Looking to revise the look and feel of your layout and improve the content of your newsletters? Melinda Krueger explains how to go about it: To improve your content, find out what is most important to your audience:

1. Aggregate the data from all your campaigns thus far and sort by response rate (or conversion rate, if that is a better measure).
2. Capture screen shots of your emails and overlay the link click rate on them: All Clicks on Link A / Total Clicks on the Email.
3. Survey your readers.
4. Survey your opt-outs.
5. Talk to the people closest to the customer.

To improve the layout and look and feel:

1. Optimize for the Preview Pane.
2. Make your email scan-able.
3. Choose an experienced designer who knows how to work within the limitations of email, has learned from testing different approaches, and understands that the role of graphics is to guide the eye through the copy.
4. Consider investing in an eye tracking study to determine whether your new layout draws readers to the most important elements of the email.
5. Test your new format in a variety of environments (Web-based email programs, Outlook, Mac, PC, etc.).
6. Test all theories that arise in the development of your newsletter.

Read the full article here.