Interactive Newsletters: A Comprehensive Guide to Writing One

Sending out interactive newsletters is a creative way to boost your email marketing results. Did you know that 88% of marketers consider interactive content a crucial way to differentiate from the competition?

And surprisingly, email is becoming one of the best ways to achieve this.

Newsletters are more than just a means to share links and information. Increasingly, just as websites gained more interactivity over the past decade, email is starting to follow this trend.

Traditionally, email has been just text, but today, you can add engaging, interactive elements that can help you attract a bigger audience and improve the results of your email marketing metrics.

In this guide, we’ll cover how interactive emails work and what you should include in yours.

What Are Interactive Newsletters? 

Interactive newsletters provide a more engaging experience and include different kinds of clickable or alluring elements that are built into the newsletter design. 

At a basic level, we are all familiar with the simplest types of interactive newsletters. Emails that include a hyperlink to your blog, website, or podcast, along with the occasional GIF. However, emails can be much more engaging than this.

While these features navigate away from your email, the more your newsletter can include interactive components that happen within the email, the better.

For example, ConvertKit lets you embed Instagram posts directly into your email.

Why Use Interactive Newsletters?

Interactive content can make a huge difference to your marketing campaigns. They entice your audience to be actively involved in your emails which can help you achieve various benefits. 

Used well, interactive newsletters can help your emails see increased click through rates (CTRs), longer scrolls, and better email marketing return on investment (ROI).

Some of these benefits include the following: 

• Gives your audience more reason to open your emails 
• Increases email engagement rates 
• Increases odds of email forwards to friends 
• Promotes and repurposes content in a unique way
• Sets your brand apart from the competition
• Gains specific information from your subscribers, which you can use to segment them into different email lists (that can be achieved by including surveys or quizzes) 
• Improves brand awareness by making your newsletters stand out 

6 Examples of Interactive Newsletters 

There are various ways that you can create an interactive newsletter. Listed here are some of the essential interactive elements to include:

1. Videos 

Everyone loves a well-crafted, value-packed video. 

As a matter of fact, videos are a lot more exciting or engaging than generic images. Using them in your emails can help you grab your viewer’s attention, increase clicks, and drive more traffic to your website or social media channels.

In the past, embedded videos that play inside an email were not possible. Today, they are. However, since most major browsers have not yet enabled that, content creators must decide how they will move forward with this reality.

There are various options to embed the actual video, to include an animated GIF of the video, or to add an image with the play button on it to entice readers to click to play, which then pops out the actual video player link.

Of course, to increase your chances of earning a play and a follow, embedding a video from a social account is probably the most powerful new feature in these interactive emails. With Wavve, you can get started in no time getting video on socials to share in your newsletters.

2. Countdown Timer 

Countdown timers are a fantastic way to create a sense of urgency amongst your audience, especially in the case of a time-bound promotion or giveaway. 

If you include a limited-time offer, then adding a countdown timer will help drive more engagement.

3. Interactive Infographics

Leveling up your infographics game by adding interactive elements is an awesome way to stand out in your newsletters.

You can include infographics in your newsletter that share, calculate, and highlight different types of information depending on where the user clicks. These are fun and interesting, which can drive a message home in your email campaign.

4. Quizzes

Quizzes are a great way to grab the attention of your audience. If they are well executed, they can be very entertaining and provide major insights for your readers (and you).

When including quizzes in your interactive newsletters, the sky is the limit.

You can go with the fun, tongue-in-cheek route and send a quiz like “What color Power Ranger (Voltron, cough) are you?”. Or, you can do a more formal one aligned with your business, like “How many employees does your business have?”.

You can also trigger other more specific email sequences based off their answers. Nail this method to increase your brand awareness, click-through rates, and the chance of your emails being shared.

5. Games

Sending out an interactive newsletter with a game included can entice your audience to get involved, especially when they stand a chance of winning a prize or even a discount code. 

Brands often use spin-the-wheel games to engage users and promote certain products, services, or discounts. Everyone loves a freebie, so this is a great way to encourage engagement and boost sales. 

6. Surveys 

Surveys are a simple way to engage your audience and obtain vital information.

The range of survey options is vast, so you can include a multiple-choice survey in your email, like “How likely are you to recommend our product?”. Otherwise, you can go with a more open-ended route to really hone in on the data you’re looking for.

Furthermore, including some sort of freebie helps to sweeten the deal and tempt people to complete the survey.

Noteworthy Tips for Creating Interactive Newsletters 

Before you start sending interactive emails, here are a few best practices to keep in mind:

• Vary the type of interactive content you send with each email to keep users interested
• Make sure your interactive elements are not over-complicated
• Ensure your emails still offer fast loading times
• Continue to follow the design best practices when creating interactive emails
• Make your emails easily scannable (avoid large blocks of text)

Conclusion

Sending interactive newsletters is an innovative way to increase the engagement of your email marketing campaigns. So adding more interactivity to your newsletter content can help you improve brand awareness and drive more traffic to your website, podcast, or social media channels. 

There are many different ways that you can use interactivity, so start getting creative and see what works for your brand. It can be the secret to your email marketing success.