality | ‣ Is it relevant to audience preferences? ‣ Does the newsletter topic demand in-depth information? |
| Design and layout | ‣ Is the content digestible and easy to understand? ‣ Is the newsletter optimized for mobiles? |
| Content variety | ‣ Determine if there’s a need for a content mix such as videos, GIFs, etc ‣ Is the newsletter more scannable? |
| Technical considerations | ‣ Consider email client limitations ‣ Examine newsletter loading times |
| Engagement metrics | ‣ Understand common email marketing metrics ‣ Consider user feedback |
We’ll review the above factors in detail now.
Understand Your Audience’s Preferences
Based on your business type and industry, your target audience can vary from young adults to older generations. Consider their preferences and needs to tailor the email newsletter content and length.
You can use different segmentation models, such as demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation, and behavioral segmentation, to determine consumers’ shopping habits and likes.
For example, young audiences might prefer shorter and more engaging content, while older people are likely to be tolerant of longer and more detailed information.
In addition to the basics of where they come from and their lifestyles, consider the following aspects:
- Are they niche audiences? Niche audiences are people with highly specific interests and preferences. They usually portray a deep curiosity and interest in in-depth information.
- Do some of the subscribers fall under the general audience category? Generic audiences might prefer shorter and more varied content.
Know the Purpose of Your Email Content
Email newsletters can contain different types of information such as news, business updates, educational content, or a mixture of all three, aka — hybrid newsletters.
Understand what type of newsletter you’re sending and its purpose. For example, an educational newsletter requires more details than a promotional email.
Whatever type of information you’re sharing, consider the audience’s attention span and preferred content format. You can gain valuable insights into these facets by studying their behavioral data.
Keep a Check on the Content Quality
The quality of your email newsletter content is indirectly linked to the optimal length of your newsletter. For example, if your email is exceptionally well-written and is engaging, you can pack a powerful message into a shorter newsletter.
On the contrary, if you’re providing in-depth analysis and detailed reviews of other products or services, a longer newsletter might be necessary to convey the content effectively.
Be Mindful of the Design and Layout
The email design and layout can influence how long your newsletters appear to subscribers. For example, using bullets and images to maintain a balance can make your messages appear at a normal length, even if they are slightly longer.
Your email dimensions can also contribute to making your newsletter appear taller or shorter. The standard email width is 600-640 px, and the height is 1500-2500 px for optimal engagement.
Consider the following things when putting together an email::
- Have you divided the email into defined blocks, providing enough space for the email header, images, and footer?
- Have you considered the image placement, size, and quality?
- Do you have enough white space for increased legibility?
Note down other critical elements, such as engagement metrics and email client limitations, to use the right email newsletter length. Most email clients have image, email length, and attachment size limitations. That’s why it’s important to follow email marketing best practices.
Best Practices to Keep Newsletters at the Right Length
Connecting with every subscriber on your email list might look like an uphill battle. However, with the right approach, you can craft newsletters that resonate with every single one of them.
Here are golden rules to know while determining newsletter length:
- Prioritize email content: Understand your audience’s interests and ensure every piece of information addresses their pain points. Avoid writing in a generic tone, and provide detailed and valuable information.
- Optimize readability: Use descriptive titles and break down paragraphs using subheadings. Bullets and lists are great ways to increase readability, in addition to using legible and best fonts for email.
- Use visuals and videos: If you can convey the information through an image or video, use the opportunity. This largely reduces the email length and packs critical information into bite-sized portions.
- Maintain consistency: Keep your email branding, tone, and identity uniform across email newsletters. Consistent emails help subscribers recall your brand quickly.
- Regularly test and refine: Split test and experiment with different lengths, layouts, and content formats.
Let’s delve deeper into the different newsletter types and their maximum length.
How Long Should a Newsletter Be?
As discussed above, the ideal length of your newsletter depends on its purpose, content type, and target audience.
Below, we’ll discuss the major newsletter types and their maximum length.
| Type of Email Newsletter | Ideal length |
|---|---|
| Blog-style email newsletters | Keeping them under 1000 words will increase the impact. |
| Promotional newsletters | These emails are usually under 500 words. |
| Informational/instructional guides | This can range from 500-1000 words depending on the nature of the content. |
| Curation newsletters | They work better if kept under 2000 words. |
Now, let’s review how brands have used newsletters to capture customer attention. These examples range from short to long newsletters to give you an idea of how it’s done.
Successful Newsletter Examples
Brands use diverse newsletter types with varied lengths to keep the spark alive. You can do the same by mixing up content types and experimenting with the newsletter length.
The examples below will act as inspiration.
1. Chime – Short Email Newsletter Example
Chime is a financial services company with no banking fee. The brand uses this unique selling point in its newsletters to draw attention.
In the example below, Chime sends a short newsletter packed with the benefits of using the company. Although short, the message is well-structured and legible.
2. Unyoked – Medium Newsletter Length Example
Unyoked provides private cabins, helping people reconnect and rejuvenate in nature. The brand highlights the fact that traveling solo can be intimidating but is totally worth it.
Their newsletter is medium-sized in length and contains text broken down into readable chunks and images to support them. This balance creates a harmonious feeling for the eyes. The email also leads to a clear call-to-action, increasing the likelihood of customer action.
3. Allie Stark Wellness: Long Email Newsletter Example
Allie Stark Wellness’s summer newsletter is pretty long, filled with text and images. Although it’s heavy on text, the email looks and reads clean.
After every few paragraphs of text, there’s an image to break the section and give readers a sense of balance.
Only include information that’s highly relevant and adds value for the readers. For example, your educational email can be shorter than its typical length, if it has quality content and relevant explanation.
The key to knowing what works for your audience is to test and refine your newsletters continually.
That’s exactly what we’ll examine in the next section.
How to Optimize and Test Different Newsletter Lengths
Analyzing past and current data is the only way to determine the perfect length for your newsletters.
On top of that, ask yourself the following questions:
- What do you want to achieve with your newsletter? Is it to increase email campaign metrics such as open rates and click-through rates or to drive more sales? These questions will guide you toward the correct email length.
- Have you divided subscribers based on their preferences, location, and lifestyle? Understanding this will help you tailor and personalize email content to boost conversions.
- Do you experiment with short, medium, and long newsletter variations? Experimentation can help you figure out the best newsletter type that aligns with your audiences’ likes.
- Do you use a reliable email service provider to help you track email performance and refine strategies?
While common email clients like Gmail and Yahoo can help you track emails, a reliable email marketing platform like Campaign Refinery gives you robust tools and systems to upscale your email revenue.
Send Professional Newsletters With the Highest Email Deliverability
Whether you’re a novice or an email marketing pro, Campaign Refinery’s simple WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) email editor helps you create professional-looking email newsletters in seconds. Clients can pick from a variety of pre-built email campaign templates and customize them to suit their brand identity.
You can then segment subscribers to hyper-personalize content or group different audience segments for the same email campaign using our latest audience groups tool.
Above robust analytics and reporting, segmentation, and automation, clients can enjoy the highest email deliverability rate on the market. We prioritize clean sending practices and work only with responsible email senders.
This means, as our client, you’ll be in the top 1% of the elite sender community.
All it takes is a simple appointment with our team — apply to become a client now and enjoy premium features and the highest deliverability.
![How Long Should a Newsletter Be to Keep Subscribers Engaged? [Direct Response Podcast]](https://campaignrefinery.com/wp-content/cache/flying-press/BWEbO5AO_wo-hqdefault.jpg)
