If you've been around since Volume 76, the name of today’s guest might ring a bell…

Our weekly Email Advice in Your Inbox got roasted by a pro (in the nicest way possible), and since then, we’ve been putting in the work to make sure we don’t make finding the value in these volumes too much work.

It’s been a game changer, so when it came to who should take this space next, the choice felt pretty damn obvious.

Juliet Lyall writes, edits and redesigns newsletters for clients, and her whole approach boils down to one question: how easy is this for the reader to understand, navigate and act on?

Today, she's walking us through the psychology behind how readers actually see your emails, with some practical tasks at every point (so you can implement these things yourself while reading through).

And with BFCM and New Year planning about to fill every inbox to the brim, there's no better time to look at your sends the way your readers do (which, let’s be frank, is in about five seconds, between twelve other things).

So, pull up your last send, keep it open next to this one, and get ready to show your readers where to look 👀

When I look back on some of the early newsletters I sent, they make me cringe. There were too many emojis, H1 headings, memes, and bullet points all competing for attention.

I didn't understand that great email design has nothing to do with making a newsletter look "pretty."

These days, when a client asks me for a newsletter redesign, my entire strategy is to make it easy for someone to understand, navigate, and act on what is sent to them.

It's the art of showing your reader where to look.

This matters because most people won't read every word of your email, so the design needs to work with them, not against them.

How do you achieve that?

You're probably like me.

Your inbox is a "task box."

I log in to check which emails need a reply, who wants something from me, and to decide what is urgent or important.

I'm not usually there to find inspiration or explore a dissertation on "Cognitive Processes as Predictors of Word Recognition and Reading Comprehension in Learning-Disabled and Skilled Readers." (Yes, that is a real paper).

Before I open an email, I decide which ones are worth my attention.

This means the first few seconds matter:

I'm wary of newsletters that open with long intros or huge walls of text. The content might be brilliant, but if the presentation screams "effort required," I sometimes never find that out.

See what I mean?

Image Source: Omitted on purpose, because I don't want to disparage a brilliant writer

That list has 13 points!

Your turn: Hide the body copy in your newsletter and skim through it. You're looking only at the subject line, headings, images, and general formatting. Can you tell what the email is about and where your focus should be?

If it's not clear where your readers' eyes should go next, fix that first.

Every decision you ask someone to make requires mental effort:

Individually, those decisions seem trivial, but collectively, they create friction.

In psychological terms, that's called cognitive load.

This is why plenty of whitespace and short blocks of text help improve reading comprehension.

If you break your content into smaller sections, it gives people's brains somewhere to pause. A little breathing room between paragraphs, clear subheadings, and sensible use of bullet points make your content feel light and easy to consume.

Your turn: If a section looks intimidating, break it up. You do not necessarily need less content, but you may need to present it differently.

Not everything in your newsletter deserves equal visual weight.

Your main idea should look like the main idea. A secondary point should look secondary. Your CTA should not have to compete with a social link and three other buttons.

Hierarchy and contrast guide people to what matters most.

That doesn't mean turning your newsletter into a kaleidoscope of different fonts, colours and bold type. A small number of deliberate design choices are much more effective.

Daily newsletters like 1440 and The Hustle are good examples of design that guides your eyes and actions.

These sections in The Hustle show how well section headers and contrast work together:

Image source: The Hustle

Your turn: Pick the three things you most want your reader to notice. Make sure they are visually obvious, then make everything else unobtrusive.

Colour can tell people what to do, so use it wisely.

You've never driven through a stop sign, right? That's because the colour red gets your attention when you're behind the wheel.

It's the same in your emails. Using a strong contrast between your CTA button and the rest of your email makes it easier to find.

Consistent heading and link colours help readers recognise where each section of your newsletter begins and which text is clickable.

I like to think about colour as a form of signposting that tells people where they are or what to do next.

Whatever you do, please don't do this:

Image Source: Spotler

The bold font, all caps, random CTAs, and confusion of colors all compete for my attention (and make my brain shudder).

Your turn: Give your primary CTA one clear visual treatment and use it consistently. If you have six different "important" colours in your email, you probably have three too many.

This is the bit newsletter creators sometimes overlook.

Good design doesn't exist to impress your subscribers. Your primary goal is to help them understand the content.

A beautifully designed newsletter with poor hierarchy is harder to read than a simple one with excellent formatting. In fact, I would take "clear and slightly boring" over "beautiful and confusing" every time.

And there's another benefit.

When your newsletter is easy to digest, readers learn how to navigate it. People enjoy what's familiar, so they often skip to the sections they most enjoy before they go back and read the rest.

It's okay if someone doesn't read your entire newsletter as long as they know where the "good stuff" usually lives, what a link looks like, and where to find the CTA.

This familiarity reduces friction without making every issue look exactly the same.

Your turn: Go back and check your last few newsletters. Is the format the same (or very similar) in each one?

It IS okay to experiment with a change of design or break your usual pattern occasionally. I sometimes recommend this to publishers because the impact of a new format can help "wake up" your subscribers.

Before I send a newsletter, I like to step back from the copy and look at the email as an outsider would.

I put together a longer Newsletter Psychology Pre-Send Checklist that covers these questions (and a few more).

If you take nothing else away from this piece, just remember that the end goal is to make your readers' job simple.

Focus on that one job, and I guarantee you'll see better engagement, more clicks to what matters, and an increase in replies.

Over to you!

And if you'd like to see more of my thoughts on newsletters, come say "hello" and follow me on LinkedIn.

Until next time,

Juliet 👋

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