Email Newsletter Templates: How to Choose the Perfect One

An email newsletter template is a pre-designed layout that makes creating consistent, professional newsletters faster and easier. The best templates are responsive, on-brand, and designed around clear calls to action.

Most email marketers rely heavily on templates for their newsletters. Templates provide a consistent foundation you can customize with each iteration, but choosing the right one requires understanding email design best practices and your specific marketing goals.

What Is an Email Newsletter Template and Why Use One?

When choosing a template, you’re outsourcing much of the design burden to someone else. However, you still need to select a template that adheres to best practices and customize it to achieve your goals.

Before choosing a template, familiarize yourself with email design best practices. Your template should serve as a foundation that makes implementing these practices easier.

What Are the Essential Email Design Best Practices?

Subject lines and preheaders — Your subject line isn’t part of the template design, but it determines whether anyone opens your email. The preheader text appears next to the subject line in most email clients and provides additional context to drive opens.

Grab attention immediately — Include something at the top of the email—an interesting headline or striking visual—that instantly connects with readers and invites them to continue reading.

Use white space strategically — Too many designers cram as much information into an email as possible. More white space is easier on the eyes and gives readers opportunity to conveniently review your content.

Be concise — Convey maximum information in minimum space. Ask yourself: can you say more with fewer words? Can you include more information in fewer boxes? Eliminate fluff to make a better impression.

Evoke your brand — Your template should evoke the “feeling” of your brand through design elements similar to your logo and marketing materials, or through a distinctive style aligned with your brand’s vibe.

How Should You Structure Layout and Visual Elements?

Multiple priority levels — Good emails have sections at different priority levels. For example, a large box at the top features the most important content, with smaller boxes below for less important content. The hierarchy should be clear to both you and your readers.

Room for personalization — Personalized marketing emails always perform better than generic ones. Include room for personalization—even if it’s just changing the recipient’s name in each message.

Color choices — Using brand colors is usually good, but not all colors are friendly to email readers. Avoid bright colors that make things hard to read, and ensure your colors don’t clash. For help crafting templates, designers benefit from resources like a CSS selector cheatsheet for consistent styling.

Font selection — Choose a highly readable font that’s unique and related to your brand, but prioritize readability above all else. Don’t default to Times New Roman—find something distinctive. Here’s a guide on choosing the best font for email.

Visual elements — Visual content like photos, graphs, or illustrations can be perceived much faster than text. Include more visuals, but avoid stuffing your email full of them or it will take too long to load.

Emoji usage — Depending on your audience, emojis in subject lines and copy can help your content stand out and make a unique first impression.

How Do You Optimize CTAs and Ensure Compliance?

Design around CTAs — Your calls to action are among the most important aspects of marketing emails. How are you motivating action? Are you directing readers to your website or inspiring purchases? Your email design should revolve around your CTA goals.

Easy unsubscribe options — This is both an important design element and a legal requirement under the CAN-SPAM Act. All recipients must have a clear and easy path to unsubscribe from your email list.

Test for functionality — No matter how good your template looks, there’s a chance it will break when sent. Always test your email design for functionality before major releases. Just because a template worked in the past doesn’t mean it will work in the future—test before every issuance.

A/B testing — Experiment with different templates or modifications of a single template. Compare results to figure out which elements work best. Over multiple experiments, you’ll inch closer to the perfect template and learn about your audience.

What Are Responsive Email Templates?

A responsive template automatically “responds” to the device type and window size. On desktop, content displays naturally. On smartphones or tablets, the email rearranges blocks and text to look better in the new scenario.

Responsiveness solves the modern dilemma of designing for multiple devices simultaneously. With the right responsive template, you create one comprehensive design that displays properly on any device. Always choose responsive templates when you have a choice.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Email Newsletter Templates?

Benefits of templates:

• Guidance and direction — Templates help you decide what to include. Build content around the template structure rather than creating from scratch.

• Simplicity — Designing emails can get complicated, which is why templates and email automation exist. Rely on someone else’s work for a good start, then spend minutes updating content for each blast.

• Versatility — You’re not locked into a template. Change it to your liking, rearrange sections, or switch templates entirely in the future.

• Time savings — Templates can be updated in minutes using WYSIWYG editors. Drag and drop content, then preview across different devices.

• Brand consistency — Templates help keep the essence of your design consistent across all newsletters. Consider adding a branded email signature for additional consistency.

Drawbacks to consider:

• Coding issues — Not all templates are coded according to best practices. Making significant changes could introduce complexities that interfere with the supposed simplicity.

• Lack of originality — If you found a free template easily, many other brands found the same one. Similar newsletters could make you seem unoriginal.

• Decreased motivation — Templates are quick and easy, which can make you lazy. If someone else finished the design, why brainstorm improvements?

Where Can You Find Email Newsletter Templates?

The best place to start is with an email marketing tool designed to help manage campaigns. Most tools offer many free and paid templates you can review when building emails. You might even choose an email marketing tool based on the templates it offers.

You can also search online for email newsletter templates and find thousands of options—both free and paid. Grab a template you like, tweak it, and use it as you see fit. Look at existing newsletters for inspiration and check out these email newsletter ideas to spark creativity.

How Do You Choose the Right Email Newsletter Template?

• Choose the right category — Many email marketing tools offer templates based on intentions or industry. Newsletter templates differ from cold sales email templates, and industry-specific templates exist for manufacturing, healthcare, and more.

• Explore other options — You might find a perfect newsletter template in a non-newsletter category. Browse different areas to get a feel for what’s available.

• Consider premium templates — Free templates have many good options, but limiting yourself to free means potentially missing out on a perfect fit. Most premium templates are inexpensive.

• Stand out from competition — If you want people to continue subscribing, you need to differentiate yourself. Most people delete recurring emails more often than they keep them.

• Review the finished product — Sometimes a template looks better empty than filled with actual content. Spend time adding your own content and reviewing the finished product before finalizing your decision.

How Do You Measure Your Email Newsletter Results?

To get the most value from your email newsletter campaign, you need tools that measure results. EmailAnalytics integrates with Gmail to provide information about your email activity. With interactive data visuals, you can analyze average email response times, busiest times and days of the week, and dozens of other metrics.

Sign up for a free trial today and learn more about your email activity!

Frequently Asked Questions About Email Newsletter Templates