how to write a short article for a newsletter

How to Write A Newsletter: Step-By-Step Guide (With Real Examples)

Today I’m going to show you how to write a newsletter — Sumo-style.

In fact, it’s the same newsletter writing tips we used to make $1,846 monthly recurring revenue when we promoted  this blog post  to our email list:

Want to learn how to write an email newsletter for yourself? Then keep reading!

In today’s article, I share  how to write a newsletter, including tips, step-by-step instructions, advanced tactics, and even how to outsource it.  Here we go!

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4 tips on how to write a newsletter

Before we dive into the practical steps, here are the basics of what makes a great newsletter.

1. Make it something people want to read

This one should be obvious, but I get emails telling me someone’s life story or things I couldn’t care less about all the time. It’s a waste of my time.

And that’s still not the end of the email! (Sorry Jonathan, love your work, but this is just too much for me to read in my email.)

I’m not saying this to be harsh — I’m saying it because it’s true.

Your audience doesn’t care about your life or your problems. They only care about how you can help THEM with THEIR life and problems. 

It’s just human psychology.

By the same token, don’t only send ads to your list. (Unless that’s why they opted in for, then give them what they want.)

Ask yourself: If I got this email, would I care? It’s hard to be objective, but try.

2. Fix your open rates

Getting people to open your emails is half the battle.

MailChimp ran a study of their customers and found the average open rate across all industries on their platform is just 20.81%. [ * ]

In other words,  only a fifth of your subscribers will open your email.  Not great.

Luckily, you can improve that drastically by:

• Writing great subject lines.
• Building trust with your audience that your emails are worth reading.
• Using your name in the “From” address instead of a brand name.

Put another way, here’s an equation:

Interesting Subject Line + Audience Trust = Open Rates

If your audience trusts you as a person (or as a brand) and they trust your emails are usually valuable to them, they’ll probably open your email regardless of the subject line.

On the flip side, if they don’t know you well but your subject lines pique their curiosity or touch on something they really want, they’ll also open.

When you have trust AND a great subject line? Boom! High open rates.

3. Be consistent in your delivery

This one’s easy! Don’t send so many emails you annoy your audience, but don’t be a ghost, either. Find a schedule, and stick to it (within reason).

Don’t send three emails one week, then none the next. Stay consistent.

Send weekly emails every Friday? Great! Send biweekly or monthly emails? Awesome. Send emails daily or multiple times a day? That’s probably bad unless your subscribers knew what they were signing up for.

If you’re a statistics-driven person, note that a HubSpot study which shared open rate medians also looked at the median open and engagement rates based on the number of emails sent per month. [ * ]

Here’s what they found for impact on open rates for their customers:

And for impact on click rates:

It seems the sweet spot is between  16-30 emails per month  (an email daily or every other day).

“Note: Campaigns are defined as targeted, individual emails sent to a portion of a database — not an email blast to everyone.”

That said, you should always test different frequencies to see what works best for you. A best practice is to set expectations in your welcome email to tell people how often you’ll be emailing them.

4. Keep it short and simple

The final tip before we dive into the nitty-gritty:  Don’t tell your life story!

I already mentioned this in the first tip, but it’s worth mentioning again from another angle. People are getting busier every day. Nearly 3.4 million emails are sent  every second . [ * ]

Ain’t nobody got time for that!

So do yourself and your readers a favor, and make your emails short and sweet.

Keep your emails no longer than 3 to 5 paragraphs. Use short sentences and simple, easy-to-read wording. Try to write at a seventh-grade reading level or lower (you can use Hemingway Editor to check your content’s reading level).

5 steps for writing your first newsletter

Now that you’ve got those tips in your back pocket, let’s write your first email newsletter !

1. Decide what you want to share

The first step is to figure out what you want to say or share.

Some ideas include:

• New content you created (blog posts, videos, infographics, etc.).
• Other people’s content you found relates to things your list cares about.
• Projects you’re working on.
• New product launches.
• Discounts and flash sales (use sparingly).
• *Mini blog posts (emails that are written well enough to be a blog post on their own).

*Mini blog posts are the only emails I’d ever send that are fairly long, because they provide lots of value. For example, Kai Davis often sends his list mini blog post emails: [ * ]

Once you know what you want to share, it’s time to draft your newsletter!

2. Write a draft like you’re writing to a specific person

Whenever you write an email, you should always write as if you’re writing to a specific person. This could be a persona you made up to act as your ideal subscriber, or it can be someone you know.

Either way, write the email as if you’re writing to that person. This will help you make it more personal and interesting than if you just wrote to “everyone.”

Need some inspiration? Click the button below to get my email newsletter swipe file with five awesome examples.

GET THE NEWSLETTER SWIPE FILE

3. Review the draft

After you finish your draft, don’t forget to review proofread it. Make sure it sounds interesting, you haven’t forgotten to finish a sentence, and you don’t have spelling and grammar errors.

I highly recommend you read the email out loud at least once. Reading your words out loud makes it easier to catch typos helps you see if you’ve written in an interesting, conversational tone.

If you’re feeling lazy, you can copy and paste the email into a text-to-speech tool like Natural Readers or even Word to have it read it to you.

While you’re at it, have someone else read the email. Try to find someone who resembles your audience, if possible. Otherwise, a friend or family member will do in a pinch. They’ll help you further refine the email.

4. Send to a portion of your list first

Before sending your newsletter to all of your subscribers, consider sending the draft you just proofread to a small chunk of your list (10-15%). This will help you see what kind of open rates the email gets, and make sure everything works OK.

If you don’t have a large enough list to do this, follow our  guide to growing your email list so you can get more subscribers!

5. If all is well, send to everyone

Finally, if everything sent OK and you didn’t get any warnings or people emailing you back saying something is broken or doesn’t make sense, send it to your entire email list

Give yourself a pat on the back! You wrote and sent a newsletter.

3 advanced tips for a newsletter your subscribers will love

Feeling the itch to improve? I’ve got you covered! Here are three advanced tips to take your newsletter to the next level:

1. Segment your list for better engagement

Segmenting your email list means separating your subscribers into different “segments” or “buckets”. It looks like this:

Segmented lists perform far better than non-segmented lists. MailChimp found segmented lists receive 14.31% more opens and  double  the clicks compared to non-segmented lists. [ * ]

There are a few ways to segment a list:

• Based on what they opted in for on your website (i.e., guide to email marketing versus guide to SEO).
• Based on which emails they open (i.e., email about email marketing versus email about SEO).
• Based on which links they click within the emails (i.e., link about email marketing versus link about SEO).

Ideally, you’d want to segment based on all three.

For example, if someone opts in to your content upgrade about how to lose weight, send them articles about exercise, nutrition, and supplements.

Depending on which emails or links they click, send them more emails about the topic they’re most interested in. So if they’re most interested in exercise, send them more emails about exercise.

To start segmenting in  Sumo List Builder , go to the  Success  section of any form.

Then use the dropdown under  Add Subscribers To Group  to select a group to put them in.

To use this successfully, you need to segment them by how they opt in on your site.

So if they opt in for a certain content upgrade or discount, put them in a group that sends emails related to that upgrade or discount.

2. A/b test your email subject lines

The next “advanced” technique I want to talk about is split-testing your email subject lines. (I put “advanced” in quotes because it’s actually pretty simple.)

Split testing, or A/B testing, means sending two or more variants of your subject line to see which one performs the best (i.e. gets the highest open rate).

You can also split-test the content itself, such as the email copy, type of discount, etc., but we’ll stick with subject lines for the sake of simplicity.

To A/B test your subject lines, first brainstorm some ideas. Come up with 5-10 ideas, then pick the two most promising to test.

Many email providers, such as ConvertKit , allow you to do this automatically. Click the  A/B  button next to the subject line.

3. Survey your audience to see what they want

My final advanced technique is the least technical! Surveying your audience is easy, quick, and gives you some great insight into what they want.

You can create a survey to figure out what kind of content they want to see more of, what they like or dislike about your product(s), how often they want to receive emails, and more. The sky’s the limit!

Here’s how it’s done:

• Decide what questions you want to ask (use what I said above to brainstorm ideas).
• Create a free Typeform account or use a Google Form (they both work great).
• Add the questions with choices to your survey. You can choose from multiple choice, short text, long-form text, etc..

• Copy the URL for the survey. Write up an email to send to your list and include the URL for your audience to take the survey.
• Wait for the results and review!

Here’s an example survey email you might send to your list:

Hey, [name]…

I need your help.

You see, we’re trying to [mission, such as teach a million people make $100 through Facebook ads]. But we can’t do that without you!

We want to make sure our [content/product] is the best it can be. To do that, we need you to tell us what you need so we can provide it.

Please take 60 seconds to fill out this ultra-quick survey and help us send you better [content/product]: URL

Thanks so much!

Keep crushing it, [Name]

The survey might then have questions like:

• What struggles are you having with Facebook Ads? (Long-form answer)
• Which part of the advertising process are you most stuck on? (Multiple choice)
• How many emails would you like to receive every week? (Multiple choice)
• Is there anything else you’d like us to know? (Long-form answer)

Easy-peasy!

How to outsource your newsletter

Let’s say you’re not too keen on writing newsletters every week. Is it possible to hire someone else to do it for you? If so, how?

It is, and you have plenty of options:

• Hire someone from a freelance site like FreeeUp, Fiverr, or UpWork.
• Hire someone locally or someone you know and train them to do it.
• Hire an agency that specializes in email marketing.

The first two options are cheaper but time-consuming. The third option takes virtually no time at all, but can be extremely expensive.

If you opt to hire someone as your virtual assistant or newsletter writer, here are a few tips to help smooth out the process:

• Try to find people with raving reviews. Testimonials speak a thousand words.
• In your job listing, be as thorough as possible. Explain the exact skillset you need, what your business is about, a little about you if it makes sense, and your expectations in terms of the results you’re after.
• Always give your job applicants a test. This could be a trial newsletter written in your tone and style, for example.

On average, it costs anywhere from $10 to $100 per newsletter, depending on who you hire and how involved you want your newsletters to be.

How to Write a Newsletter Article: A Step-by-Step Guide

Writing a newsletter article may seem like a daunting task, but with a step-by-step guide, it can become much more manageable. A well-written and engaging newsletter article has the power to captivate readers, promote your brand, and build a loyal audience. This article will provide you with a clear roadmap on how to craft a compelling newsletter article, from brainstorming ideas to finalizing your content.

First and foremost, before diving into the writing process, it is crucial to identify your target audience and understand their interests and needs. Researching your audience will enable you to tailor your content to their preferences, increasing the likelihood of engagement and response. Once you have a clear understanding of your audience, the next step is brainstorming ideas. Consider current topics or trends related to your industry that would be valuable to your readers. You can also think about frequently asked questions or common challenges your audience faces and provide them with solutions through your newsletter article.

After determining your topic, organizing your thoughts is essential. Start by outlining the main points you want to address in your newsletter article. An organized structure will ensure that your content flows smoothly and keeps your readers engaged throughout. Supporting your main points with relevant examples, statistics, or anecdotes adds credibility and keeps your readers interested. Lastly, conclude your article with a strong and memorable call-to-action, encouraging your readers to take the desired action, such as visiting your website, subscribing to your newsletter, or leaving comments.

By following this step-by-step guide, you will be able to create compelling newsletter articles that resonate with your audience, establish your expertise, and strengthen your brand identity. So, let's get started and unlock the potential of newsletter articles to reach and engage with your target audience effectively.## Choose an engaging topic

When writing a newsletter article, one of the most crucial steps is to choose an engaging topic that captivates your readers. The topic you select sets the tone for the entire article and determines whether your audience will be interested enough to read it. Here are a few key considerations to keep in mind when selecting a topic:

Understand your audience : Before diving into the topic selection process, it's important to have a clear understanding of who your target audience is. Analyze their demographics, interests, and preferences to determine what topics are likely to resonate with them. Consider conducting surveys or analyzing previous engagement analytics to gain insights into their preferences.

Relevance : Choose a topic that is relevant to your audience and aligns with the purpose of your newsletter. Identifying current trends, industry advancements, or addressing common pain points can help you generate ideas for topics that will genuinely interest your readers.

Uniqueness : Aim to provide fresh and unique content in your newsletter articles. Avoid writing about topics that have been extensively covered elsewhere, as this may lead to disinterest among your readers. Instead, search for unique angles, untapped perspectives, or lesser-known facts to make your article stand out.

Problem-solving : Many readers turn to newsletters for advice or solutions to their problems. Consider addressing common challenges or providing practical tips and advice in your articles. By tackling real issues, you will position yourself as a valuable resource to your readers, increasing their engagement and trust in your content.

Iterate and experiment : Don't be afraid to try different topics and experiment with various formats to gauge your audience's response. Keep track of the performance metrics of your articles, such as open rates, click-through rates, and time spent reading, to identify which topics resonate the most with your readers.

By carefully selecting an engaging topic for your newsletter articles, you enhance the chances of capturing your audience's attention and increasing their desire to continue reading. Remember, understanding your audience, staying relevant, providing unique insights, and focusing on problem-solving will help you create valuable and appealing content that keeps your readers coming back for more.

2. Gather Relevant Information

Before starting to write a newsletter article, it is crucial to gather all the necessary information to ensure its relevance and effectiveness. This process involves researching, fact-checking, and organizing the data you need to provide accurate and valuable content to your readers. Here are the steps to follow during this stage:

2.1 Conduct Thorough Research

To create a well-informed newsletter article, it is essential to conduct thorough research to gather relevant information. This process might involve:

• Exploring reputable sources: Utilize a variety of sources, including books, articles, journals, and credible websites, to gather reliable information.
• Analyzing multiple perspectives: Consider different viewpoints or opinions to ensure a well-rounded and unbiased article.
• Verifying facts and data: Fact-checking is crucial to ensure the accuracy and credibility of the information you present.
• Keeping the target audience in mind: Understand the interests, needs, and preferences of your readers to gather information that is tailored to their interests.

2.2 Organize the Information

Once you have collected all the necessary information, it is important to organize it effectively. This ensures that your newsletter article flows smoothly and allows readers to easily understand the content you are presenting. Consider the following tips:

• Group related information: Categorize your information into logical sections or subtopics to make it easier for readers to follow.
• Create an outline: Use headings and subheadings to create a structure for your article. This not only helps you organize the information but also provides a clear framework for your readers.
• Prioritize information: Arrange the information in a logical order, placing the most important points or main takeaways at the beginning or end of your article.
• Use bullet points or numbered lists: Utilize these formatting techniques to break up the text and present information in a concise and easily digestible manner.

By gathering relevant information and organizing it effectively, you can ensure that your newsletter article provides value and engages your readers. The next step in the process is to begin drafting your article, incorporating the information you have collected into a coherent and persuasive piece of content.

(Table: None)

Craft a compelling headline

When it comes to writing a newsletter article, one of the most critical elements that grabs the reader's attention is the headline. A compelling headline is like a magnet, drawing readers in and enticing them to read further. Here are some essential steps to help you craft a headline that stands out:

Understand your audience: Before diving into headline creation, it's crucial to identify your target audience. Consider their demographics, preferences, and interests. Understanding their needs and desires will enable you to create a headline that resonates with them.

Keep it concise and clear: In a world filled with information overload, people tend to skim through content quickly. Therefore, your headline must be concise and easily understandable. Aim for brevity, while still conveying the essence of your article.

Use descriptive language: To pique readers' curiosity, incorporate descriptive language that paints a vivid picture. Include strong adjectives, action words, and power verbs to convey the benefits or value they will gain by reading your article.

Add a sense of urgency or exclusivity: Create a sense of urgency or exclusivity in your headline to increase the likelihood of readers clicking through. Phrases such as limited time offer, exclusive insider tips, or don't miss out can create a feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out) and compel readers to take action.

Incorporate numbers or statistics: Numbers can add credibility and create an immediate impact. Incorporate statistics or specific quantities in your headline to grab attention. For instance, 10 Essential Tips for Maximizing Email Open Rates or 4 Proven Strategies to Skyrocket Your Sales Conversion.

Use enticing questions: Questions are a powerful way to engage readers and make them curious. Pose a thought-provoking question in your headline that addresses a common pain point or problem your audience may be facing. For example, Struggling to Increase Email Subscribers? Find Out How to Double Your List in Just One Month!

By following these steps, you can create a compelling headline that captures your audience's attention and entices them to delve into your newsletter article. Keep experimenting with different headline strategies to discover what resonates best with your specific audience. Remember, the headline is your first impression, so make it count!

Write an Attention-Grabbing Introduction

Creating an attention-grabbing introduction is crucial when writing a newsletter article. The introduction sets the tone, captures the reader's interest, and entices them to continue reading. To achieve this, several key strategies can be employed.

1. Start with a captivating headline : A compelling headline is the first step to catch the reader's attention. Craft a concise and intriguing title that highlights the newsletter's main content. Consider using strong adjectives, pose a question, or provide a surprising fact to engage the audience.

2. Identify the problem or pain point : Uncover the problem or pain point your readers might be facing, relating it to the content of your newsletter article. This allows them to connect with the subject matter on a personal level and increases their motivation to seek a solution within your article.

3. Use a compelling hook : After the headline, begin the introduction with a compelling hook that builds upon the problem mentioned earlier. The hook should pique the reader's curiosity, leaving them eager to learn more. It can be an anecdote, a thought-provoking statement, or even a relevant quote from an expert in the field.

4. Provide a brief overview of the article : Give your readers a glimpse of what they can expect from the rest of the newsletter article. Highlight the main points or solutions you'll be discussing, showcasing the value they will gain by reading further.

5. Include relevant statistics or data : If relevant, incorporate reliable statistics or data that support the importance or significance of the topic you're covering. This can help establish credibility and generate interest among your readers.

6. Appeal to emotions : Engaging your readers emotionally is an effective way to captivate their attention. Utilize storytelling techniques, evoke empathy, or tap into their aspirations or fears to establish a connection with your audience.

7. Keep it concise : While it's essential to create an attention-grabbing introduction, it's equally crucial to keep it concise. Aim for brevity, using short sentences and paragraphs to maintain readability. Make every word count by ensuring that each sentence contributes to building intrigue and enticing the reader to continue.

Remember, an attention-grabbing introduction sets the tone for the entire newsletter article. By employing these strategies, you can effectively engage your readers from the very beginning and captivate their interest throughout the entire piece.

Organize your content

When writing a newsletter article, it is crucial to organize your content in a clear and logical manner to engage readers and effectively convey your message. Here are some steps to help you organize your newsletter article effectively:

1. Define your objective

Before you start writing, clearly define the objective of your newsletter article. Identify what you want to achieve with the article and who your target audience is. This will help you focus your content and ensure it is relevant and valuable to your readers.

2. Start with an attention-grabbing headline

Craft a compelling headline that grabs readers' attention and entices them to continue reading. The headline should be concise, informative, and intriguing. Use keywords that are relevant to your article's content and will attract your target audience.

3. Create an outline

Before diving into the writing process, create a structure or outline for your article. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure a logical flow of information. Divide your article into sections or subsections, each addressing a specific topic or subtopic. This will make it easier for readers to navigate and digest the content.

4. Use subheadings

To further enhance the readability of your newsletter article, utilize subheadings to break down your content into smaller, digestible chunks. Subheadings create visual hierarchy and make it easier for readers to scan through the article and find the information they are interested in.

5. Maintain a coherent flow

Ensure your article has a coherent flow from start to finish. Each paragraph and section should smoothly transition into the next, maintaining a logical and sequential progression of ideas. Use transition words to connect ideas and maintain the reader's engagement.

6. Include supporting visuals

Consider incorporating visuals such as images, infographics, or charts that complement your written content. Visuals can enhance the reader's understanding and make your article more visually appealing. Be sure to optimize the images for web to avoid slowing down the loading speed of your newsletter.

7. Edit and proofread

Lastly, before publishing your newsletter article, take the time to thoroughly edit and proofread it. Review the content for clarity, coherence, grammar, and spelling errors. A well-edited article shows professionalism and enhances your credibility as a newsletter writer.

By following these steps and organizing your content effectively, you can create newsletter articles that are engaging, informative, and valuable to your readers. Remember to tailor your content to your audience's needs and preferences, and consistently provide quality content in your newsletters.

Use concise and clear language

In order to effectively communicate with your audience, it is important to use concise and clear language in your newsletter articles. By doing so, you can make your content more digestible and engaging for your readers, ensuring that your message is understood and retained. Here are a few tips to help you achieve this:

Avoid jargon : Use language that your target audience will easily understand. Avoid technical terms or industry jargon that may be unfamiliar to them. Instead, explain concepts in simple and straightforward terms, using everyday language.

Keep it simple : Write in a way that is easy to understand. Use short sentences and paragraphs to break down complex ideas into smaller, more manageable chunks. Avoid excessive use of complicated vocabulary or long-winded explanations that can confuse or bore your readers.

Use bullet points : When presenting information or listing points, consider using bullet points. This helps to organize your content visually, making it easier for readers to scan and digest key information quickly.

Be direct : Get straight to the point and be succinct in your writing. Avoid unnecessary filler words or redundant phrases that can dilute the clarity of your message. Instead, focus on delivering your message in a concise and direct manner.

Use visuals : Visual elements such as images, charts, or infographics can greatly enhance the clarity of your content. They provide visual cues that help readers understand complex information more easily. However, ensure that any visuals you use are relevant and add value to your article.

Remember, the goal of your newsletter article is to inform and engage your readers. By using concise and clear language, you can effectively convey your message, making your content more approachable and enjoyable to read. So, keep it simple, avoid unnecessary jargon, and be direct in delivering your message.

Include Relevant Visuals

When writing a newsletter article, it is important to remember that visual content can significantly enhance the reader's experience. Including relevant visuals not only captures the attention of the audience but also helps to convey information more effectively. Here are some key reasons why you should include visuals in your newsletter articles:

Increase engagement : Visuals such as images, infographics, or videos can grab your readers' attention and make your newsletter more engaging. Eye-catching visuals break the monotony of text and make your content visually appealing.

Enhance understanding : Visuals provide a visual representation of the information you are conveying, making complex concepts easier to understand. Graphics and illustrations can simplify complex data or statistics, allowing your readers to comprehend the information more quickly.

Boost retention : Studies have shown that people remember information better when it is presented with visuals. Incorporating relevant visuals into your newsletter articles can help improve the retention of your message and make your content more memorable.

Improve readability : Long blocks of text can be overwhelming for readers. By breaking up your content with visuals, you make your newsletter articles more readable. Visuals act as visual cues, guiding readers through your content and facilitating a smoother reading experience.

When selecting visuals for your newsletter articles, ensure they are relevant to the topic and align with your brand image. Aim for high-quality images that are visually appealing and support your message. Furthermore, consider optimizing the size of your visuals to ensure they load quickly and do not slow down your newsletter's delivery.

Remember, visuals should complement your text , not overpower it. Avoid cluttering your articles with too many visuals that can distract readers from the main message. Ensure that the relationship between the visuals and the text is coherent and well-balanced.

In summary, including relevant visuals in your newsletter articles can significantly enhance engagement, understanding, retention, and readability. By choosing visuals that align with your brand and complement your content, you can create a visually appealing and informative newsletter that effectively connects with your audience.

Format the article for readability

When writing a newsletter article, it is essential to consider the formatting to ensure it is easy to read and understand for your audience. A well-structured and visually appealing format not only draws readers in but also makes it easier for them to scan through the content and grasp the main points. Here are some guidelines to help you format your newsletter article for maximum readability:

1. Use clear headings and subheadings

Headings and subheadings serve as signposts for your readers, guiding them through the article and helping them find the information they are interested in. Make sure to use descriptive headings (# H2 title) that accurately reflect the content under each section.

2. Break up the text with paragraphs

Long blocks of text can be overwhelming and discouraging to readers. To improve readability, split your text into short paragraphs, with each paragraph focusing on a single idea or topic. Aim for about three to five sentences per paragraph to maintain a clear and concise writing style.

3. Utilize bullet points and numbered lists

Bullet points and numbered lists are excellent tools for organizing information in a newsletter article. They help break down complex ideas into digestible, scannable chunks. Use bullet points to highlight key takeaways or list items, and numbered lists to present step-by-step instructions or processes.

4. Incorporate visually appealing elements

Including visuals such as relevant images, infographics, or charts can enhance the readability of your newsletter article. Visual elements not only break up the text but also provide visual cues that aid comprehension. Ensure the images and graphics align with the content and are of high quality.

5. Pay attention to typography

Choosing the right font, font size, and line spacing is crucial for readability. Select a clear and legible font that is easy to read both on desktop and mobile devices. Use an appropriate font size, typically around 12-14 points, and ensure sufficient line spacing to avoid cramped text.

6. Emphasize important information

When conveying important facts, data, or key messages, consider using bold text sparingly to draw attention to those elements. Highlighting essential information helps readers quickly identify the main points, especially when scanning through the article.

Remember, the goal is to present your content in a clear and straightforward manner, making it accessible to all readers. By following these formatting guidelines, you can improve the readability of your newsletter article and engage your audience effectively.

Proofread and Edit

Once you have drafted your newsletter article, it is essential to dedicate time to proofreading and editing. This step ensures that your content is error-free, polished, and ready to be shared with your audience. Here are some crucial steps to take during the proofreading and editing process:

1. Take a Break : Before diving into the editing process, it's advisable to take a short break from the article. This break allows you to approach the content with fresh eyes, making it easier to spot errors and inconsistencies.

2. Read Aloud : Reading your article aloud can help you identify awkward sentence structures, grammatical mistakes, and typos that may have been overlooked during the initial writing phase. This technique also helps in determining if the article flows and sounds natural to the reader.

3. Check for Clarity : As you review your article, pay attention to clarity. Ensure that your ideas are presented in a logical order and are easily understandable to your target audience. If necessary, rephrase sentences or paragraphs to enhance clarity and eliminate any confusion.

4. Review Grammar and Spelling : Proofread your newsletter article for correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Mistakes in these areas can undermine the credibility of your content and distract readers from your message. Use spell check tools, but be aware that they may not catch all errors, so manual proofreading is crucial.

5. Check Facts and Sources : If you've included any facts or figures in your newsletter article, double-check their accuracy against reliable sources. Ensure that you have provided proper citations and attributed any quotes or information to the appropriate sources to maintain credibility.

6. Cut Excessive Words : During the editing process, be aware of any unnecessary words or phrases that can be omitted without impacting the meaning of your content. This step helps streamline your writing and keeps your newsletter article concise and engaging.

7. Formatting and Style : Pay attention to the formatting and style of your newsletter article. Ensure consistency in headings, subheadings, bullet points, and font styles. Proper formatting enhances the visual appeal of your content and makes it easy for readers to scan.

8. Seek Feedback : Consider sharing your draft with a colleague, friend, or trusted editor who can provide feedback on your writing. Their fresh perspective can help identify any areas that need improvement and offer suggestions for enhancement.

Keeping these steps in mind when proofreading and editing your newsletter article will elevate the quality and professionalism of your content. By taking the time to review and refine your work, you demonstrate attention to detail and a commitment to delivering valuable information to your readers.

Wrap up with a strong conclusion

The conclusion of a newsletter article is an essential component that can leave a lasting impression on readers. It provides an opportunity to summarize key points, reinforce the main message, and leave the audience with a sense of closure. To craft a compelling conclusion, consider the following steps:

1. Reinforce the main message:

Recapitulate the main idea or message that you conveyed throughout the article. By bringing this message back into focus, you can help readers understand the significance of the information you shared.

2. Summarize key points:

Briefly summarize the main points discussed throughout the article. This reinforces the information you provided and helps readers remember the most important takeaways.

3. Offer additional resources:

Provide readers with additional resources or links to further explore the topic. This shows that you are committed to helping them continue their learning journey beyond the newsletter article.

4. Call to action:

End the conclusion with a call to action that encourages readers to take a specific next step. This could include signing up for a webinar, downloading an e-book, or subscribing to your blog. By providing a clear call to action, you can engage readers further and build a stronger relationship with them.

5. Express gratitude:

Show appreciation for the readers' time and attention. A simple statement expressing gratitude can leave a positive impression and make readers feel valued.

By following these steps, you can ensure your conclusion wraps up the newsletter article effectively, leaving a strong impact on readers. Remember, a well-crafted conclusion has the potential to influence reader engagement, encourage action, and establish your credibility as an authoritative source of information.

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How to Write a Newsletter Article

Creating a newsletter can be a difficult task and doing it effectively can be even harder. Knowing how to write a newsletter article is crucial here and you need to learn which elements should be included and how to use them properly.

But first, you have to be clear if you really need to send a newsletter or not. Think about what you want to achieve and if you have enough content available.

An online newsletter complements your existing communication accompanied by announcements about product updates, offers, events and general news about the company. It is not a promotional email dedicated to a single topic, promotion or event that includes additional content to make bulk.

If you feel that you can not provide enough important content or that the newsletter focuses on a single event or promotion, you should consider the option of designing an independent email marketing campaign to support these marketing objectives.

In this guide, you will see some newsletter article examples and learn some key elements that you should include in your campaigns.

You can use these to get newsletter article ideas for your emails and create something that could get more email subscribers  so you can continue to build your list effectively. Then, you can focus on implementing your  email marketing strategy  and achieving the results you desire.

How to Write a Newsletter Article: Getting Started

Personalization

If you really want to focus on personalization, you should go beyond simply including the name of the recipient of the email in the  subject line . Currently, most companies already do, so subscribers are accustomed to this type of customization and do not perceive it as something new and exclusive.

If you want to differentiate yourself to the maximum, try to adapt the content of your emails to each recipient.

The first step to achieve relevance is to understand who the person really is that receives your emails. If you have a large amount of information about the tastes, tendencies, and habits of each recipient you will be able to select relevant content for each one of them.

For example, an eCommerce site that has differentiated targets in terms of products, showing in their emails a specific selection of goods and/or promotions based on the characteristics of a purchase will make the communication more relevant to that recipient.

Regardless of the specific profile of the target you are targeting, in terms of content, remember that you are talking to real people, not robots. Use, as far as possible, a relaxed, accessible and personal tone. This way, you can create and maintain fruitful relationships with your customers.

One Email For Every Topic

Don’t confuse your subscribers with multiple topics in one email. This makes it cluttered and hard to convey a particular message.

Every email should have its own specific topic that it addresses. If needed, you can add other parts at the bottom such as “What’s New This Week”, or “What You May Have Missed”.

The main part of the email, which is the start where people will read first, is where your main message should be.

If you want to draw people to a specific page on your website, do it straight away at the top of the email. This increases the clickthrough rate to your desired page and conveys the message immediately.

Find A Striking Headline

To open or not open an email? That is the question. We live in an age where we are bombarded by the inbox and the subject of each mail is a very important factor in deciding whether to open it or throw it in the trash.

The headline is everything when it comes to sending out emails to your subscribers.

It can literally be the difference between someone opening your email or not.

DON’T USE ALL CAPS for your headlines or stupid forms of clickbait.

People are a lot savvier online than they used to be and scan their inbox in a few seconds to see if you look like spam or not.

There are various forms of headlines you could try, but you will ultimately need to experiment to find out what your subscribers are more receptive to.

“ [OPEN] Have you seen the latest about… “

If you saw this in your inbox, would you open it?

I probably would to be honest. Nothing about it looks spammy to me and it finishes on an unfinished note that intrigues me to open it.

Share Valuable Content

People gave you their email address for a reason.

And it was most likely because they want to receive future communications from you about your website.

They could have subscribed for other reasons, like to get a discount code or freebie for example.

But these people are still subscribed nonetheless and offer you the potential to work with.

Offering them something of value in every email you send increases the chance that they will purchase something from you.

This is where you can create high-quality blog posts and let your readers know about it.

The blog posts can even have a few  upsells or cross-sells  in it but should be made for the purpose of providing great information for free.

Start Writing

Sometimes you can think of what to put in your newsletter. So, just start writing and see what comes out.

As we mentioned before, don’t send out newsletters for the sake of it.

If you start writing and you manage to crank out something of substance, see if you can provide value to your readers with it. Sometimes the best ideas can come from nothing, so just give it a go.

Tips For Writing an Email Newsletter Article

Offer Real Value

Offer value as no one else can and start building lasting relationships with your audience. There are many fakers in the world of marketing, offering the illusion of valuable content but with the delivery of nothing. Real value will deliver you real results, so treat this element properly and your audience will appreciate it.

Keep a Schedule

This can be one of the easiest solutions on the list. The fact that you publish constantly and on a similar schedule helps readers to establish an “appointment” with your content.

Thus, excitement and anticipation are established that can be fulfilled. If you publish daily, but for three days you do not publish anything, your credibility may be affected. But if you always follow a schedule, your reputation may increase.

Also, you should be aware that there are certain  times for email marketing  that are better than others, so take this into consideration before you send out your emails.

Maintain Attention

You may have only 15 seconds to convince a reader that your content is worthwhile. You must hook them; Remember that it is very easy for any reader to be distracted and stop reading your content.

Careless work provides an easy way out of your content and this is a very common email marketing mistake  to commit. Try to retain them, provide the right quality and quantity so that they do not go to the competition and remain by your side.

Consistent and Simple Design

The design should be consistent with a large number of blank spaces that make it attractive and easy to read. If you follow a fixed structure, readers will become familiar with the design format and each time it will be easier to navigate through each edition.

The key is to make it as practical as possible so that readers find the sections they are most interested in so that they do not get lost and frustrated with so much information.

The presentation is important since the opening rate is provided by the subject line but many times the click rate depends on whether the user is impacted by the image of the email or not.

So remember to include the logo of your company, use a clean template, check the spelling, and test before sending.

Optimized for Mobile

A lot of people admit that they will delete any email that is not adapted to mobile . If your email does not take into account this factor for a correct design and launch, your marketing budget is not being spent effectively.

With the segmentation by device, you can send the correct message on the right device and thus capture a larger number of customers.

Every article or post is a story. But there are so many “storytellers” in the business at this time that the next marketing conference should be around a campfire.

In this context, however, narration means providing proof with a narrative. Use examples from the real world, for example, testimonials from your customers whenever you can.

When you can not, involve the imagination of your audience with the story of how your life will change with the solution you bring.

Don’t Include Excess Information

Newsletters usually contain news that covers all areas of the company, which makes it difficult to try to group all the articles together. You could create master sections that are constituted by relevant subtitles and images that help guide the reader through the information.

Instead of placing the launch of a product and opening a new office between the announcement of a partnership and an article about a new employee, a good tip would be to create a section called “Our Team” that contains all the information related to employees and another section called “Business Expansion” with company news?

Your newsletter has to be easy to read and direct, so you must maintain a minimal design and copy. In turn, the text should be clear and concise and point to a call-to-action markup that redirects readers to the web page in question or  landing page .

Sending A Newsletter Article

Once you have gone over everything and optimized your newsletter article for each different element you can prepare to execute your campaign and send out your emails.

You can use an email service provider to do this such as GetResponse who will be able to help you build a subscriber list, create newsletters, segment lists, and much more to in order to build an effective campaign.

You can then  study and track your analytics  after the campaign is finished so you can chop and change things round in order to get better results in the future.

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How to write a newsletter article: 11 Tips

  — November 15th, 2023

Grabbing attention is a difficult task in today's content-heavy world. You need your content to make your readers stop and take notice. It's also important that it's of consistently high quality so your readers will continue to read and even recommend your articles.

How to improve employee newsletter open rates and drive engagement

Here are our 11 tips for writing great newsletter articles.

• Keep it short : remember, your readers are busy and need to consume content quickly. Bear in mind they may also be reading the article on their mobile phones. Stick to a concise word count with your newsletter articles. You can explore more in-depth topics in other ways – consider using video  for example.
• Make it relevant : this is a no-brainer, but you want to make sure you are including content that's relevant to your readers. You should use analytics to determine the type of content your readers are typically most interested in.
• Have a catchy headline : it's all about grabbing readers' attention. By using a catchy headline you can pique interest. Write the article content first and then come back to the headline. Make sure it sums up the article but don't be afraid to be quirky or use puns. Making use of numbers is also a good idea to capture eyeballs.
• Include a short intro that sums up what the article is about : often newsletters  will feature a home page or cover page where articles are teased with a headline and short intro. Use this space to really sell the article. Give the reader an idea of what they'll be reading but don't give too much away, make them want to click through to read the whole article.
• Use simple language: avoid using complicated language. You want your newsletter to be inclusive, and not to alienate readers with unfamiliar words or phrases. Keep your sentences short and to the point.
• Add contextual links : by adding links to the content you can direct your readers to other relevant or interesting content. This gives people an opportunity to find articles they may not have already read.
• Add a call to action : make it clear what you want the reader to do after they read the article. Do you want them to sign up for a workshop, read an important PDF, provide feedback, or simply read a follow-up article! Include a clear follow-on call to action at the end of the article.
• Proofread final article : if you've written the article, get a colleague to cast their eyes over your final draft. You will seldom notice your own errors and it's always wise to get a new pair of eyes to look over what you've written. Errors and typos can leave a bad impression on your readers, so be sure you do a simple check.
• Double check spellings of all names you mention in the article: if you are referring to people in your article be sure you have double checked the spelling of their name. People will always remember if you spell their name incorrectly and this might sway them negatively against your content.
• Good imagery: an interesting or illustrative photo is a good accompaniment to any well-written article. Take time to choose an image  that best illustrates the photos and make sure to use a good quality, high-res image. Poor photos can make the rest of the content look bad.
• Include comments facility : to encourage engagement to consider adding a comments facility to each newsletter article. This offers your readers the opportunity to get involved in the conversation and could generate some interesting discussions or even spark ideas for future content.
• Personality Punch: Inject some personality into your writing. Let your unique voice shine through, and your readers will feel a personal connection. An article without personality is like a party without music—forgettable.
• Storytelling Mastery: Craft your articles like captivating stories. Weave a narrative that keeps readers hooked from the first word to the last. Everyone loves a good story—make yours unmissable.
• Visual Variety: Don't limit yourself to static images. Embrace variety with infographics , gifs, or even interactive elements. A visually diverse newsletter is a feast for the eyes.
• Mobile Magic: Optimize your content for mobile users. Ensure that your articles are easily digestible on smartphones. The world is in the palm of their hands—make sure your content is too.
• Social Media Savvy: Spread the love on social media. Share snippets of your newsletter content, enticing readers to explore the full article. Let your newsletter be the talk of the social media town.
• Trendy Topics: Stay on top of trends in your industry. Incorporate timely topics into your newsletter to show your readers you're ahead of the curve. Ride the wave of relevance.
• Sneak Peek Surprises: Tease upcoming content in your newsletter. Give readers a sneak peek into what's on the horizon. It's like offering a glimpse behind the curtain—they'll be eager for the next act.
• Embrace White Space: Don't underestimate the power of white space. It's the unsung hero of design, giving your readers' eyes room to breathe. A cluttered newsletter is like a crowded room—overwhelming.
• Consistent Schedule: Be the reliable friend who always shows up on time. Stick to a consistent publishing schedule for your newsletter. It builds anticipation and keeps your audience coming back for more.

If you're struggling to think of regular content for your newsletter, check out our blog with 26 ideas for newsletter content.

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How to Write A Newsletter: Step-By-Step Guide (With Real Examples)

Bill Widmer

Last Updated Sep 19, 2019

Today I’m going to show you how to write a newsletter — Sumo-style.

In fact, it’s the same newsletter writing tips we used to make $1,846 monthly recurring revenue when we promoted this blog post to our email list:

Want to learn how to write an email newsletter for yourself? Then keep reading!

In today’s article, I share how to write a newsletter, including tips, step-by-step instructions, advanced tactics, and even how to outsource it. Here we go!

4 Tips for Writing A Great Newsletter

• Make It Something People Want to Read
• Fix Your Open Rates
• Be Consistent in Your Delivery
• Keep It Short and Simple

5 Steps for Writing Your First Newsletter

• Decide What You Want to Share
• Write A Draft Like You’re Writing to A Specific Person
• Review the Draft
• Send to A Portion of Your List First
• If All is Well, Send to Everyone

3 Advanced Tips for A Newsletter Your Subscribers Will Love

• Segment Your List for Better Engagement
• A/B Test Your Email Subject Lines
• Survey Your Audience to See What They Want

How to Outsource Your Newsletter

4 tips for writing a great newsletter.

Before we dive into the practical steps, here are the basics of what makes a great newsletter.

1. Make It Something People Want to Read

This one should be obvious, but I get emails telling me someone’s life story or things I couldn't care less about all the time. It’s a waste of my time.

And that’s still not the end of the email! (Sorry Jonathan, love your work, but this is just too much for me to read in my email.)

I’m not saying this to be harsh — I’m saying it because it’s true.

Your audience doesn’t care about your life or your problems. They only care about how you can help THEM with THEIR life and problems. 

It’s just human psychology.

By the same token, don’t only send ads to your list. (Unless that’s why they opted in for, then give them what they want.) 

Ask yourself: If I got this email, would I care? It’s hard to be objective, but try.

Want more examples of great newsletters? Click the button below!

Get The Swipe File With 5 Amazing Newsletter Examples

2. Fix Your Open Rates

Getting people to open your emails is half the battle.

MailChimp ran a study of their customers and found the average open rate across all industries on their platform is just 20.81%. [ * ]

In other words, only a fifth of your subscribers will open your email. Not great.

Luckily, you can improve that drastically by:

Writing great subject lines.

Building trust with your audience that your emails are worth reading.

Using your name in the “From” address instead of a brand name.

Put another way, here’s an equation:

Interesting Subject Line + Audience Trust = Open Rates

If your audience trusts you as a person (or as a brand) and they trust your emails are usually valuable to them, they’ll probably open your email regardless of the subject line.

On the flip side, if they don’t know you well but your subject lines pique their curiosity or touch on something they really want, they’ll also open.

When you have trust AND a great subject line? Boom! High open rates.

3. Be Consistent in Your Delivery

This one’s easy! Don’t send so many emails you annoy your audience, but don’t be a ghost, either. Find a schedule, and stick to it (within reason).

Don’t send three emails one week, then none the next. Stay consistent.

Send weekly emails every Friday? Great! Send biweekly or monthly emails? Awesome. Send emails daily or multiple times a day? That’s probably bad unless your subscribers knew what they were signing up for.

If you’re a statistics-driven person, note that a HubSpot study which shared open rate medians also looked at the median open and engagement rates based on the number of emails sent per month. [ * ]  

Here’s what they found for impact on open rates for their customers:

And for impact on click rates:

It seems the sweet spot is between 16-30 emails per month (an email daily or every other day).

“Note: Campaigns are defined as targeted, individual emails sent to a portion of a database — not an email blast to everyone.”

That said, you should always test different frequencies to see what works best for you. A best practice is to set expectations in your welcome email to tell people how often you’ll be emailing them.

4. Keep It Short and Simple

The final tip before we dive into the nitty-gritty: Don’t tell your life story!

I already mentioned this in the first tip, but it’s worth mentioning again from another angle. People are getting busier every day. Nearly 3.4 million emails are sent every second . [ * ]

Ain’t nobody got time for that!

So do yourself and your readers a favor, and make your emails short and sweet.

Keep your emails no longer than 3 to 5 paragraphs. Use short sentences and simple, easy-to-read wording. Try to write at a seventh-grade reading level or lower (you can use Hemingway Editor to check your content’s reading level).

Now that you’ve got those tips in your back pocket, let’s write your first email newsletter!

1. Decide What You Want to Share

The first step is to figure out what you want to say or share. 

Some ideas include:

New content you created (blog posts, videos, infographics, etc.).

Other people’s content you found that relates to things your list cares about.

Projects you’re working on.

New product launches.

Discounts and flash sales (use sparingly).

*Mini blog posts (emails that are written well enough to be a blog post on their own).

*Mini blog posts are the only emails I’d ever send that are fairly long, because they provide lots of value. For example, Kai Davis often sends his list mini blog post emails: [ * ]

Once you know what you want to share, it’s time to draft your newsletter!

2. Write A Draft Like You’re Writing to A Specific Person

Whenever you write an email, you should always write as if you’re writing to a specific person. This could be a persona you made up to act as your ideal subscriber, or it can be someone you know.

Either way, write the email as if you’re writing to that person. This will help you make it more personal and interesting than if you just wrote to “everyone.”

Need some inspiration? Click the button below to get my email newsletter swipe file with five awesome examples.

Get My Newsletter Swipe File

3. Review The Draft

After you finish your draft, don’t forget to review proofread it. Make sure it sounds interesting, you haven't forgotten to finish a sentence, and you don't have spelling and grammar errors.

I highly recommend you read the email out loud at least once. Reading your words out loud makes it easier to catch typos helps you see if you've written in an interesting, conversational tone.

If you’re feeling lazy, you can copy and paste the email into a text-to-speech tool like Natural Readers or even Word to have it read it to you.

While you’re at it, have someone else read the email. Try to find someone who resembles your audience, if possible. Otherwise, a friend or family member will do in a pinch. They’ll help you further refine the email.

4. Send to A Portion of Your List First

Before sending your newsletter to all of your subscribers, consider sending the draft you just proofread to a small chunk of your list (10-15%). This will help you see what kind of open rates the email gets, and make sure everything works OK.

If you don’t have a large enough list to do this, follow our guide to growing your email list so you can get more subscribers!

5. If All is Well, Send to Everyone

Finally, if everything sent OK and you didn’t get any warnings or people emailing you back saying something is broken or doesn’t make sense, send it to your entire email list

Give yourself a pat on the back! You wrote and sent a newsletter.

Feeling the itch to improve? I’ve got you covered! Here are three advanced tips to take your newsletter to the next level:

1. Segment Your List for Better Engagement

Segmenting your email list means separating your subscribers into different “segments” or “buckets”. It looks like this:

Segmented lists perform far better than non-segmented lists. MailChimp found segmented lists receive 14.31% more opens and double the clicks compared to non-segmented lists. [ * ]

There are a few ways to segment a list:

Based on what they opted in for on your website (i.e., guide to email marketing versus guide to SEO).

Based on which emails they open (i.e., email about email marketing versus email about SEO).

Based on which links they click within the emails (i.e., link about email marketing versus link about SEO).

Ideally, you’d want to segment based on all three. 

For example, if someone opts in to your content upgrade about how to lose weight, send them articles about exercise, nutrition, and supplements.

Depending on which emails or links they click, send them more emails about the topic they’re most interested in. So if they’re most interested in exercise, send them more emails about exercise.

To start segmenting in Sumo List Builder , go to the Success section of any form. 

Then use the dropdown under Add Subscribers To Group to select a group to put them in.

To use this successfully, you need to segment them by how they opt in on your site. 

So if they opt in for a certain content upgrade or discount, put them in a group that sends emails related to that upgrade or discount.

2. A/B Test Your Email Subject Lines

The next “advanced” technique I want to talk about is split-testing your email subject lines. (I put “advanced” in quotes because it’s actually pretty simple.)

Split testing, or A/B testing, means sending two or more variants of your subject line to see which one performs the best (i.e. gets the highest open rate). 

You can also split-test the content itself, such as the email copy, type of discount, etc., but we’ll stick with subject lines for the sake of simplicity.

To A/B test your subject lines, first brainstorm some ideas. Come up with 5-10 ideas, then pick the two most promising to test.

Many email providers, such as ConvertKit, allow you to do this automatically. Click the A/B button next to the subject line.

3. Survey Your Audience to See What They Want

My final advanced technique is the least technical! Surveying your audience is easy, quick, and gives you some great insight into what they want.

You can create a survey to figure out what kind of content they want to see more of, what they like or dislike about your product(s), how often they want to receive emails, and more. The sky’s the limit!

Here’s how it’s done:

Decide what questions you want to ask (use what I said above to brainstorm ideas).

Create a free Typeform account or use a Google Form (they both work great).

Add the questions with choices to your survey. You can choose from multiple choice, short text, long-form text, etc..

Copy the URL for the survey. Write up an email to send to your list and include the URL for your audience to take the survey.

Wait for the results and review! 

Here’s an example survey email you might send to your list:

Hey, [name]…

I need your help.

You see, we’re trying to [mission, such as teach a million people make $100 through Facebook ads]. But we can’t do that without you!

We want to make sure our [content/product] is the best it can be. To do that, we need you to tell us what you need so we can provide it.

Please take 60 seconds to fill out this ultra-quick survey and help us send you better [content/product]: URL

Thanks so much!

Keep crushing it, [Name]

The survey might then have questions like:

What struggles are you having with Facebook Ads? (Long-form answer)

Which part of the advertising process are you most stuck on? (Multiple choice)

How many emails would you like to receive every week? (Multiple choice)

Is there anything else you’d like us to know? (Long-form answer)

Easy-peasy!

Let’s say you’re not too keen on writing newsletters every week. Is it possible to hire someone else to do it for you? If so, how?

It is, and you have plenty of options:

Hire someone from a freelance site like FreeeUp, Fiverr, or UpWork.

Hire someone locally or someone you know and train them to do it.

Hire an agency that specializes in email marketing.

The first two options are cheaper but time-consuming. The third option takes virtually no time at all, but can be extremely expensive. 

If you opt to hire someone as your virtual assistant or newsletter writer, here are a few tips to help smooth out the process:

Try to find people with raving reviews. Testimonials speak a thousand words.

In your job listing, be as thorough as possible. Explain the exact skillset you need, what your business is about, a little about you if it makes sense, and your expectations in terms of the results you’re after.

Always give your job applicants a test. This could be a trial newsletter written in your tone and style, for example.

On average, it costs anywhere from $10 to $100 per newsletter, depending on who you hire and how involved you want your newsletters to be.

Get My Email Newsletter Swipe File

Now you know how to write a newsletter. But coming up with ideas, formatting, and design can still be hard!

That’s why I created a list of five awesome newsletter examples for you to draw inspiration. Click the button below to get my list!

Get The Newsletter Swipe File

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How to write a persuasive email that will increase your revenue, the 5 biggest mistakes you’re making with infographics, how to tweak your email campaigns for the new normal.

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How to write a newsletter: step-by-step guide.

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So, you want to know how to write a good newsletter.

You’re in the right place.

I’ve been writing email newsletters for upwards of 8 years and have helped dozens of clients with their email campaigns.

It seems simple; it’s just a newsletter, after all, right?

Not so quick.

Copywriting is an art, and when done right, it can make you serious coin.

Heck, 82% of B2B and B2C companies use email marketing.

But, many entrepreneurs attempt writing newsletters before they’ve learned the proper strategies and the results are lackluster.

Sound familiar?

Today you’re going to learn how to write a newsletter that captivates people and makes them take action.

Take out your typewriter (not literally), and let’s get into it!

What is a newsletter?

Newsletters are printed or online reports that people can subscribe to. They contain useful pieces of content, updates, and news, as you can guess.

Companies regularly send out newsletters that share stories, information, and resources to help employees perform better.

But we’re focusing on a different type of newsletter today— a marketing newsletter . This is used to drive traffic to websites, generate sales, and grow relationships with subscribers.

This is the Friends Newsletter from Nick Gray for illustration:

Email marketing is older than your grandma (not literally, but close) yet still drives massive ROI.

Don’t believe me?

I’ll let the data do the talking: email marketing generates $40 for every $1 spent , according to Lyfe Marketing.

I’ve also consulted with clients and helped them set up email campaigns that generate five figures in MRR.

You can learn the strategies I used in my online courses .

But without out of the way, I’m going to teach you arguably the most important component of writing newsletters next…

Newsletter subject lines

The subject line of an email will make or break your email campaigns.

If it’s boring, no one will open it.

And if no one opens it, you won’t make any money. 👎

Approximately 35% of all recipients open an email based on the subject line alone. It’s crucial that you take the time to craft one that’s irresistible to click.

One of the best newsletter subject lines to test is one that includes their name .

I’ve never experienced higher open rates with newsletter copywriting than when I use someone’s first name in the subject line.

Something as simple as “To { Name} ” or “Hey { Name} ” works wonders.

Why is this? Because it’s been proven that calling someone by their name enhances something known as conscious processing .

It peaks their awareness, makes them more likely to examine the information, and makes them feel emotionally attached to it—since it’s their name and identity, after all.

It also shows that you’ve done your research and you’re not just sending another copy and pasted email.

To pull this off, make sure that you require at least a first name when opting into your newsletter like MobileMonkey does on their blog :

You can also use a sense of urgency or FOMO (Fear of missing out).

This will entice subscribers to open the email to avoid missing out on something great. Here are some newsletter subject line examples using this tactic:

• “12 Hours Left to Get Your Free Copywriting Course “
• “You’ll Regret Not Knowing These 5 SEO Tips “
• “John, Are You Making This Deadly Marketing Mistake?”

Look how lead pages used this strategy by simply stating, “We’re sorry:”

It instantly creates a sense of mystery.

What happened?

Is something wrong?

There are many questions that might go through your head when you hear a company you’re a customer of apologizes without context.

This no doubt greatly increased CTR as recipients would be interested to read the email.

Furthermore, I love keeping a swipe file to reference every time I’m writing a newsletter. This is simply a spreadsheet with ideas and inspiration.

When you see a headline, subject line, or any piece of copy for that matter, copy it into your swipe file. Obviously, don’t steal material from other writers, but use it for brainstorming.

I go into email marketing and lead generation more in-depth in my copywriting course if you’re interested in learning how to grow a profitable writing business.

Newsletter best practices

Now that you understand what a newsletter is and its components, let’s touch on some best practices and what to include in a newsletter.

Always include an opt-out

The Federal Trade Commission enforces a set of laws known as the CAN-SPAM Act .

This covers commercial email laws, and you absolutely need to be aware of it. Or else you might get the FBI knocking at your door.

Okay, probably not.

But, they are legitimate laws that you need to follow, and you can get into legal trouble if you break them.

Two of the rules you must follow are:

• Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future emails from you.
• Honour opt-out requests promptly.

Any modern email service, whether it’s Mailchimp or Aweber, will provide you with an option to let subscribers opt out.

Always include this in the footer of your emails and ensure that if someone does opt out, you don’t continue emailing them. That’s when the feds will come knockin’.

If you’re enjoying today’s topic, I’d also recommend you read my email follow up guide since it contains a lot of useful information that ties in email marketing in general.

Don’t use misleading subject lines

Have you ever added “FW:” or “RE:” to an email without prior contact with that person?

If so, I have something really bad to tell you…

You’re a criminal!

The second requirement in the CAN-SPAM Act is to not use deceptive subject lines. It must accurately reflect the body of the email.

I would avoid using those prefixes in your subject lines.

Not only is it technically against the law, but it’s tricking people, and I don’t think you want to start off your relationship with a client or subscriber on that foot.

Monitor employees and team members

Do you have employees that email subscribers or prospects on your behalf?

Then you need to be monitoring that they are also following the CAN-SPAM act and general best practices.

Because guess what?

It might be someone else physically sending the emails, but it’s still coming from your address.

A.K.A, you all will get into trouble.

To avoid this, I like giving my team templates and resources to send them on the right track. Give them the link to the CAN-SPAM guidelines , email scripts, and maybe this article.

Don’t overdo it

No one wants to be spammed to death with emails every day.

Omnisend performed a study on email frequency and it’s correlation to open rate and click-through .

They discovered that the fewer emails that were sent on a monthly basis, the higher the open rates and click-through rates became.

What can you learn from this? Quality over quantity. Don’t send out emails every day. Perhaps not even every week.

Aim for a few extremely high-quality newsletters every month.

Include social sharing

Visual content is up to 40% more likely to get shared than non-visual content.

Social sharing is the easiest way to achieve a viral effect with this in mind.

Ensure that there are Facebook and Twitter sharing links at the end of your newsletter, so subscribers can forward it to all of their friends.

On that note, if you use Facebook to promote your business, don’t miss out on my Facebook ad copy article.

Add other social networks to the newsletter if you’d like, as well.

Imagine if you had 1,000 subscribers, and 50 of them shared it. Those 50 people could reach an additional 500 users if 10 individuals per subscriber read it as a result.

Writing a newsletter – the meat and potatoes

Alright, you have a good idea of what a newsletter is, what it achieves, and how to get subscribers to click based on the subject line.

Now it’s time to learn how to write a newsletter article.

How you go about this will change depending on your individual business goals, but the principles remain the same. Here’s what you need to know:

Use storytelling to create emotional connections

Stories help subscribers emotionally relate to your business, its message, and its product.

You can get a story in three different ways: stating your own experience, sourcing someone else’s story, or crafting a fictional tale.

A personal story is effective because you can tie it into writing a newsletter article effortlessly. Let’s say that you’re promoting an e-book on affiliate marketing you recently published.

You could tell the story of how you were broke and in debt, but stumbling upon affiliate marketing changed your life. You bought a car, got an apartment, and now know the secrets to master it as a business.

That’s pretty simple, of course. But, consider your own life experiences, especially emotional ones, and how you can mention them in newsletters.

Look how Ramit Sethi talked about his experience getting married and asked for subscribers’ best piece of advice in this email :

It’s a simple illustration of how a piece of personal information can make you feel closer to the other person sending the email.

If you don’t have any stories to share, there’s nothing wrong with using someone else’s. Publications, specifically news outlets , do this every day. Everyone loves a good story, but it doesn’t have to directly be yours.

Research stories and case studies on the topic of your newsletter. If it’s about machine learning, find a story about companies that used AI to transform their productivity and output.

Lastly, you can always just make up a story.

But, be careful. Don’t claim anything outrageous, like a previous customer used your product and generated $1 billion.

People will see right through that, and they’ll lose trust in you.

Read my guide on storytelling in copywriting to learn more effective tactics.

Make it a slippery slope

The goal of the headline is to make them read the first sentence.

…The goal of the first sentence is to make them read the second sentence.

…The goal of the second sentence is to do the same as above until they finally reach a call to action.

Focus on the flow of your words. You want the subject line to intrigue them first. It should relate to their needs, wants, or pain points as a customer.

Then, the first sentence needs to be bold . Use an interesting stat, a thought-provoking question, or make an absurd comment. The goal is to hook their attention.

Traffic Think Tank executed this perfectly in one of their promotional newsletters.

Short and snappy sentences make it easy on the eyes.

Every sentence has a meaning and substance while effortlessly leading into the next.

Use the other copywriting principles in the remainder of the body, and next you know, they’re at the end of the newsletter with their credit card out.

The slippery slope method was developed by the famous copywriter Joseph Sugarman. I wrote a blog post covering some of his main tactics you can read here .

Make them feel like it’s real

Imagine selling flashy cars like Ferraris or Lamborghinis. We’ll call our company Bambino’s Autos .

We’re trying to increase how many subscribers call to schedule a test drive for some new arrivals.

How could we convince these people to come test a $500,000 car?

Simply, actually.

Just make them feel like they already own it . We could write something like this:

Everyone is staring at you. People are taking pictures. The scream of the V12 engine turns every head in sight. You’re pressed back into your seat with the slightest touch of the peddle, and the digital dash looks like something developed by NASA. Just glancing at the car gives you the jitters, let alone knowing that you own it. Test drive the new Lamborghini SVJ today.

Even if you’re not a car enthusiast, I think it’s safe to say that writing like this would make you excited to go for a test drive.

It speaks to the customer’s interest in appearing special, wealthy, and wanting to drive fast. I’m generalizing here, but follow along.

The goal is to make them imagine as if they already own the product and the experience that would come along with it.

This, as a result, generates the associated emotions and makes them more likely to take action. Cool, huh?

Predict their questions and answer them ahead of time

To make your email newsletters “slippery,” you need to be able to predict what questions and thoughts your subscribers are having. This allows you to answer them ahead of time and keep them flowing through your content.

Consider what they would want to know about pricing, features, benefits , refunds, and any other detail about what you offer. Weave this into your copy, and they will think you’re a mind reader.

More importantly, it prevented obstacles.

If someone has to stop and scratch their head or wince in suspicion, you’ve lost them .

They’re likely to click off the email and do something else—losing you the sale.

This requires you to have a solid buyer persona and a great understanding of your ideal customer.

Do you? If not, it’s something you need to develop because all great copywriting stems from it .

I recommend using a free form tool like Google Forms .

Use one of the available templates or start from scratch.

Add questions that you would like to know about customers. Good ones include:

• How much are you willing to spend on this type of product?
• What problems are you experiencing in this area?
• Why do you shop with your favourite brands?
• How did you find our business?

Send this out via (no pun intended) a newsletter to collect feedback.

Finish it with a call to action

A call to action is very literal.

It’s telling the reader to take some form of action that gets them closer to a sale.

In your case, it might be a discovery call, consultation, or similar.

You can’t just leave them hanging either, so the end of the newsletter needs to forward them somewhere. Examples of calls to action are:

• “Buy it now”
• “Continue reading”
• “Get our free e-book”
• “Schedule a call today”

Want to hear some crazy stats? Wordstream found that emails with calls to action lead to a 371% increase in clicks and a 1617% increase in sales.

Yep, you read that right, too.

It’s such a simple concept, but it makes so much sense, as well.

As humans, we want to be told what to do.

It makes our lives easier since it means we don’t have to think harder.

When we see a call to action, it immediately helps us move on to the next step.

Look how the retailer Huckberry did this in one of their Labor Day sale emails:

They use the “Shop Now” call to action many times throughout their newsletter to promote visiting their online store.

Best time to send email newsletters

In my cold emailing guide , I spoke about how the best time to email someone is before 9:00 AM and after 5:00 PM.

Why do you think this is?

…Because it’s before they get to work and after they’ve come home.

Your email will be one of the first things they see when they check their mailbox if you follow this strategy.

Additionally, Hubspot discovered that emails sent at 11:00 AM on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday experience the highest open rates.

Try it out for yourself.

Every business has a unique audience, so monitor data to see if your subscribers are different. You might notice that they open emails at 2:00 PM more, for example.

Summing up newsletter copywriting

Copywriting newsletters is a great way to reach a large audience, and collecting an email list is one of the wisest things a business owner can do.

Focus on nailing a subject line that people would want to open in the first place. Urgency and using someone’s first name is a proven tactic.

Then, take the time to craft a body of text that acts as a slippery slope. Every sentence should flow smoothly into the next and ideally will make them want to finish reading the entire newsletter.

Add in your own personal stories to make them relateable, or find one that relates. Poke their imagination with vivid detail, and answer any questions they might have before they’ve even thought of them.

If you do all of that, they’ll make it to the end of the newsletter, and you can finish it with a call to action.

Check out my copywriting courses to learn more and get mentorship from me and a community of writers.

Here’s an infographic that sums up everything I spoke about today, as well:

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How to Write a Newsletter That Gets Read (+ Infographic)

Want to engage your audience while sharing your best content, deepest insights and brand story? Add a newsletter to your marketing strategy.

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you’re no stranger to the power of email marketing campaigns. Powerful tools for B2C and B2B alike, email is still one of the best ways to push prospects further down the sales funnel, and a valuable opportunity to engage existing clients.

That said, not all emails need to be sales-oriented. Have you ever considered the power of an email newsletter?

If you want a simple, consistent way to engage your target audience without annoying them (especially when they have bigger fish fry like, say, dealing with a pandemic), newsletters are the tool you’re looking for.

Email Newsletter vs. Email Campaign: What’s the Difference?

No doubt this is one of the first questions on your mind. The answer: Frequency and consistency. Newsletters are regularly occurring emails designed to keep your subscribers, customers, potential customers and other members of your target audience up to date on the latest information you have to give them. They don’t sell products – newsletters simply keep your subscribers engaged with your business, lasting for as long as your company is open.

Email campaigns, on the other hand, have a limited timeframe, a set number of emails and are generally planned in advance. They’re tools for pushing prospects down the sales funnel, directing them to gated assets, event sign-up pages or, in some cases, sales teams.

That’s an important distinction, so I’m going to repeat it: Newsletters aren’t the place for pushing products.

Newsletters are for building relationships.

A great newsletter shares knowledge with your customers in a manner that is conversational rather than promotional. Email campaigns are for sales; newsletters are for thought leadership and increasing engagement through storytelling.

Now, if that’s not a concrete enough goal for you, don’t worry. You can use newsletters to boost a variety of quantifiable metrics, including:

• Increasing qualified leads through gated content by directing readers to downloadable assets.
• Building brand awareness by promoting social media sharing.
• Increasing contact with existing customers.

You’re not limited to choosing one option; your business can have multiple newsletters, each with its own goals.

That said, your newsletters shouldn’t be a mess of content. Rather, they should be segmented into different audiences, goals or other criteria and written with a consistent subject.

To illustrate what I mean, let’s look at the newsletter page for the Harvard Business Review :

As you can see, HBR has many newsletters, and all are sorted into relevant content categories for readers. What’s more, you’ll also notice that HBR varies its email newsletter frequency depending on the content. Some are delivered daily; these are usually brief tips or snippets that can be read quickly and link readers to longer articles if they wish to learn more. Others are blog post roundups delivered weekly or monthly, which are consistent enough to keep readers engaged but not so constant that they become annoying.

So, now that we’ve discussed the various uses of email newsletters, let’s talk about creating them.

Step 1: Coming Up With Your Email Newsletter Topic

Ideally, your newsletters will exist as long as your business does, meaning they’ll evolve with it. Therefore, you should never run out of content ideas.

Now, I’ll be frank: As a writer, the idea of never running out of topics seems daunting. “Surely I’ll run into writer’s block sooner or later?”

Nope! If you ever get stuck, just think of what either your business or your audience has been focused on recently. Some simple ideas include:

Content Roundups

This is a way to ensure your email list sees your work (and a chance to show off your work, of course). You can link to your best-performing content (increasing the likelihood that it’ll resonate with your audience) or share something that could use a few more views.

In the HBR example above, you can see that the publication has segmented its roundups into various categories, including leadership, finance, strategy, tech, best of and more. You may not have as many categories (a single bi-weekly roundup may suffice for your company), but the content you include must be similarly consistent.

Company News

If your company is extremely large and incredibly active, you can create a monthly newsletter summing up your latest movements. Be careful of timing here — sending emails too frequently could annoy your audience while sending them too infrequently makes them think you’re asleep.

Case studies, white papers, infographics and surveys are all great details to share with your newsletter subscribers. Even other writing like exceptional blog posts, LinkedIn pieces, guest blogs and more can greatly appeal to your email newsletter audience.

Step 2: Creating a Killer Subject Line

Your subject line is your first chance to hook readers into your newsletter — and you don’t want to waste the opportunity!

So how do you get your foot in the metaphorical door? Follow these essential tips:

• Personalization: You need to know your audience. One subject line may appeal to a certain demographic more than another and that can help you target different audiences. Cater your content to the individual based on data as much as possible.
• Inspire action: If you’re informing clients of a time-sensitive event, offer or opportunity, emphasize that in your subject line. This can add urgency that gets your reader to open the newsletter.
• Pique their interest: Give your readers an idea of your newsletter content that’ll make them more curious and more willing to check out the full story.
• Keep it concise: You only have a few words to capture your audience’s attention, so use them wisely! The opening of your subject line needs to grab the reader and a long, wordy sentence won’t do that.
• Add numbers: Quantifiable statistics and data are a great way to make your newsletter stand out in an inbox.
• Have fun — and keep it professional: Humor is your friend. Don’t be afraid to show some personality in your subject line. On the other hand, avoid writing in all-caps or using too many exclamation points, both of which can come off aggressively, or worse, as spam.
• Look for examples: Do you have a newsletter you love? Or a brand that creates great subject lines? Take note of what grabs your attention and let that help you create your own subject lines.

Step 3: What to Include in the Body of Your Newsletter

The specifics involved in writing an email newsletter are similar to that of creating an email marketing campaign. The main difference is the structure of the body. Newsletters provide an overview of several different subjects at once, so the body is best broken up into separate sections for each.

Naturally, this means newsletters typically have a longer word count than sales emails. The latter are best kept to 50 to 200 words , while the former can be “ as long as they need to be .”

Pro tip: Your writing should be as concise as possible while still saying everything you need in order to convince the reader to take an intended action.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s discuss the structure of an email newsletter from the beginning.

Attractive Sender and Subject Line

The sender and the subject line go a long way toward convincing people to open an email. (Want proof? Go to your spam folder and look at the garbage subjects and spammy “from” addresses. Are you at all interested in what they have to say?)

So, what makes an attractive sender?

• A name: Every guide on writing a B2B or B2C email will tell you to use a human name rather than something like “[email protected].” Doing so builds familiarity and creates that human connection that is so vital to building business relationships.

What about an attractive subject?

• Information: Subscribers want to know if the email they’re about to dive into is relevant. If they don’t get that sense, they’re more likely to leave you unread than to go searching for interesting content.
• Brevity: There’s no consensus on the perfect character length for an email subject line. Shorter tends to be better: various guides will say between 55 and 70 characters maximum. That said, shorter isn’t always possible if you want to clearly identify your newsletters.

This is where your newsletter shines. You’re compiling a lot of information about various topics here, so it’s important your readers receive a cohesive package of content while quickly understanding that the text contains information about a wide variety of subjects. This way, they can quickly scan your newsletters for the details that attract them.

Think of how a newspaper sports page is broken into separate sections. Each article is visually separate from another, divided either by spacing or lines. Furthermore, every article is about something different, but they’re all unified under a consistent theme.

Newspaper writing is also generally consistent overall. Each story has a unique tone influenced by the writer, but the masthead has a clear, consistent voice. YouTube commenters don’t write for The New York Times, after all.

Plain Text vs. HTML Emails

This section talks about newsletter design and, more specifically, how you format your newsletter content. Plain text is exactly as it sounds: the equivalent of a basic Notepad document in email form. There’s no text formatting, images or graphic elements of any kind. It sounds boring, but several studies show that plain text actually increases open rates.

One possible theory is that email clients may flag HTML-heavy emails and mark them as something to be filtered. As Hubspot pointed out, Gmail’s default “Promotions” filter tries to catch any sales-rich messaging and keep them out of the inbox. Depending on the email client’s default filter configuration, some customers may unfortunately never lay eyes on these newsletters.

Additionally, email clients display HTML differently: An HTML email opened in Gmail may look different when opened in Outlook. Furthermore, some email clients or browsers can’t display HTML emails at all, nor can screen-reading software for disabled viewers parse through the code. The reasons for this are complex (email client Litmus wrote a handy blog about it here), but the basic fact is that plain text emails offer greater consistency and ensure all of your subscribers are able to consume your newsletter.

That said, HTML can facilitate more powerful and impactful visual content. You can incorporate your brand’s colors and logos, split the body of your email into manageable sections and link to your website with attractive CTAs. Plus, HTML can introduce hierarchy into your emails via colors and font sizes, making them much easier to digest. Everything looks the same in plain text, making it difficult for readers to quickly identify the important information.

So which do you choose? The answer, of course, is both. Most email marketing platforms make it easy to convert your HTML emails into plain text, so there’s no reason to skip one version or the other.

Also, if you’re worried about some clients not displaying your snazzy HTML email correctly, you can always give readers the option to view the newsletter as a single web page in their browser.

Creating an HTML Newsletter Template

Just as newsletters are delivered according to a consistent schedule, so too should they have unifying visual elements. To put this in plain speak, a template ensures your newsletters look like they’re parts of a regular series (which, of course, they are). To put this plainly, a template ensures your newsletters look like they’re parts of a regular series (which, of course, they are).

Creating a newsletter template from scratch is complicated and requires some detailed knowledge about programming, design and various email clients, but there are some general visual rules you should always follow:

• Use a fixed width rather than a fluid layout. This means setting horizontal dimensions so readers aren’t forced to scroll from side to side or rotate their mobile devices in order to read a single line.
• Include a header. This adds visual interest, establishes hierarchy and incorporates your branding right from the outset.
• Break the body into sections. Each one will contain a different subject. The sections should be visually divided, and your most important or engaging content should a) sit at the top of the newsletter, and b) take up the most space (if your sections will be of varying size).
• Place social icons. You want people to follow your Facebook and Twitter, don’t you?
• Add a share button. This allows readers to share content from directly within the newsletter without having to navigate away from their email.
• Include a footer. This will mimic the footer on your website, reinforcing your branding and providing contact information.

This post from Hubspot has some great examples of newsletter templates if you need some inspiration.

Finally, here’s a brief checklist of other things to include:

• Your logo. It’s the most important visual element of your brand, after all.
• Headings. Important for establishing visual hierarchy and delineating different sections.
• A human face. Adding a face to go along with the sending address increases the human connection.
• Links to content/a CTA. You’ll always want to link back to your website or social pages to increase clicks/reads/engagement/whatever metric you’re looking for.

Step 4: Writing Your Email Newsletter Content

Newsletters can be jam-packed with information, but they should still be easy reads. Writing one is a bit art (using a voice that matches your audience) and a bit science (optimizing your subject, visuals and copy). Use short sentences and avoid passive voice for greater clarity.

In terms of tone, newsletters are a great opportunity to be personable and enhance the human connection between your business and your readers. Write as though you’re speaking to a friend who knows your industry: You don’t have to avoid corporate jargon completely, but you shouldn’t be overly academic, either.

Also, and I cannot stress this enough: Proofread your work .

Every spelling or grammar mistake – even the understandable ones – reduces the credibility of both your writing and your brand. the credibility of both your writing and your brand. This goes for any and all marketing content, but especially newsletters. A typo in a 2,000-word blog post is easier to overlook and forgive than one in a 100-word email.

Step 5: Scheduling Your Email Newsletter

Frequency is the main differentiator between newsletters and email campaigns. Your audience should expect to see your newsletters on the same days in a certain increment. The weekly newsletter is most common, but it can also be daily, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly.

Now, the exact frequency depends on your content and your audience. If, for example, you plan to create a newsletter showcasing your latest content, consider how frequently you update your blog and create new assets. You’ll probably struggle to include enough information for a daily newsletter, but a weekly or bi-weekly one would work.

Similarly, a monthly newsletter is good for subjects with a few pieces of content – for instance, a summary of company news. A monthly newsletter of your blog posts, on the other hand, will have too much content and readers likely won’t make it to the end.

Still, this doesn’t tell you when and how often to send your newsletters. Unfortunately, there’s no universal answer. What works for your audience probably won’t work for another company, and vice versa.

That said, you can use some generalities to get started. Experiment with different dates and times and, once you have enough data, review your analytics to see when your audience opens emails.

Step 6: Measuring and Reviewing Newsletter Data

You’ll want to give your audience some time to read your emails to get an accurate analysis, so wait two or three days after sending before reviewing your analytics.

The data you’ll want to review includes:

• Total opens/open rates.
• Total clicks/click-through rate.
• Website visitors.
• Bounce rate.

This will give you a good understanding of how people are interacting with your newsletter.

Yes, we’ve just gone through a lot, but trust me: Writing a newsletter is a lot easier than it sounds. Once you get into a consistent routine, your emails will almost write themselves.

Now tell us: What’s in your next newsletter?

Editor’s note: Updated May 2022.

By Autumn Green

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How to Write a Good Newsletter

Last Updated: October 19, 2023 References

This article was co-authored by Janet Peischel and by wikiHow staff writer, Jessica Gibson . Janet Peischel is a Writer and Digital Media Expert and the Owner of Top of Mind Marketing. With more than 15 years of consulting experience, she develops content strategies and builds online brands for her clients. Prior to consulting, Janet spent over 15 years in the marketing industry, in positions such as the Vice President of Marketing Communications for the Bank of America. Janet holds a BA and MA from the University of Washington. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 631,895 times.

These days, everyone seems to have a newsletter! Writing one is simple, but with a few tricks you can make your newsletter fantastic. As long as you keep it interesting and informative, your audience will have a reason to read. It might help to think about the newsletters you open and read—they're probably useful, to the point, and personalized. Check out some of these useful techniques for your next newsletter.

Make the title or subject line interesting and informative.

• For instance, instead of using the title or subject line, "Community Newsletter, May 2021," you could say, "Spring plant sale, picnic, and community fundraiser."
• If you're writing a church newsletter that only comes out once a month, you might write, "January Newsletter: Potluck, Outreach, and Church Renovations!"

Outline the main points you want to make.

• If you're making a big announcement for your brand, you might want to limit the newsletter just to that information so there's more buzz about it. For a standard newsletter that you release every week or month, you might include a handful of smaller points—updates on a business, upcoming events, opportunities, or fundraisers, for instance.

Give authoritative information.

• You may need to research the information that you put in your newsletter. Spend time searching credible sources that you feel comfortable sharing.
• For instance, if you're sending out a nature conservation newsletter and you're bringing up the issue of fishing licenses, link to a government website with the official rules, guidelines, and costs.

Limit the promotional content in your newsletter.

• A non-profit charity might fill the newsletter with summaries about some of their key initiatives. Then, they could wrap up the newsletter with information about a current fundraising need.
• For example, if your company sells sustainable products for the home, your newsletter might cover current stories about the environment. At the very end, you might give them an offer or discount for a product on your site.

Close out your newsletter with a call to action.

• For example, if you're writing a seasonal newsletter, you might link to a schedule of events for your area or give direct links to upcoming programs.

Keep your writing conversational.

• Writing in a relaxed, conversational tone can make the newsletter seem more personal. This is a great way to build a connection with your employees, for instance.
• Be conversational but don't include a lot of slang that your readers may not know.

Make it personal.

• For example, you might imagine writing to a friend or colleague. You'll probably do a great job keeping the tone conversational and engaging this way.
• If you're writing the newsletter for a small group of people, like a congregation or your neighborhood, it's totally fine to mention people by name. You may say, "Mark completed the community garden beds last week," without having to list last names.

Choose a streamlined format that you like.

• If you've got a blog or website, you could also highlight portions from a post. Then, link to the original post so readers can check out more if they're interested. Maybe you've got a fashion blog and you can link to a recent post about a popular style trend.
• Instead of creating a double-column newsletter that packs a lot of content in a small space, go for a single-column layout so your reader can immediately see the topics you're covering. [11] X Research source

Make the format easy for your audience to read.

• Open your newsletter and check it over to see if the text is easy to read. Text that's too small might stop people from reading.

Include relevant images so your newsletter pops.

• To make the pictures more engaging, choose action images, if possible. For instance, instead of having volunteers pose and smile at a company event, share a picture of them doing something—filling care bags, taking donation calls, etc.
• Readers are currently favoring a single, relevant image instead of several smaller images in newsletters. A large image can also make your newsletter look sleek and less cluttered.
• For example, if your company's owner was recently featured in the news, use an image of them instead of clip art of a stack of newspapers.

Proofread before you send it out.

• Ask a friend to read through your newsletter to get some feedback. It's always good to have another pair of eyes looking for errors, too!
• Do an online search for sites that will proofread your work. In some cases, you may need to install an extension so it can run on your browser.

Community Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ Janet Peischel. Digital Media Expert. Expert Interview. 30 March 2021.
• ↑ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/email-subject-lines/
• ↑ https://www.vic.gov.au/create-and-manage-email-marketing-campaigns-digital-standards
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/personal_correspondence/newsletters.html
• ↑ https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/279239
• ↑ https://youtu.be/06H4nL9H2Dk?t=485
• ↑ https://youtu.be/06H4nL9H2Dk?t=316
• ↑ https://www.inc.com/dakota-shane/how-to-write-an-email-newsletter-your-audience-will-actually-read.html
• ↑ https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/204844
• ↑ https://youtu.be/_c3dXgVoBHY?t=72

About This Article

If you want to write a good newsletter, you’ll need to make sure the writing is interesting, relevant, and easy to read. Think about who your audience will be when you're picking your topics since some material will appeal more to certain demographics than to others. Once you decide on your content, split your newsletter up into different sections, like a response section, letters to the editor, industry news, and feature articles, to keep your information varied and interesting. To draw your readers' attention to the different sections, write interesting headlines with powerful action verbs that will grab their attention. Before sending the newsletter out, make sure to proofread it for spelling and grammar issues as well as consistency of tone and voice. To learn how to research topics for your newsletter, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How To Write A Newsletter? – Everything You Need To Know About Newsletters

Your search for the perfect guide to help you write a newsletter ends here. Read on to learn everything you need to know about newsletters.

In my initial days, I always thought, “Emails, huh. Are people still using it!”

Thankfully, it was not until I wrote one for an influencer marketing campaign two years ago that I realized it is much more than just cranking a 200-word letter. 

See, you’re not the only one to gag over the idea of writing emails. It seems easy and outdated, isn’t it?

Like who in the seven heavens would care to read your mail, quite frankly, even I don’t open too many of them. So, how come it became the most incredible marketing tactic?

Yes, the coolest. Don’t believe me? Let me throw you some facts here.

In 2020, the email marketing industry was valued at $7.5 billion, and it is anticipated to shoot up to $17.9 billion by 2027. That’s not just a statistic showcasing emails as major marketing weaponry. It’s social proof that amidst the social media bandwagon, emails still exist. 

Though everyone’s familiar with emails, do you know many entrepreneurs struggle with writing newsletters? It’s uncanny but true. Email marketing is not simple. It takes a lot to make it to the inbox of your customer and get them to open your mail. 

Table of Contents - Quick Look At What's Inside

The Right Way To Create Email Newsletters

There’s a preconceived notion that emails have to be short and catchy, which is the right way. But trust me, the shorter the content, the harder it gets to write it down. 

So, today we’re going to learn about this correct method a little differently. We’ll understand the Whys, the Whats, and the Hows of the newsletter in a short bit, but before we move further, let me ask you a little question: 

Have you ever volunteered or been asked to write a “clickbait” newsletter ? If yes, how was the experience? Tell me in the comments below.

I had a harrowing experience at first. It took me a long time to figure out how emails worked. They seemed simple, but they weren’t. Over time, the process became comforting. Trust me, when you see those numbers creeping up, it becomes more fun. 

If you’re new, I promise you’ll learn as much as possible from this article. So, while you’re reading, I urge you to jot down your doubts as you read on. We have a Facebook Community Page which you can join and post your doubts there. We’ll have a hearty discussion and clear them all out. 

So, let’s get going. 

What Is A Newsletter? 

Newsletters are valuable pieces of content that contain stories, information, announcements, promotions, and other interesting content. 

Businesses use newsletters to drive traffic to their website, drive sales and grow relationships with customers. This is called email marketing. 

According to experts, email marketing generates a 4200% return on investment. It’s huge, right? 

But that’s not the only special thing about emails. There are many benefits of email marketing. 

Let’s take a look at them one-by-one: 

Benefits Of Email Marketing – Why You Should Send Out A Newsletter

1. cost-effective.

In addition, email marketing is also cost-effective in comparison with traditional marketing. A study by McKinsey & Company suggests email marketing is up to 40 times better than social media. The study also shows that purchasing happens three times faster in emails than in social media. 

In other words, you can utilize email marketing tactics to launch your business into space. 

2. Ability To Personalised Content 

It is a great way to leverage personalized content to grow your business. No wonder 87% of marketers use emails for advertising their content. Therefore, if you’re a marketer who wants to forge relationships with customers, emails are the way to go.

3. Improves customer experience

When subscribers engage with your content, you can use those metrics to gauge your content marketing strategies. 

• How Many People Opened Your Mail And
• Click Through Rate On Your Mail, 
• How Many Reached Out Your Website Through Newsletter 

These are some of the key indicators that can help you improve the reader’s experience.  

4. Person-to-person Interaction

Imagine getting an email from a brand you love. Wouldn’t you be interested in reading what’s inside?

Influencers have become who they are today thanks to this idea. They use emails to interact with their followers. People love to interact when they believe the business cares about them. 

The bonding will help you to generate leads from scratch. Also, this interaction encourages people to share the content with their friends. 

5. Drives Sales At The Cost Of Haystack!

The nature of email marketing is such that you can earn a lot at the cost of a dime. There is no need to pay for the print, postage, advertising, or any other expenses. 

It is thus the best way to automate your sales cycle. When customers subscribe to your mail, they’re already into your content. You just need to tempt them to purchase something at an extra discount or for free if they’re new to your list. 

6. Drives More Traffic To Your Website Or Social Media 

What would you like your customers to experience when they visit your website? Is there any new product you are offering? If yes, then how would you call them out?

A newsletter can be one of the most effective ways to increase traffic to your website and social media. You can add buttons that link to your website, Spotify podcast, YouTube channel, or Instagram handle. 

Newsletters should also provide connections outside of email. Once you become valuable, readers will want to socialize. What better way to do this than to utilize social media?

7. Builds Brand Recognition 

This goes without saying that personalized emails improve your brand recognition. 

Have you seen Swiggy, Uber, or other companies send exquisitely curated emails to their customers? 

Such emails contain relevant information, new offers, exciting coupon discounts, or just an informal heads up to check their app. Wouldn’t it be worth it to follow these footsteps and create catchy email newsletters for your small business? 

So, as you saw, email newsletters are a top-of-the-line tool to create a buzz within the audience. Do you also want to write unique newsletters? Here are the elements that make up a newsletter. 

Elements Of A Good Email Newsletter

1. subject lines: the trump card.

This is what the reader sees first. Therefore, the subject line must be impeccable without any excuse. Subject lines can make or break the whole campaign. They have to be right on the money. If they’re boring, there’s no reason to open them. 

One of the best methods is to address the recipient by their first name. Even a “Hey Judy”  can work wonders for you. The reason is simple. When you call someone by their name, it sparks awareness and makes them more attached to your message. 

Writing names also helps you stand apart from the copy-pasted newsletters. Here is an example where an outreach program contacted its subscribers using this tactic- 

“John, Can you represent us at Stephens University?”

Now, Stephens University happens to be John’s alma mater. Wasn’t it cool how they utilized a bit of research to create a personal connection? The reader will certainly want to at least open and read the mail. 

Another good way to write good subject lines is by reviewing good newsletters. Keep a spreadsheet file to record those impactful subject lines or any copy that is relevant. They’d be your tiny “ideas pack.” You can use these for brainstorming and create something unique.

2. An Engaging Preheader Copy

After the subject line, the next thing that readers will come across is a subheading or a preheader. Make sure you tease them a little more along with the headline. This gives you an outside chance to stand apart from all the inbox noise. 

A preheader acts as the bridge between your subject line and the content. So keep it as simple and relatable as you can. 

Take this for example: 

“Learn it Right” gives you another chance to break into its free training courses.”

It’s simple and worth skimming i.e, readers will be tempted to scroll down. So, make it as concise as possible, approximately 70 characters. 

3. Top Stories Or Featured Content

What’s that one awesome piece of content that you’d like everyone to read? 

Use this content to feature at the top of your newsletter. It not only builds curiosity but also helps you drag visitors to the website straightaway. 

Narrow down your options until you filter down that one must-read content. This concept is very common in newspapers. The big headlines you see are the most newsworthy. As a result, they make the top of the page. The same goes for your subscribers who will want to read something worthwhile upfront.  

This featured content provides them with an early peek into your content library. Also, it’s a good practice to analyze your best work every now and then. 

4. Use Graphics And Images

Your newsletter needs more than just text. It should be something that the readers can relate to from a distance. 

This generational transition in content marketing is fueled by visuals. In newsletters, it’s even more important to hook recipients with relevant visuals. You can try memes, short videos, or GIFs to pull them into reading your newsletter. The key is mixing up the visuals along with the text. 

The caveat is to avoid using blurry images that could hamper the appearance. There’s nothing more disgraceful than a low-quality image that does not embed properly within the content. As a result, it hampers the reading experience. 

You must use clear, crisp, high-resolution images that serve a purpose in your newsletter. 

5. Use Scannable Layout- Blocks, Zig-zag, Inverted Pyramid, Etc

Have you seen the layout of a newspaper? 

It has a block-by-block pattern that displays content under different blocks-big or small. 

Similarly, you can use blocks to organize your newsletter content. This not only improves readability but helps the reader discover important topics. 

An organized layout provides a direction to the reader. Do you read the newspaper thoroughly or skim through the headlines? 

Even if you do read thoroughly, your eyes don’t tire out because of the pattern. Now, you get why patterns are important. Even magazines, ebooks apply the same tactic—all for improving the reader’s experience. 

Along with blocks, you can also try out other email layouts like the inverted pyramid or the zig-zag method to make it more attractive. 

The key to these layouts is to come straight with the most important information at the top and then follow up with extra details down the line. 

You have to take the structural constraints into account for email marketing. Because the attention span of your subscribers largely depends on your layout. 

6. Include Titles And Descriptions For Each Type Of Content 

This is similar to why we use subject lines in our emails. The same way a subject line pulls you into the Inbox, titles, and descriptions do the same. 

Let me be honest. People don’t read all your content. Sometimes, it’s the title that gets your content the desired attention. Therefore, each piece of your content must include a title and a one-sentence description.

The description helps the reader get a bird’s eye view of the theme of the content. It makes your content more noticeable to the reader. 

7. Strong And Prominent Call-to-actions 

A killer Call-To-Action gets the customer closer to purchasing your product. Without this, you can’t expect your reader to become your customer. 

It’s incredible how CTAs play with the human mind. People want directions. Rather than thinking for ourselves, we like it when someone tells us what to do. 

By including a call to action, you can encourage the reader to take the next step (action) to your website, visit your social media, or go to any online portal where your products are listed for sale. 

Some examples of the most effective call to action are:

• Click Here To Open
• Don’t Miss Out 
• Schedule A Meetup Today
• Register Today

Now, these are not the only ones, but you’ll get the idea. They’re short, crisp, and action-oriented. 

Also, make sure these CTAs are the most visible on the page. You can use contrasting colors to make the CTAs pop off the newsletter. Trust me. The design makes a huge difference.

Meanwhile, statistics love CTAs too. A research study shows that newsletters with CTAs led to a whopping 1600% increase in sales. 

Yes, read that again. 

It’s a simple trick without any rocket science behind it. So, write clear and excellent CTAs to make your newsletter click-worthy. 

8. Use the 90:10 rule

There is a high chance your reader doesn’t want to purchase your products or services at the moment. If they’re your subscribers, they already are loyal customers. While they may need to see offers and discounts, you must also provide them with some relevant information. 

If you provide good content, readers will be more inclined to purchase your products and services. 

This is why you should divide your content as 90% informational and 10% promotional. Don’t send promotional content unless you have some big announcements, exciting offers, or some important company news share. 

The informational content serves as the glue in your sales cycle. It keeps the customers waiting for the big surprise. 

9. Lead Them With Links 

You don’t just want to leave them hanging within the newsletter. You have to lead them somewhere. To ensure readers stay updated on the progress of your campaigns, you must also provide a link to your social media handles. The social icons on your newsletter must be visually appealing, so it is easy for the subscribers to follow you. You can also send them to a landing page, a product, or anyplace else where you wish to drive traffic.

10. Use A Checklist

Your subscribers don’t want to read everything you send. So, it might be wise just to ask them what type of content they’d like, how often they would like to receive emails, what they like or dislike about your product and many more.  

Here, a checklist helps you personalize the user experience. Let the users tell you what works for them. This way, you build loyalty among the audience. 

Who knows, you might even get a thank you note from your readers if you follow this practice!

11. Unsubscribe Option

As part of the new rules and regulations, You must provide your subscribers with an option to opt out of receiving future newsletters.

You have to include this in the footer of your newsletter. Also, you have to make it clear that they won’t be receiving any more emails in the future. 

Check out this message I received from Stage 32, a creative writing platform while writing this article: 

Look how polite it is. It’s about acknowledging your reader’s patience and gently asking them if they want to continue or not. 

It’s a healthy practice to take care of your readers, isn’t it? 

How To Create An Impact With Your Newsletter?

Now that you’ve all the tools in your pocket, it’s time you learn some key pointers to carve out an effective newsletter. First, let’s talk about what you, as a writer, can do to make it work. Then we’ll take the customer’s point of view: 

A. From A Writer’s Standpoint

1. decide on a specific topic.

You don’t want to sound all over the place with your newsletter. Often companies get repetitive with their content. And that spoils the overall messaging. 

So, narrow down on a specific topic you want to talk about. Some options that you may consider for newsletter ideas:

– A new content you created (Youtube video, blogs, infographics, podcasts, etc.)

– Some projects you’re working on. Giving them a heads up about your progress or simply asking them for some suggestions can never be a turn-off. 

– Customer reviews & success stories

– New product launch 

– Monthly round-ups 

– Recent surveys conducted at your company

– Behind-the-scenes videos and content from your company 

– Quotes

– Informative content (best practices, listicles, etc.)

Once you’ve zoned in on your topic, it’s time to craft a story.

2. Tell A Story

Storytelling is an evergreen tool for any type of communication. By stories, I don’t mean life stories. People don’t care much about life stories. They just want their pain points to be addressed. 

I know it’s harsh but true. 

I’m talking about telling a story that is relevant to the situation. Prepare a great hook. It could be anything related to your customer reviews or the success stories. 

You have to play with the reader’s mind. It’s part of human psychology to hear stories. But at the same time, don’t make the story all about you. Ask yourself: If someone sent me this mail, would I read it? 

Your story must have some common objective i.e, to provide value to the customers. I know I’m blabbering this every second line, but it’s true that it’s a golden tactic to appease your customer base. 

3. Keep The Story Short And Simple

On average, an American receives 130 emails per day. Clearly, nobody has the time to open and read a long story. 

So, keep your emails short and crisp. Use bulleted lists and margins to convey your point. Avoid using more than 5-6 sentences in your email. The shorter, the better. 

This way, you’re doing yourself and the readers a huge favor. The time you save from creating short emails allows you to focus on distribution. 

4. Be Consistent 

How often will you send your newsletters? Daily, weekly or monthly. All are good, depending on how often your subscribers prefer to consume if they like to open your mail daily. Great! Send them every Saturday if they like it every two weeks or monthly, awesome. Send them accordingly. 

You must figure out a schedule and stick to it religiously. 

Research says it’s a good practice to send an email daily or every other day. But in the end, it all comes down to what works for you the best. So, try experimenting with all types of frequencies- daily, alternate, weekly and monthly. You can even ask your audience for suggestions regarding the schedule. 

This can help you get a perfect idea. Additionally, once a pattern is established, you can always involve your audience for further suggestions or changes.

5. Write To An Ideal Reader.

Write as if you’re reading it out to a friend. This will help you make the content more relatable and conversational.

Reading it out aloud is the best editing practice. Whoever it may be – you reading out to yourself or to your friends, the purpose is clear – To make it specific and personal for the reader. 

From A Subscriber Standpoint: How To Get The Subscribers To Love Your Email Newsletter?

1. ask people to sign up.

Now that you know a little about human psychology, you’d understand why we need to ask people to take action. Because we all love directions. When you ask them to sign up for your mail, it creates an actionable impact on the reader. 

Writers and small businesses often don’t like to get out of their bubble. While they think asking is more of a pestering activity, readers tend to like it. 

A simple “Sign up to the newsletter” can work if done in a “ non-salesman-like ” manner. 

2. Offer Them Incentives

Quite frankly, no one will read your newsletter if you don’t have something to offer. People want valuable content, service or product. 

So, you have to give them something to hold onto like discounts, free trials, free sign-ups or a social media feature. And if you have planned for something, let them know beforehand. 

It takes an open-line communication style to set the tone for a great reader experience. As a result, the audience remains intrigued while you gain constant traffic. 

Remember, it’s the intent to provide value that matters. 

3. Optimize For Mobiles

A study by SuperOffice revealed that approximately one in five email campaigns are not optimized for mobile devices. 

But, what’s the need to optimize your email for mobiles? You must have heard marketers talk about “how to make emails look good for mobiles.” Why? What’s the big reason?  

Well, answer this question first. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? If it’s not a smartphone, keep your spirits up. But what about the rest of the world?  About 80 percent of smartphone users check their mobile phones within 15 minutes of waking up each morning, reports a study from IDC. That’s how we live these days. 

Strange, but we have to adjust to this transition. Thus, it’s very understandable why more than half of people check their emails on smartphones. And if the email is not fairly optimized, they simply delete it. Either the link gets grouped clumsily, or images don’t load properly, resulting in a poor reading experience. 

The good news is that we have the right method to deal with this problem now. Here are some of the best practices involved in mobile optimization: 

– Use links and CTAs larger than 50-pixel range 

– Use space between so that there isn’t any accidental clicking

– Use services such as TinyPng or Photo Resizer to reduce your file size up to 70% without affecting quality. 

– Use the “from” label, subject line, and the preheader text very cleverly. These are one of the first things a reader sees in an email. So, you have to make these words count.  

Take these steps now, and very soon, your newsletters will start to look great on mobile phones.  I hope I have laid down the basic steps, but if you feel there’s more, feel free to add in. Spread your word!

4. Utilize Segmentation Techniques

The segmentation technique refers to separating your subscribers into different segments or parts.

Let’s suppose you conducted a survey where you found out about the user’s preferences. Based on what they opt-in for, you can now send them personalized content respectively. For example, if someone opts in for some job-related content, you can send them articles about various courses, internship programs, or recent job postings. 

As a result of what emails they open or which links they click, you can send them more emails about the topic they’re interested in. This is called segmentation, and it works far better than non-segmented lists—the reason being a simplified reader experience.  

So, make sure you put a little thought into your customer’s preference and craft your emails in segments. Although it will take time, you will reap so many benefits. 

5. Use A/B Subject Lines. 

It’s another name for Temporary or Extra subject lines. A second email could be sent to a similar set of customer segments with an additional subject line so that you can assess which of the two emails was more successful. 

It’s more about experimenting with multiple subject lines in tandem. So, make sure you have created a list of at least a dozen subject lines from different sources. Pick two at a time and let them play out. 

This practice improves your subject line writing. This results in a better understanding of your subscriber’s likeability. As a result, knowing your audience will result in more impactful content. 

6. Keep The Design Simple. 

A newsletter can easily look cluttered if it lacks harmony in its design. The lack of whitespace and jarring colors make it unbearable for the reader to look into. 

Every designer needs white space. Whitespace makes the design uncluttered and easy to skim. While designing anything, make whitespace your best friend. 

Another significant aspect is the coloring. Make sure the CTAs are brightly colored. They should appeal to the reader in one go. Try as many different combinations as you can until the perfect one rings in for you. 

The purpose is to keep the design natural. Now, don’t worry if you don’t know enough about designs. Tools like Canva offer free tutorials to beginners where you can learn the basic techniques of designing. 

And trust me, designing is fun. Once you start going, there’s no way back!

What Is The Best Place To Create A Newsletter?

A big shout out to the internet. You can create anything for free. Beginners can easily experiment with so many free tools available. 

Below, I have shared a list of 10 softwares where you can create and get your newsletter up and running in a flash: 

• Stampa (via Litmus)
• Campaign Monitor
• Email on Acid
• ActiveCampaign

Now, here’s how you can create newsletters using these tools:

• Sign up with your email address, Facebook account, or Google account. 
• Choose the best template. You can browse and choose from a wide range of newsletter themes.
• Check out the features.
• Add some personal touch to your design.
• Publish and share.

Yes, it’s that simple. Get your hands dirty and start creating. 

Where To Find The Best Newsletter Writers For Hire?

A newsletter is one surefire way to build your audience. Once you start hitting those numbers and people start pouring in, you’ll realize how much fun emailing can be.

The content marketing efforts can be cumbersome. You may not get the time to create your newsletters though it’s something you’d enjoy learning. Constraints are inevitable, so it’s best to outsource in that case. 

There are many platforms where you can find newsletter writers. The best writers can be found on agency.contentwriting101.com

Other places where you can find newsletter writers including – Fiverr, Upwork, freelancer, etc.

So, Are You Writing The Newsletter Now?

Now that you know about the elements and best practices, it’s time for the rubber to finally meet the road. 

Pick your topic, craft an awesome subject line, write your content using storytelling and visuals, include an impactful CTA, revise the draft at least a dozen times, and now you’re ready to send them flying. 

But hey! Hold on. 

I think I missed one thing!

Don’t forget to put in some research. Analyzing some of the best email newsletter examples gives you a good idea of how it should be done. 

So, with this, I leave you with some of the best newsletter examples by Brafton. You can use these as references if you’re thinking of writing newsletters. Other sources include Hubspot, which has an ultimate lookbook of newsletters from some of the best companies. 

The internet is filled with information. Learn from your resources and keep digging until you find your style. Once you have a few ideas under your belt, you will be able to craft the newsletter of your dreams and set your business on course. 

So, are you feeling inspired to craft your first newsletter? Is there anything you’d want to add here? I’d love to have it discussed in the comments!

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How To Write An Effective Newsletter Introduction (With 10 Examples)

• 27 August 2021
• By Victor Ijidola

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Over 319 billion emails will be sent today. Make people see yours.

Make yours stand out from the crowd, no matter how many emails you send. It all starts with a short and sweet introduction to Flodesk.

Nailing your email introduction is more important today than it’s ever been. Statista estimates that 319.6 billion emails will be sent per day in 2021. This means inboxes are a highly competitive space, with lots of brands vying for the same attention. So it’s absolutely critical to write a strong newsletter introduction. You’ve got to hook readers immediately and convince them to keep reading. 

7 quick tips to write an amazing newsletter intro

To help you, we’ve compiled some tips to write amazing newsletter intros along with real-life newsletter introduction examples. 

If you’re still in the list-building phase of your email marketing campaign, check out 7 Newsletter Signup Form Examples to Grow Your Email List

1. Adopt a “no-fluff” mindset

To get your email subscriber’s attention you need a stunning newsletter header and your intro needs to get to the point right away. No small talk, no chit-chat, just the point. 

Now, this doesn’t mean you should be brash or unconversational. It just means to think about your message from the reader’s perspective. A no-fluff mindset means removing anything that doesn’t add value to the reader or explain what they’ll get out of the full email. 

For example, here’s an email introduction from Carol Tice at The Freelance Writers Den :

Hi [First name],

This week, we’ve got a podcast with Stefan Pallios, author of the new book The 50 Laws of Freelancing. He and Den admin Jennifer Roland talked about that book, his freelancing career, and how he manages such ambitious side projects alongside a full slate of clients.

Check it out in the Resource Library.

Carol gets right down to business, immediately describing the value in the current week’s email—a podcast interview with Stefan Pallos, author of the book, The 50 Laws of Freelancing . And she includes a clear CTA encouraging customers to click through to her website to listen to the podcast and check out the related blog post. 

2. Make it a one-liner—with a strong punch

One-liners may seem simple on the surface, but they often make us laugh in spite of ourselves. And when every word counts, it’s hard to beat a one-liner in terms of efficiency when you write intros. You can make a connection, establish rapport and give existing customers the giggles all in one quick sentence. Of course, you’ll need to use them sparingly in your email campaigns and only when it’s relevant to your brand or product. 

(To learn more about how to connect with your customers in emails, watch 3 Tips to Connect with Your Audience in Emails .)

For example, here’s a good one-liner that would be great as a recipe intro:

“Just burned 2,000 calories. That’s the last time I leave brownies in the oven while I nap.” 

If your email newsletter happens to focus on baking and you’re sending brownie recipes, something like this would be a great way to grab your customers’ attention while staying relevant. One-liners are also a fantastic way to incorporate a visual into the newsletter. 

Pack a punch with your first Flodesk newsletter

First impressions are everything in email marketing—make subscribers remember you with an unforgettable introduction email using Flodesk templates.

3. Ask an interesting question

Questions are useful in intros because they get the reader thinking, tempting them to continue reading. The trick, however, is to lead with an open or leading question as opposed to one with a specific yes/no answer. 

For instance, if you ask: “Need quotes to refinance your mortgage?” 

The reader is likely to think, “Nope.” And then just move on. 

But if you say, “Will mortgage rates stay this low much longer?”

It’s likely to pique their interest. And they may click through to find out what you have to say. 

Here’s a good example of a newsletter intro that asks an interesting question from Annie Franceschi at The Greatest Story Creative: 

In Annie’s email newsletter intro, she kicks things off with a question that’s likely on the mind of her potential customers (newbie email marketers)—“But how do you get started and what should you be sending to be genuine and not sleazy?”

Such a question gets the reader thinking and also succinctly communicates what they can expect from the rest of the newsletter. In fact, Annie follows the question immediately with a link to her new podcast episode discussing the topic in question. 

4. Share an uncommon, but relevant statistic

A great statistic can tell the whole story quickly, eliminating the need for long-winded descriptions. Plus, the numbers themselves are visually eye-catching. 

According to Mike Hamers , owner and founder of Lightspeed Commercial Arts, “Our brains are attracted to numbers because they automatically organize information into a logical order… like candy for your organizational mind.”

Statistics are effective anywhere you put them, whether in your intros, headlines or subject lines. For instance, LinkedIn ran A/B testing on headlines with and without statistics:

Headline A: 75% of B2B buyers rely more on content to make purchasing decisions than they did a year ago. 

Headline B: B2B buyers rely more on content to make purchasing decisions than ever before. 

And they found that statistics had a big impact on click-through rates. The headline with the statistic (Headline A) had a 37% higher click-through rate and 162% more impressions. 

Statistics can also pique interest, similar to a question, enticing readers to find out more. This is where the uncommon part comes into play. If it’s a statistic that the reader has heard before, there’s nothing to motivate them to keep reading. 

But if it’s new or uncommon, the reader is more likely to want to learn more—especially if it’s relevant. Statistics also lend authority to your newsletter since you’re introducing the reader to new, relevant information. 

Take this example from CSP Kitchen’s email newsletter : 

“Coffee With a Kick: 37% of Survey Respondents Add Alcohol to Coffee at Work”

CSP Kitchen leads with an eye-catching statistic that 37% of respondents add booze to their coffee at work. Given all we’ve shared about statistics, you can imagine how this is going to make a lot of readers want to find out more, just out of sheer curiosity. 

5. Lead with a relevant image

Everyone knows the old saying, “a picture’s worth a thousand words.” And even though it’s a cliche, it’s true. You can communicate so much with a relevant image, leaving you to get down to business with your intro. Images are also a great way to make a personal connection with customers since images can evoke feelings more quickly than words. 

Here’s a good newsletter example that leads with a relevant image from ‘Cause We Can Events: 

In this email newsletter from the folks over at ‘ Cause We Can Events , things kick off with an image of a bride and groom with a stunning desert backdrop. If you’re in the wedding planning world (which their audience likely is) this picture is going to tug at your heartstrings pretty quickly. 

Don’t limit your images. Think big.

Flodesk’s simple but elegant templates make your newsletters stand out with loud and proud images that capture your subscribers’ attention.

6. Share an unpopular opinion or bold statement

Sharing an unpopular opinion is a surefire way to get your readers’ attention and make them curious to know more. As Psychology Today explains , the drive to seek out information about our world is hardwired into us, through our dopamine-reward system:

“There is a body of research suggesting that dopamine incentivizes behavior more through wanting (…) than liking. In effect, the dopamine creates an itch that needs to be scratched.”

Unpopular opinions and bold statements can create an especially strong itch. However, you need to be careful to avoid a few common pitfalls—namely alienating your readers with the opinion itself or coming off as too “click-baity” by using irrelevant or overly shocking statements. 

One of the best ways to avoid these problems is by sharing opinions that aren’t yours. Instead, you can share opinions held by others about something relevant to your audience. Then, the reader will be interested in the opinion enough to want to find out what’s behind it without being offended or annoyed. 

Here’s a good example of a newsletter leading with a bold statement from Sarah Peck’s Startup Parent : 

“Truth talk: the world of work was not made for working parents.” 

This email newsletter starts out with a bang as Sarah drops some “truth” on her customers. The bold statement grabs attention and likely elicits a strong response from her readers (mostly professional women). 

Read next: How to write a nonprofit newsletter !

7. Call out their common identity

Calling out a common identity is a good way to personalize an email. It immediately tells the reader you have something in common and makes a connection. Plus, it gives them a reason to consider what you have to say. 

Here’s a good example of a newsletter intro that calls out a common identity from Sarah Turner : 

“These are the top 10 books that EVERY copywriter MUST read. These books were crucial for my growth as a copywriter & an entrepreneur and I hope they’ll be just as important to you.”

Sarah’s email newsletter targets copywriters and entrepreneurs. As you can see, she calls out their common identity right away, immediately making a connection with her customers. 

Let’s now look at even more examples of newsletter intros so you can draw inspiration from them.

10 best newsletter introduction examples

These intro examples are some of the best we’ve seen, so we’re sharing them with you here:

1. Myrtle’s irresistible sense of style 

Founded in 2011 by Whitney Bickers and named after her great-great-grandmother, Myrtle is an online boutique featuring pieces by independent female designers. 

This fashion newsletter introduction does a great job of capturing the sense of style inherent to Myrtle’s business. Leading with a crisp, relevant image and bold colors, the reader is immediately drawn into the email. 

It’s also a great example of using enticing text, offering “the first of spring” which makes customers feel like they’re getting early access to something. 

2. Nutriciously’s mouth-watering summer recipes

We love how this email newsletter introduction by Nutriciously gets right down to business. It has a bit of conversational banter at the top but the main image clearly shows the value to the reader right off the bat—22+ fresh vegan summer salad recipes. 

The arrows are a nice touch too, drawing subscribers’ eyes to the main event and making the whole thing feel a bit personalized. 

3. An Indigo Day’s chic freebie

Fans of Jessica Camerata’s fashion and lifestyle blog, An Indigo Day , will love her awesome newsletters as well. Jessica sends weekly digest emails to educate readers about her newest blog posts, including a personal note. 

Plus, she shares loads of helpful information with her customers, including a monthly newsletter with 3 things inspiring her for the month ahead. And, every now and then, she shares a favorite product; a must-shop sale; or inside tips and tricks. 

In this particular newsletter, Jessica is sharing a 14-page free guide with subscribers. We love how she features the actual guide as the image in her introduction. 

It’s also great how the message is personalized with the subscriber’s first name. 82% of marketers report an increase in open rates using personalized emails vs non-personalized emails so this was a good move.

4. D’Ana Joi’s inviting photo and tone

We love this particular intro from multi-passionate coach D’Ana Joi because it leads with a great photo of herself (important because she’s selling coaching services) on a brightly colored backdrop. The photo is inviting and professional, gently nudging the potential customers to engage. 

The intro is also personalized with the reader’s name and quickly gets to her value proposition—the top five benefits to working with a multi-passionate mentor. 

Create vibrant and professional newsletters with Flodesk

Your customers deserve better than plain-text emails. Let them live life in full technicolour.

5. Science & Soul Nutrition’s relatable opening line

This email newsletter from Science & Soul Nutrition , a meal delivery service, hooks readers with an enticing statement—“Count colors not calories.” 

It goes on to share about the benefits of plant-based food, suitable substitutions for customers with food allergies and a reminder to check out the current week’s menu, creating value and enticing readers to click through.

6. Wayfarer Design Studio’s aspirational intro

Abby over at Wayfarer Design Studio gives us another good example of a newsletter introduction. She leads by dangling something her customers likely aspire to—turning a $2.5K client into a $9K client. 

And she follows the enticing headline immediately with a CTA button to watch the interview. For those who make it past that, Abby then personalizes the introduction using the subscriber’s name and explains a bit about the interview series and what the reader can expect. 

7. Westerly Kitchen’s well-designed layout 

Westerly Kitchen is a meal delivery service in the greater Seattle area. They really know how to format a newsletter for their audience, as you can see in their email newsletter promoting the current week’s menu. Since people “eat with their eyes,” the bold visuals make a big impact with clear and concise copy describing the week’s dishes. 

They also include a CTA button to “Order now” both above and below the fold for extra conversion.

Plus, their newsletter is optimized to look just as good on mobile devices as it does on desktop. According to a recent article in Forbes , mobile now accounts for 46% of all emails opened by consumers and professionals. While mobile responsiveness is an especially important feature when sending email newsletters, platforms like Flodesk make it easy with templates that are optimized to look great on any device, in any inbox. 

Looking for the best software to design beautiful email templates like the one above? We have you covered – check out these top Mailchimp Alternatives

8. A&M Collective’s sharing expertise and value at the top

In this no-fluff email newsletter from social media strategist and blogger Antoinette Faltz-McQueen , the value is presented to the reader immediately—4 Tips To Increase Your Engagement. 

For her audience of small business owners and coaches, these practical tips not only provide value but also demonstrate her expertise, potentially turning subscribers into clients. 

We especially love how she includes a link to a freebie as her call-to-action, along with an invitation to check out her new website. 

9. The Fearless Chase Collective’s understanding of their target audience

Madison Anaya knows her audience. And it shows in this quiz-based email newsletter from The Fearless Chase —the business education and community-focused membership platform you never knew you always needed.

According to Neil Patel , “Using quizzes in your marketing strategy is one of the most underrated marketing moves. (…) They are incredibly effective at generating leads, engaging your audience, and much more.”

Showing her marketing prowess, Madison made one of her own personality quizzes featuring sitcom characters from popular shows. This is one quiz you won’t find on Buzzfeed though as it tells users which iconic sitcom character embodies their current stage of business. 

We also love how Madison’s intro (and all of her emails) are written in a unique and consistent brand voice. To learn how to craft your own, check out, “ Brand Voice: What It Is, How to Develop Yours & Why It Matters. ”

10. Brick & Batten’s value-packed welcome letter

We love this effective welcome email newsletter by Allison Vaccaro and Cassie McDowell of Brick & Batten , an exterior home design company. They lead with a simple but on-point message (We’re Glad You’re Here) which makes subscribers feel welcome. 

Then they proceed to load up new subscribers with lots of valuable and relevant links, making it clear from the get-go that this is one newsletter that will be worth the reader’s time—especially since it mentions that subscribers will be the first to get deals or a discount code. 

To learn more about writing effective welcome emails, read our post on the 11 Best Examples of Welcome Email Subject Lines (& Tips to Write Your Own) .

Email newsletter introduction FAQs

What do you write in a newsletter introduction.

A newsletter introduction should tell the reader what they’ll get out of reading the rest of the email or linked article. This should be of value to the reader and communicated without fluff and in a conversational tone. 

What makes a good newsletter introduction?

Good newsletter introductions get right to the point, using techniques such as questions, statistics, images and one-liners to make a connection with the reader and get the main idea across quickly. 

Once you’re done with your intro, check out, “ How To Write A Newsletter (A Really, Really Good One ), on Flodesk University to learn about writing the rest of your newsletter.

Let’s sum it up

If you’re wondering if all this effort is really worth it, especially with so much competition in the inbox, you’re not alone. But the answer is a resounding yes. Email marketing still has the highest ROI of any marketing channel, bringing in $42 for every dollar spent. So, now you can get to work on your email newsletter, knowing that your time is well invested.

If you want to learn how to make email marketing easy, why not read our post on 11 ConvertKit Alternatives for Your Email Marketing Strategy .

Flodesk: the simple & intuitive email marketing platform

You don’t have to learn code to create a beautiful email or create an introductory newsletter your subscribers love- that’s why we’re here!

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About the author

Victor Ijidola

Victor Ijidola is the CEO & Content Lead at Premium Content Shop—a content marketing agency for B2B and SaaS businesses. Feel free to connect with him…

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Memberships & Subscriptions

How to Create a Newsletter (8 Steps)

This in-depth guide to creating a newsletter will help brands and independent creators make and send successful newsletters.

By Mighty Team

December 27, 2023

19 min read

IN THIS ARTICLE

Think back to 2010, if you remember. Social media was exploding in popularity. Who could have predicted that in the 2020s, email would still be one of the best ways to market, grow an audience, and reach people?

But it’s still going strong. Yes, newsletters are still a super viable creator economy business.

In this article, we’ll introduce you to:

• What a newsletter is
• Important statistics about newsletters and email marketing
• The benefits of creating a newsletter
• The newsletter monetization model
• A step-by-step guide for creating one

What is a newsletter?

A newsletter is a physical or virtual publication that shares ideas, news, updates, and information on a recurring basis with a specifically defined audience–most often people who have chosen to join an email list . Newsletters can be created by businesses or individual creators, and in ideal circumstances create awesome interest in and loyalty to your brand. Newsletters can be text-based or can include links, videos, or other rich content features.

Email newsletters have been around since the early days of the internet–the mid-90s saw wide-scale adoption of email and marketers recognizing its value as a tool. But by the 2000s, virtually everyone had an email address. New technologies emerged for running email marketing at scale–companies like Constant Contact and MailChimp. These let newsletter providers track subscribers and send en-masse, and the software has become even more sophisticated since then. We’ll talk about these features below!

Despite the rise of social media, email newsletters haven’t gone away. ConvertKit reports that their creators sent 21,723,377,414 emails in 2022. And we’ve seen the explosion of the creator-led monetized newsletter as platforms like Substack and Gumroad grew businesses around subscriptions.

Newsletter statistics

Here are some Newsletter statistics to get you excited about starting a newsletter right now!!

• There will be 4.73 billion daily email users by 2026 ( Statista )
• Daily emails sent will jump from 306 billion to 376 billion between 2020 and 2025 (Statista)
• 43 % of emails are opened on a mobile device (Statista)
• Gmail has 1.8 billion users in 2023 ( Tech Report )
• Revenue from email marketing is projected to grow from $7.5 billion (2020) to $17.9 billion in 2027 ( Statista )
• No need to have a huge following to earn a living from it. Only 3% of creators have more than 10,000 subscribers ( ConvertKit )
• The average open rate was 43% in 2022 (ConvertKit)
• Creators send the most emails on Tuesday (ConvertKit)
• 4.7% of readers will click through links in an email (ConvertKit)
• 80,000 creators will use email automation this year (ConvertKit)

Newsletters and the news

Some newsletters are… well… news . Newsletters are disrupting journalism too. Reuters found that 17% of people are reading newsletters for the news weekly, with 10% of those saying that newsletters are their main source for news.

This is still dominated by the newsletters of major news outlets (50% are reading these), but there are more and more individual and independent journalists and experts using newsletters to grow their impact. Subscribers to individual journalists are highest in the U.S. according to Reuter’s study, likely an indication that the personal brands of journalists are a bigger deal in the U.S. than elsewhere.

Readers said they subscribed to newsletters for: 1. Convenience, 2. The author’s personality, 3. Diverse perspectives, and 4. Unique takes ( Reuters ).

Benefits of creating a newsletter

A newsletter is an incredible thing that can lead to transformative relationships with your readers. So whether you’re running a huge brand or starting a 1-person newsletter business as a creator, here are the benefits to watch for.

• Intimacy with readers : There’s something special about being in a reader’s inbox, especially if you make it past the spam folder. It’s familiar.
• Establishing expertise : The newest crop of creators sending emails includes a lot of experts–people like journalists, authors, and bloggers. And people want that expertise and are even willing to pay for it.
• Secondary business value : For both brands and independent creators alike, email generates secondary business value through purchases and subscriptions for both physical and digital products .
• Nurturing : For those who have newsletters as part of a sales funnel or community flywheel , it lets you nurture the relationship with potential customers–keeping front of mind until they’re ready to buy.
• Cultivated audience : With social media feeling a bit like screaming into the void, starting a newsletter can create a cultivated audience of people who are excited to hear from you.
• Response option : When you create emails, one of the most interesting things can be the responses. People will hit reply from time to time and ask questions, give feedback, or just say hello. Ask any creator, these moments are special!
• Digital product integration : Newsletters integrate easily and naturally with pretty much any digital product–especially a membership community , which we’ll talk about below.

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Newsletter monetization models

Most people learning how to make a newsletter are also interested in monetization, and there are honestly a lot of ways to earn from newsletters. And these are not mutually exclusive–you can virtually combine any of these:

• Direct subscription : People can pay directly for the newsletter on a one-time or monthly membership.
• Paywalls : A newsletter could contain a hard or soft paywall , connecting readers to premium content they can pay for.
• Communities : Building a community and connecting it to your newsletter (e.g. using Mighty Networks and ConvertKit’s integration) can monetize with a combined membership or upsells in the community.
• Digital products : Newsletters are an excellent way to make money selling digital products . They work great as part of a digital product sales funnel for nurturing and creating offers. Think things like online courses , virtual events , or eBooks.
• Physical products : Newsletters can be great nurtures for physical products–it’s why every store tries to get you to join theirs when you checkout.
• Services : Finally, newsletters work great for service providers. They can give value, help to establish the brand or consultant as an expert and nurture a sales process too.

Tips to create newsletters people open and forward

• Use their name . Subject lines with a person’s name in them have a 50% higher open rate .
• Give them exactly what they want . With the segmentation tools of a modern email platform, it's easier than ever to send readers what they want and avoid what they don’t. Good segmentation increases open rates by 30% and clickthroughs by 50% .
• Say something worth reading . Go look at the brand emails in your inbox. Most of them are clones of each other. If you can say something unique, that’s worth reading because of its value or interest, or even just your voice or your take, you’ve got a better chance of success.
• Include offers . If emails are part of a sales process, offers lead to higher open rates.
• Have a unique take . Why would someone forward something that sounds like something every other brand or creator would say? If you want organic newsletter growth from forwarding, you’ll need to generate a unique take nobody else has–that makes people say “You gotta read this” to their friends.
• Provide value . Never forget the question everyone asks themselves before they open an email–WITFM. What’s in this for me? Do you have concrete tips on earning more or living better? Do you share unique research they can use at work or a unique take they can learn from? People are inherently selfish–we open emails because they help us.
• Be actionable . If your brand is that you offer some sort of transformation (e.g. get a promotion, get in better shape), let your emails give concrete actions that will help readers get the things they want.
• Be fun. Last, don’t underestimate the value of being entertaining, interesting, or even funny.

How to make your newsletter suck

So we’ve talked about succeeding, what if you want to make your newsletter suck? Well, here’s what you do.

• Only include corporate updates that interest your company, but are not the least interesting to your readers.
• Copy some marketer’s “email templates for more sales” that have 0 personality and don’t fit your brand.
• Write dry, corporate jargon so that you sound like a company–not a person.

Obviously, this is a joke. But remember that it’s your personality, unique take, and specific newsletter ideas and suggestions that make a newsletter shine!

How to create a newsletter

If you’re joining the creator economy and ready to start your first newsletter, how should you go about it? This will be an in-depth guide to help individual and independent creators get started (but much of this will apply to brands too). Here’s how to make a newsletter.

1. Start with the topic

Find a topic you want to write about. Consider:

a. Your expertise and credentials

What unique education or experience do you have that gives you a unique take? The top three newsletters on Substack by traffic in 2020 were:

• Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson - History, U.S. politics, and what it means to be an American.
• TK News by Matt Taibbi - Deep journalist takes on important issues.
• Common Sense by Bari Weiss - Investigative journalism from a balanced perspective.

These aren’t fluffy newsletters. They’re deep takes by intelligent people who work hard to cover an issue–and that’s what people pay for. Although “news” is a huge demographic, you’ll find successful newsletters dealing with arts and culture, business and marketing, hobbies and special interests, and more.

Find where your experience, expertise, and credentials can combine with a unique take.

b. What you’re passionate about

Passion is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but starting a newsletter is a long-term commitment. It will take you time to grow your subscriber base, probably months if not years. (This might be quicker if you have an existing following you can bring in.)

If you’re a middle manager at your company and all you want to do is talk about gardening, maybe you should do that. Passion is hard to force–if you’re not excited about a topic now, you definitely won’t be a year from now.

Your passion will bubble over in your writing.

c. The thing nobody’s saying

If there’s a unique perspective you want to hear and you’re frustrated you’re not hearing it, maybe you need to create it.

For example, one of our favorite creators on Mighty is Martinus Evans–who started creating content directed at the “back of the pack” runners, those who weren’t the top runners but wanted to learn to run anyway. The result was 100,000 followers and the Slow AF Run Club .

If there’s a perspective you’re not hearing or content you’re not seeing, maybe it’s a good place for you to start creating.

2. Identify your ideal reader

A unique take is great, but you also need someone who wants to read it. Identifying an ideal reader can be a good exercise for this.

Who is the person who will benefit the most from your perspective? Is it…

• A marketer wanting to get the latest industry trends?
• A political junkie wanting more perspective?
• A home gardener excited to learn to grow new things?

Every newsletter is for someone, and if you know who you’re writing to–your avatar–it increases the chances of success.

You can even do some research by interviewing some people.

• What are their questions?
• What are they trying to learn?
• What are they stuck on?

Doing this at the beginning will pay off as your newsletter gets up to speed.

3. Choose a monetization model

If your newsletter will be monetized content , you need to choose how to monetize it. Obviously, there are a lot of different ways but here are three of the easiest–and these are not mutually exclusive.

a. Direct subscriptions

Selling subscriptions has been a staple of the news economy for a while now, and digital subscriptions have become a mammoth source of revenue for news publishers like The New York Times.

To start a subscription business and then sell subscriptions, you’ll need a landing page with a payment processor. You may also want list segmentation–at a minimum, so you can send separate things to leads and subscribers. (But we’ll get to this below).

We’d recommend ConvertKit for this. It’s one of the most powerful email software on the market and it comes with the ability to sell subscriptions. Where a newsletter platform like Substack will take 10% of your revenue as a subscription fee, ConvertKit just charges a flat rate that starts from $9/mo. It also builds great landing pages, which we’ll get to below.

b. Communities

A newsletter is a natural fit for a community. An online community is a group of people who come together to discuss, learn, and grow. It works as a membership product–community members pay a subscription–and get access.

Communities can often have higher membership fees than a standalone newsletter because you can charge for memberships, events, courses, and more. But because you’re not creating all the content, a community is a great place to host discussions relating to your newsletter topic.

As of writing this, the average community on Mighty charges a $48/mo membership fee. You can use the creators calculator to see the relative earnings from a community vs other types of monetization.

c. Ads and sponsorships

Finally, newsletters position you as a thought leader in your chosen niche. Some creators choose to run ads, sponsorships, or even affiliates through their newsletters. This can be annoying if overdone, but if the offers are relevant to your niche and your readers it can be a good fit.

For example, you could use an affiliate platform like Impact to find companies to partner with.

4. Start collecting subscribers

If you have an established following, it might be fine to start selling the newsletter right away. If followers already know you and respect your opinion, there’s a good chance some will pay to be on a newsletter.

Otherwise, if you’re just starting, you may want to create a social following, a community, or even a free newsletter before trying to monetize with a paid one. It can take time to earn people’s trust and grow attention to your brand.

Here are some of the common ways to collect subscribers:

• A “lead magnet” or an “opt-in.” This is a dedicated landing page that you can send people to (social media followers, readers, etc.) to sign up. They usually get a goodie in exchange for their email–for example, a PDF or webinar. ConvertKit makes it really easy to create a landing page to send people to.
• If you have a blog or website, include sign-up boxes there–perhaps as in-line opt-ins–for people to add their names.
• If you have a physical presence (a store, an event, or a physical publication), create ways for subscribers to add their names there.
• Include links to your newsletter on your social feeds.

ConvertKit has a bunch of templates for opt-ins that are easy to customize and use.

REMEMBER - You ALWAYS need someone’s confirmation to be on your list–NEVER just import emails from somewhere without the owner’s permission. There’s a good guide to this here .

Newsletters need opting-in

Newsletters require opt-ins from a practical standpoint–you want your readers to want to hear from you. But due to anti-spam laws around the globe, opting in isn’t just a best practice. It’s also a legal requirement for sending emails to a list. For example, the CAN-SPAM act is a set of rules for commercial emails, setting requirements for getting readers’ permissions and penalties for failing to do so.

5. Plan your layout & design

Only some people will care about the layout and design of the newsletter. Some writers will obsess over it and some will just want to get down to the business of writing and sending.

Which of these is the right approach? It doesn’t matter!

It’s your newsletter. Make it your own.

For those planning visual layouts, your newsletter software should give you templates and customization features. Always test with some practice emails and open them on different devices and browsers to make sure they look okay.

A software like ConvertKit gives you lots of templates to build with:

Subject lines are probably the most important thing visually. It’s this that makes or breaks whether someone even opens the email. Keep it short, snappy, offering lots of value. Make sure it reads well on a mobile (without cutting off). It’s also a good idea to have an image or avatar attached to the email account, instead of just leaving this blank.

Naming your newsletter

Coming up with a name is a challenge. Look for names that are original, memorable, and available.

• Original: It’s unique enough to define what you do without being used by someone else.
• Memorable: It’s easy to remember and talk about.
• Available: It’s not in use by a brand or business already (if applicable), and you can register the appropriate social handles, web domans, etc. (if applicable)

We have a free Newsletter Name Generator that can help you do this!

6. Set up segmentation

Segmentation is an important part of email businesses, and it becomes more important as you grow. We mentioned above that you might start by segmenting people who receive free updates from those who receive a premium paid newsletter.

But this is just the start. With segmentation, you can organize your list, setting up your software to automatically “tag” subscribers who are interested in different things.

You can add tags when:

• A subscriber clicks a link.
• A subscriber opts in on a certain form.
• A subscriber finishes a sequence.

So what does this look like in real life? Here’s an example. If you run a gardening newsletter and you’re running a live event for gardeners, you could add a link with details in your letters. You could then tag subscribers who click that link as “LIVE EVENT INTEREST.” As the event gets closer, you can send more and more offers to those people about the event, without annoying the rest of your list.

Here's an example built with ConvertKit using three types of gardeners: rookies, serious hobbyists, or professionals:

When someone clicks the link for "I work as a gardener" they'll get tagged as a professional gardener.

• Segmentation helps you KEEP subscribers since you’re not annoying people about stuff they don’t care about.
• It helps you SELL more since you’re sending subs relevant offers.
• And it helps you LEARN about what your list is most interested in.

Even doing a bit of segmentation is worth it–you can collect segments to have, even if you never end up using them. It’s easy to do and worth it when you need them.

7. Send it!

After all the planning, you’ll need to send that thing–whether you have 10 or 10,000 subscribers. You may feel vulnerable as your hand hovers over the “Send” button. Maybe you’ll even feel a bit of insecurity.

Don’t worry. It’s normal.

You have two forms of sending at your disposal:

• Broadcasts : Emails you write and send to your list. Broadcasts might be your regular newsletters.
• Automations : Any good email software gives you ways to do automations, to set up sequences that will send emails when you’re sleeping. For example, if you have a free opt-in to get emails, you might write a 20-part email sequence as a follow-up that includes more info and offers a premium subscription.

Here's an example of a simple visual automation in ConvertKit. Each landing page or opt-in funnels into a course.

Each of these types of sending are tools you can use to deliver a newsletter. But don’t get overwhelmed. At the end of the day, you don’t need to overthink this. You just need to hit send. You’ll figure the rest out later.

A note about A/B testing. It’s normal for many newsletter and email marketing businesses to use A/B testing. This means that you send out two different versions to see which performs better. The most common A/B testing for newsletters is really just A/B testing a headline.

Your software will send two different headlines to two small groups of subscribers. Then it will send the version that performs the best (gets opened the most) to the rest of your list.

You can use A/B testing if you want, but it’s not necessary.

8. Check the metrics

When you’ve sent it, you can check the metrics on your email to see how it performed. Metrics are really valuable. But they also can be misleading and discouraging for a first-time emailer.

Here are a few things to remember to avoid getting discouraged:

• Not everyone will open it . Even seasoned email marketers report an open rate of 46-50% (HubSpot). You can “Resend to unopened” on ConvertKit if you want–but don’t lose sleep over it.
• Even fewer readers click links . The same HubSpot study found a 2.6-3% click-through rate for links.
• Unsubscribers are normal . The most painful metric might be the people who unsubscribe. While it might be tempting to see this as a judgment on you and your email, it’s not. People have different things going on, and interests change.

The bottom line is this. Focus on the people who open and read your emails. They love hearing from you. And as you grow your list, all you need to do is keep finding more and more people who love hearing what you have to say.

Let those who don’t naturally self-select out, and don’t take it personally.

Newsletter growth strategies

So, to overview everything we’ve talked about in this article and add a bit more–here are the top newsletter growth strategies:

• Create incredible content. If you get this wrong, it doesn’t matter what you get right. Be real and write to your ideal reader, helping to entertain, educate, or inspire them.
• Make subscribing easy . If there’s friction, you’ll lose subscribers in the process. Make subscribing as easy as possible (but include double verification to make sure you’re on the right side of spam laws).
• Give, give, give some more. Give value, give promotions, give offers, just keep giving everything your readers want.
• Collaborate. You can grow faster by finding other creators and even newsletters to collaborate with and share audiences.
• Monetize in a way that fits. Find a method that works for you and go for it.
• Consider paid advertising. It can be a great way to grow and help you find your ideal subscribers.
• Build a community. Think beyond the newsletter and find ways to build community with your readers–giving them a chance to share and create too.

Ready to start?

If you’re ready to start a newsletter business, hopefully this guide has helped. Remember, if you want the ultimate newsletter and community combo, Mighty Networks and ConvertKit fit together seamlessly with our “nearly native” integration. You’ll have the tools you need to run the newsletter and community without Zotero.

From ConvertKit, this means:

• Awesome subscriber management
• Visual automations and easy segmentation
• Built-for-you landing pages
• Integrated community updates with the email templates

From Mighty, this means:

• Discussion forums, member profiles, chat, and messaging
• Events and livestreaming
• Live and pre-recorded courses
• Sell memberships, courses, or bundles in 135 different currencies
• An app for every device (or even your own branded app with Mighty Pro)

You can try Mighty free for 14 days–no credit card required.

Add a community to your newsletter!

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How to Write a Newsletter Article for Business

If you’re in business, knowing how to write a newsletter article well can boost your response rates. Adding your unique brand voice and personality to the content will help your business e-newsletter stand out.

This article assumes:

• That you want to write a short e-newsletter article.
• That you know your target market .

Let’s walk through five steps, from potential topics (if you need one) to the writing process from start to finish or watch the video below for key highlights.

1. Exploring Your “Why” to Get to Your “What”

Businesses usually send newsletters to get more leads. If you know why you’re sending the newsletter and have already decided on a theme for it, fit your article into that overall topic.

Otherwise, to find a topic for a one-article newsletter, brainstorm ideas, use article templates to form one , or consider telling a story . Or jump ahead and get organized to start writing .

To brainstorm topics, consider what will appeal to your readers. Look at any existing customer data, such as:

• Sales records
• Website analytics
• Social media metrics

What’s currently trending in your niche? Also, ponder what people tend to ask, complain, or rave about. If you’re still not sure what to feature, keyword research, questions on social media, and customer surveys can yield insights.

Artificial intelligence software might save brainstorming time. Because of its current limitations, if you use it, check the results. Will the content connect with customers? It might have nothing to do with your target market or your goals. If you decide to use AI, the following advice can screen unsuitable topics.

To enhance lead generation and narrow your topics, link your article goals to the different stages of the buyer’s journey: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision-Making.

• Awareness: Customers are getting familiar with your business, product, or service. If your business is new, this is a good excuse to introduce yourself, any of your staff, your mission, and your offerings. Or you could feature a new product or service or an upcoming event.
• Consideration: They’re thinking about buying and could be looking at competitors’ offerings, too. Information that fosters decision-making works well here. A “how to” article, like this one, fits this category. Use it to highlight an aspect of a product or service.
• Decision-Making: Customers are ready to buy. More information lets them determine if your business is right for them. An article featuring the benefits of working with you or buying from you can influence readers to contact you.

Get a Free Easy 5-Step Busin ess E-Newsletter Template

2. Finding the Format: Another Way to Generate an Engaging Topic

Knowing your goal and the buyer’s journey stage leads to your subject matter. Narrowing down the subject refines the article template. The format may also frame the topic.

Common newsletter articles include:

• An editor’s or “welcome” note: example – Sundvick Legacy Center
• A short news item: example – Dwyer, Spino & Goncalves newsletter
• A teaser for an existing blog post, such as the first paragraph or two with a link to the full piece: examples – DFD Russell Medical Center newsletter ; Aviva Senior Living newsletter ; HORNE newsletter

The format of these articles is also simple, making them easier to write with little planning, saving you time and energy.

3. Keeping It Interesting and Useful to Hook Readers: Consider Storytelling

Overall, remember that your piece should be useful, or in marketing terms, offer value. To help readers identify with you, tell a story. Michael Katz, who teaches professionals how to understand marketing, details his storytelling method effectively .

To find good stories, list interesting things you saw or experienced recently, such as a colorful rainbow or a fun trip. Think about experiences you’ve shared. Tie one to a useful business lesson or insight connected to your expertise. Then describe the experience, elaborating on the lesson. Joey Havens of the accounting firm HORNE does this well.

“A personal story is effective because you can tie it into writing a newsletter article effortlessly.” Carmine Mastropierro, How to Write a Newsletter: Step-by-Step Guide

If you’re stuck, AI offers a head start. Directing it to tell a story for a newsletter in your industry will produce content to tailor to your business. You can even ask it to mimic other writers’ styles. Edit the output because other people might tell the same story. And depending on your instructions, if the story doesn’t apply to your business, it will spin some fiction.

4. Getting Organized: Focusing on the Structure and Writing the Article Effectively

Newsletter articles tend to be brief and pull text from other sources, like articles or landing pages. Many business newsletters feature around 300 to 500 words of content. Business customers can be too busy to spend ten minutes reading your newsletter. Consider the length wisely while you keep your audience and what you might know about their habits in mind.

Research is easier before you draft an outline.

AI software may shortcut outlining, especially if you seek inspiration. For example, ChatGPT 3.5 created the below outline below for this article. If you’re weighing whether AI could help you, compare ChatGPT’s outline to the structure of this post, which I wrote without AI. If I had given it a more specific prompt, ChatGPT might have taken a more creative approach.

AI-generated content tends to state the obvious and sometimes lacks depth or interesting takes on a subject. Your unique perspective, tone, and style create distinctive writing.

When you structure your piece, if it’s a “listicle,” number each step to simplify the format and scannability. Otherwise, consider the basic AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action) format.

As you write, heed the guidelines from the AMA Handbook of Business Writing , which include crafting a title that will attract curiosity and keeping words and paragraphs short and focused.

Drafting the Piece From Start to Finish

The beginning: your opening sentence or paragraph — how will you build attention? Get to the point powerfully. State an interesting fact, quote someone, or take us into the middle of a scene.

• Example #1: Information articles: This Sundvick Legacy Center newsletter features a short editor’s note by one of their attorneys. It starts with the fact that October is National Estate Planning Month, and leads into a paragraph about why it’s a good time to consider estate planning.
• Example #2: Storytelling: Set the stage. In the article linked to from this newsletter , Joey Havens begins with a description of a “blue and white object laying just in front of me” in a hotel lobby.

The middle: how will you build on the interest and desire you’ve generated at the start? Add what readers should know next to encourage them to read on. Use transitions to tie ideas or paragraph together smoothly.

• Example #1: Informational articles: The Sundvick Legacy Center note leads into a statistic about how 70 percent of estate planning fails, and the firm wants readers to fall into the successful 30 percent. They then build on that statement: “That means creating a comprehensive plan tailored for you and your family and walking through the journey of properly funding your trust.”
• Example #2: Storytelling: Joey signals he has reached the middle of the piece by transitioning into telling us what he mistook the object for and what it turned out to be.

The end: how will you inspire people to take action? Summarize any key points. If your goal is to gain feedback, ask a question.

Use a call-to-action (CTA) to entice readers to contact you or to visit a blog or a landing page. Each year, email service provider MailModo publishes its State of Email report, which surveys more than 150 email experts. Their 2023 report states that CTAs with action verbs or featured offers were most effective for them. If you’re not promoting anything, close with a simple “farewell.”

• Example #1: Informational articles: The Sundvick newsletter note ends with a statement urging readers to take action before another year passes. They follow it with words encouraging them to schedule a consultation.
• Example #2: Storytelling: Joey ends his story by emphasizing that if we can’t see problems clearly, they can look bigger than they are. It’s better to wait to consider them with a fresh perspective.

Whether you start in the middle, write the end first or the beginning last, just write. You also don’t have to create your headline first; some writers save it for last. Whatever you do, don’t judge your writing. Listening to your inner critic can stifle your writing; you could start to read what you’ve written and begin editing, which is a “no no.”

Why? Because often it’s better to let your words rest or to “sleep on them” and return with a clearer view later. It’s like buying a cut-glass vase and seeing when you brought it home that it’s chipped. The flaws may become clearer later when you’ve rested your mind and can examine your work thoroughly.

“You can’t go wrong by providing value to your readers. If you know your readers well and you have expertise that can help them solve some of their common problems, email newsletters are a great place to share that expertise. But make sure to provide content that is truly unique and informative. You want to make sure you’re offering value and not adding to the clutter.” Kathy Bryan, Elective s

Though AI can write an article draft, it could produce a bland one that is a mismatch for you or your business. If you use AI content, add your brand voice, style, and tone .

5. Prepare Your Article for Adoring Fans

When you plan or edit your piece, consider these points:

• Scannability and Accessibility: Where could you place bullet points or numbers to slice concepts into smaller parts for easier skimming? An image also enhances visual appeal and breaks up a block of text. From the headings to the body copy, ensure it follows a logical order. Also, consider accessibility: how it looks and sounds for people with disabilities. Prefer short words, sentences, and paragraphs free of jargon.
• Editing and Proofreading: polish your newsletter so it looks professional . Some ways to do that include printing it on paper and reading it aloud and having others go over it.

Wrap Up: Quick Takeaways

• Explore Your “Why” to Get to Your What: If you lack ideas, research any existing customer data or what’s trending, brainstorm, or try AI. To refine the topic, follow the different stages of the buyer’s journey: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision-Making.
• Find the Format: Another Way to Generate an Engaging Topic : Consider common e-newsletter article formats, such as an editor’s note or a short news item to pinpoint your subject matter.
• Keeping It Interesting and Useful to Hook Rea ders: Consider Storytelling : To help readers identify with you, tell a story based on one of your experiences — for instance, a fun trip. Tie it to a useful business lesson or insight, then elaborate.
• Getting Organized: Focusing on the Structure and Writing the Article Effectively : Before you write, consider your article’s structure and do any needed research. When you write, follow common sense guidelines, such as crafting a headline that stokes curiosity and using clear language.
• Prepare Your Article for Adoring Fans : Edit and proofread and check for scannability and accessibility.

For more highlights, catch the condensed version of this article .

Once you have a topic and an outline, writing a newsletter article becomes less daunting. Now that you know how to write a newsletter, if your words are flowing, it will almost write itself. And when your masterpiece is ready, add it to your latest newsletter and share it on social media and elsewhere.

To save time formatting your newsletter, subscribe to Five-Minute Business Writing Tips and get my free Easy 5-Step Business E-Newsletter Template .

• First published: April 3, 2023
• Last updated: November 22, 2023

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MARKETING INSIGHTS

15 brilliant newsletter examples (and why they work)

• Lena Sernoff
• Nov 26, 2023
• 14 min read

When creating email marketing campaigns , newsletters are one of the most effective ways to connect your business with your audience. That's because email newsletters can help nurture customers, build brand loyalty and drive traffic and conversions when you create a website .

In order to reap the benefits of your newsletter, your emails need to be engaging, insightful and visually appealing. It might seem challenging to follow all these best practices in one email, but it can be done. In this article, we've gathered 15 outstanding newsletter examples for your inspiration. They've been categorized accordingly so that you can find the best example for your type of business and your specific marketing strategy .

What is an email newsletter?

An email newsletter is a regularly sent email that informs subscribers about the latest news and updates about a product or brand. It's a valuable tool for businesses to stay connected with their customers, promote new products and services and build brand awareness.

Newsletters can be sent weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, depending on the frequency of updates and the preferences of the subscribers. They typically include a variety of content, such as:

Company news: Announcements about new products, services or initiatives

Industry news: Updates on trends and developments in the industry

Thought leadership: Articles and blog posts on relevant topics

Promotions and discounts: Special offers for subscribers

Customer stories: Case studies and testimonials from satisfied customers

Newsletters are a great way to nurture relationships with customers and keep them engaged with your brand. They can also be a powerful tool for generating leads and driving sales.

What makes a good newsletter?

Before you make a newsletter , you should know what separates the good from the great. Here are some of the best practices to keep in mind as you craft your own newsletter:

Set clear goals: We recommend you have a clear mission and message behind every newsletter . You can segment your email list based on goals set for certain groups, whether it's to generate awareness or drive sales. Segmentation is important because it helps you send the most relevant content in correlation to where the user is in their customer journey.

Use a range of newsletter ideas: To keep your readers’ attention, you can change up your content using different newsletter ideas . From success stories and listicles to guides, these types of content engage users so that they look forward to your next outreach.

Be visual with your design: Your newsletter design should aim to be eye-catching and intriguing. The best newsletter examples include illustrations, photos or videos. Whichever you choose, your newsletter design needs to stand out.

Include a CTA: Incorporate a strong call to action (CTA) button somewhere in the newsletter that leads to a relevant business page. If you have not yet done so, creating a website will allow you to maximize your newsletter’s traffic, elaborate on your offer and best drive conversions.

Keep it mobile-friendly: Since most emails will be read on a smartphone, you should make sure your newsletters are mobile-friendly. For instance, readers will only be able to see the first 30 characters of your subject line when opened on a phone. With this in mind, write your copy considering these space limitations.

Best newsletter examples:

We Are Travel Girls

Foreign Policy Design Group

AIGA Design

Deakin University

Tech Will Save Us

Passion City Church

Holiday newsletter examples

01. skillshare.

Subject line: Honoring Juneteenth

Online learning community Skillshare celebrates Juneteenth, an annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. In its newsletter, the company interviews its own Black artists and creators and shares their stories about what Juneteenth means to them.

Readers of the email newsletter received compelling images and powerful quotes that brought this complex topic to life. We believe this is a strong newsletter example because Skillshare successfully connects a historical moment to its own users in a unique and engaging way.

Why this newsletter example works:

Ties a national holiday back to their business

Showcases users in an effective way

Incorporates interviews and quotes

02. John Lewis

Subject line: Perfect gifts for Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a big holiday, especially for retail brands. As a business owner, or someone starting a business , you’ll need to know how to make your email newsletters stand out on this important day.

Take John Lewis’ email example as a model to base your next holiday campaign. Readers are greeted with a clear and concise Mother’s Day message in the subject line and an easy to find link to the company’s gift guide.

The brand also uses storytelling to help promote its products. For example, there is an image of breakfast being served in bed, accompanied by a text about letting your mother enjoy her favorite morning treats in her new John Lewis pajamas. After all, people want to buy products with great stories associated with them. And this newsletter example perfectly carries out that concept.

Has a clear subject line

Adds value with a holiday shopping guide

Uses narrative storytelling to drive interest in their products

Home decor newsletter example

Subject line: June newsletter + floral styling tips for beautiful home

MiMOKO sells beautiful handmade ceramic planters and vases. Although the company is primarily an online store , MiMOKO does not merely focus on promoting products and sales in its newsletter. Instead, they use many high-quality photographs to give inspiration for the product’s use.

In this newsletter example, you can find tips for styling tall vases, including using flower diversity, varying heights, and different forages in one vase. MiMOKO is able to introduce subscribers to new concepts relating to their products. Furthermore, their email helps solve a reader's pain point and puts the focus on the customer and not the business.

Emphasizes on photographs, thus letting the “images speak for themselves”

Offers helpful design tips that are embedded in the newsletter

Solves a pain point and puts the customer first

Food and restaurant newsletter examples

04. allplants.

Subject line: New Dish Alert! Tempeh Rendang Curry

Instead of inviting users to open their wallets, the company opens its readers’ appetites with mouth-watering photos and detailed descriptions that foodies won’t be able to resist.

A vegan food delivery service, Allplants’ email newsletter is a great example to follow. With it, the company is able to update users about new dishes on offer, as well as ingredients and nutritional information.

Allplants also hosts a giveaway campaign for its users on their next order. Using a free incentive, like a promotion code, can be a strategic way to get people to take immediate action on your newsletter.

Writes descriptive text

Uses a promotion code

Creates strategic content

Subject line: New on the Resy At Home Hit List: Cassava, Miss Ollie’s, Z Zoul, and More

Not all reservations are created equal, which is why Resy, a restaurant website , is on the mission to reinvent the way we book our reservations.

In its newsletter, Resy cooks up a selection of 10 local restaurants it recommends that month. This list is displayed using an off-balance symmetry and different-sized numbers that culminate into a truly engaging experience.

Furthermore, the newsletter content is accompanied by strong CTAs, displayed in a consistent blue font. Resy also drives people to download their mobile app with the large font that reads, “Don’t have the Resy App? Get instant access to the best restaurants.”

Visual way to use numbers in a listicle

Consistent and clear CTAs

Drives users to download an app

Travel newsletter example

06. we are travel girls.

Subject line: Wanderlust Wednesday (June 30th, 2021)

We Are Travel Girls is a community that inspires, connects and empowers female travelers. Their newsletter below includes diverse and helpful content, including travel book recommendations, travel news and relevant product suggestions.

As a best practice for newsletter layout, they’ve included numbers, images and clear CTAs. You’ll also want to consider ways to diversify your own newsletter content, where each section continually adds value for readers.

We Are Travel Girls’ email subject line is always “Wanderlust Wednesday,” with the date added at the end. This is in reference to a day recognized in the online community in which people share travel tips, tricks and trips. The group strategically sends out its newsletter on this day. Can you think of a day of the week or month that your brand might be most relevant and take advantage of it?

Diversifies content

Beautiful layout and design

Is sent on a relevant day of the week for its target audience

Design newsletter examples

07. foreign policy design group.

Subject line: Foreign Policy Design: Memo #1

By turning its newsletter into a memo, Foreign Policy Design’s marketing emails show to be artistic and undoubtedly creative. At the top of their email, they use a checklist, acting as a captivating teaser. Also, their typewriter font adds to their signature look. Keeping this in mind, consider adopting some consistent design in your campaigns that will enable users to immediately recognize your emails in their inbox.

The group's layout isn't the only reason we included Foreign Policy Design in our newsletter examples. We also admire this newsletter's implementation of a survey as part of its email marketing strategy. Asking your readers directly what they want will help you create a tailor-made and relevant newsletter. As a result, you can expect higher open rates and better engagement.

Uses a memo layout instead of the traditional newsletter format

Has a consistent font and design to create its signature look

Surveys its readers directly to improve content relevancy

08. AIGA Design

Subject line: Big Data’s Biases, and the Artists and Designers Filling in the Blank Spots

Professional association for design AIGA knows exactly who its audience is and speaks directly to them in its Eye on Design newsletter. The organization chooses a story from its website each week and highlights what makes it so exciting.

In the email newsletter example we've chosen below, you can see how AIGA does an excellent job summarizing a complex article about big data. You'd think a piece written about such a topic would be dry or possibly daunting to follow in an email. However, by using clear headings, images to break up text, and even a quote excerpt, the whole article becomes exciting and easy to read.

Another factor that stood out to us is that the whole newsletter consists of three: colors pink, black and white. This simplistic yet stylish email allows for a clear newsletter layout.

Highlights a story each week

Makes long-form content digestible

Is simple and stylish

Technology newsletter example

09. wetransfer.

Subject line: We say it best when we say nothing at all

Sometimes it's good to think outside the box. WeShare's whole newsletter is image-based which makes a statement about the file-sharing app. Knowing its users are primarily designers and creators, this newsletter example is “eye candy” to them. We can learn that you do not have to be traditional in your email newsletters. In fact, going against the stream can help you stand out and send the right message.

At the bottom, WeTransfer writes “bring your ideas to life,” and links to their products. They've thereby connected the dots between the newsletter's focus on art and its tool that allows you to share your creativity and files.

Goes against the norm with an image only newsletter

Knows its exact audience and caters to them

Bridges between the newsletter and the company’s products

Blog newsletter example

10. wix blog.

Subject line: The dos and don'ts of great logo design

When you subscribe to the Wix Blog newsletter , you're updated with tips and guides across website design, business growth and marketing to help you succeed online. We assign themes to our weekly newsletters to help readers focus and go in-depth into a specific topic.

We also support each niche topic using three closely related blog posts. Looking at the example of our logo-focused newsletter below, you can find one article about dos and don'ts of logos, a second one analyzing logo colors and a third post showcasing the best logos.

On top of content depth, we also find it helpful to add a product link to the landing page where users can take action and begin their creation journey. In the case of our example, you can go directly to the logo maker from the Wix Blog newsletter to get started.

Creates weekly newsletter themes that go in-depth into one topic

Strong CTA’s for each blog post

Includes a link to the end product to help readers get started

Looking to start a blog ? Get started with our blog maker.

Banking newsletter example

Subject line: Your Account is Still Waiting

While the color green might make you think of money, it also represents sustainability. In the case of Ando bank, the group is fighting climate change and wants clients to know that all its investments support green initiatives.

Since a lot of thought goes into where we deposit our money, Ando is wise to include that as part of its mission: "Banking with purpose" and "Banking for a more sustainable tomorrow" to help build a brand that's authentic and generates trust.

Additionally, Ando uses powerful repetition in its subheadings like "Banking for balance," "Banking with clarity," and "Bank with confidence." There is a good rhythmic feel to this text that also informs readers and establishes trust. Then, at the bottom comes the CTA "open my account" to convert the lead.

Educates readers about the bank’s values and mission

Is well-written content

Uses strong CTAs to drive conversion

Education and school newsletter examples

12. deakin university.

Subject line: Congratulations, you made it!

Who said school newsletters have to be dull? Deakin University welcomes its accepted students with a celebratory greeting, "Congratulations, you made it!" The bright design sets the tone for an exciting future ahead upon opening the email.

Each section in this newsletter example is sectioned off with a different neon color—courses in yellow, upcoming events in pink, scholarships in blue, and preferences in purple. This type of organization method greatly enhances the user experience and makes it effortless to find what you need.

Friendly subject line

Well organized color coding of categories

Exemplifies that long newsletters can still be intuitive

13. Tech Will Save Us

Subject line: Prepare For The Future

The subject line "prepare for the future" helps contextualize Tech Will Save Us' newsletter. The education company promotes projects and games that help students prepare for future careers such as in AI, robotics and space travel.

Tech Will Save Us uses cartoon images, boasting oversized typography and solid colors that make the email playful and engaging. There are sticker-like overlays such as a power voltage, pencils and stars that encompass an educational tone.

Lastly, its included subscription prices make it easy for the reader to understand the different tiers that they can choose. The group also makes the wise choice to add pricing toward the bottom email, hoping to convert at the end of a user's scrolling journey.

Contextualizes its mission

Adds playful design and colors that align with the educational brand

Incorporates subscription tiers in an effective way

Church newsletter example

14. passion city church.

Subject line: Watch "The Long Way Up" streaming on YouTube now!

Passion City Church's newsletter comes in bright colors, providing a happy and cheerful tone. In this newsletter example, the church starts by prompting new videos which are uploaded to its YouTube channel. You, too, can use a video maker to create engaging video content for your email campaigns.

A church newsletter is also a great place to remind people of upcoming gatherings and important speakers. Passion City Church advertises its pastor series effectively with a CTA button where readers can learn more about him before the event. Just like Passion City Church, in your own newsletter, you’ll want to remind people of your church's gathering times and days.

Uses an inviting visual language

Promotes video content successfully

Shares the church’s gathering times and upcoming speakers

Health and beauty newsletter example

Subject line: Hey, you're in!

Multivitamin company Ritual is a good example of a company staying on brand throughout its email marketing efforts. If you go to its website, you can see the same font, colors, and logo present in Ritual’s newsletter, conveying a consistent professional look. Try to use the same visual language in your newsletter as you do in your website design .

This email newsletter example has an engaging product image above the fold that is sure to pique visitors’ curiosity. It also informs readers about the company’s mission, promise and products. Ritual has kept each section to just a few sentences that educates without overwhelming the reader.

Lastly, Ritual utilizes the bottom section of the newsletter to prompt readers to follow the company on social media. Driving people from their newsletter to their social media might have likely helped grow Ritual’s Instagram to 267,0000 followers, and counting.

Shows consistency in design and colors that align with its website design

Displays great use of a large image in the newsletter

Offers a strategic way to gain social media followers

What are the elements of an email newsletter?

An effective email newsletter blends engaging content with a visually appealing layout to capture subscribers' attention and convey the desired message. Here are the key elements of an email newsletter:

Compelling subject line:  The subject line is the first impression your newsletter makes, so it should be clear, concise and attention-grabbing. Use strong verbs and relevant keywords to entice recipients to open the email.

Preheader text:  The preheader text is a brief summary that appears below the subject line. It provides additional context and encourages readers to open the email. Keep it concise and informative, highlighting the main points of the newsletter.

Header:  The header is the top section of the email newsletter, typically featuring your brand logo and establishing a consistent visual identity. Use a clean and professional design that aligns with your brand aesthetic.

Hero image:  The hero image is a large, visually striking image that captures the essence of the newsletter. Choose a high-quality, relevant image that sets the tone for the content.

Content sections:  Divide the newsletter into clear and distinct sections, each focused on a specific topic or theme. Use clear headings and subheadings to guide readers through the content.

Body copy:  The body copy is the main text of the newsletter, where you deliver your message. Keep it concise, informative and engaging. Use a clear and readable font, and break up the text with bullet points, numbered lists or short paragraphs.

Call-to-action (CTA):  The call-to-action is a prominent button or link that tells readers what you want them to do next. Use clear and actionable language, such as "Shop Now," "Sign Up" or "Learn More."

Unsubscribe link:  Include an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the newsletter, allowing subscribers to opt out if they no longer wish to receive your emails. This is required by law and demonstrates respect for your audience.

Footer:  The footer provides additional information about your company, such as contact details, social media links and copyright information. Keep it concise and professional.

Remember that the layout of your email newsletter should be visually appealing and easy to navigate. Use a consistent color scheme, ample white space and a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes.

How to make a newsletter

Creating an engaging and effective newsletter involves planning, designing and writing content that resonates with your target audience. Here's a step-by-step guide to crafting a compelling newsletter:

1. Define your goals and audience

Start by clearly defining the purpose of your newsletter. What do you want to achieve with it? Are you aiming to inform, educate, promote or simply connect with your subscribers? Once you have a clear goal, identify your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with your newsletter? Understanding their interests, preferences and online behavior will help you tailor your content effectively.

2. Choose an email marketing platform

Select an email marketing platform that aligns with your needs and budget and that provides tools to manage your email list and analyze campaign performance. Wix Email Marketing is a built-in email marketing platform that seamlessly integrates with your website. It offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor, a variety of designer-made templates and advanced data analytics to help you create, send and track email campaigns effectively.

3. Design a visually appealing template

The layout and design of your newsletter play a crucial role in capturing attention and conveying your message effectively. Choose a template that matches your brand identity and use visuals strategically. Consider using high-quality images, consistent branding elements and a clear hierarchy to guide readers through the content.

4. Craft compelling subject lines and preheader text

The subject line is the first impression your newsletter makes, so it's critical to craft a concise, attention-grabbing line that entices recipients to open the email. Use strong verbs, relevant keywords and a sense of urgency to pique curiosity. The preheader text provides additional context and encourages readers to open the email. Keep it concise and informative, highlighting the main points of the newsletter.

5. Write engaging and informative content

The content of your newsletter should be informative, valuable and relevant to your target audience. Use clear and concise language, break up text with bullet points or numbered lists and personalize the content whenever possible. Include a mix of content formats, such as articles, blog posts, tips, customer stories and event announcements.

6. Incorporate a clear call-to-action

Every newsletter should have a clear call-to-action (CTA) that tells readers what you want them to do next. Whether it's visiting your website, signing up for a webinar or making a purchase, make your CTA prominent, easy to find and actionable. Use strong verbs and enticing language to encourage clicks.

7. Proofread and test your newsletter

Before sending your newsletter, thoroughly proofread the text for any grammatical errors or typos. Ensure that all links are working correctly and that your newsletter displays well across different email clients and devices. Consider sending test emails to yourself or colleagues to check the overall look and feel.

8. Send and track your newsletter

Once your newsletter is ready, schedule it to send at a time when your audience is most likely to be engaged. Use email marketing platform analytics to track open rates, click-through rates and unsubscribe rates. Analyze this data to identify what resonates with your audience and make adjustments to future newsletters.

9. Continuously improve and adapt

Newsletter marketing is an ongoing process, so it's essential to continually monitor your results and adapt your strategy accordingly. Gather feedback from subscribers, experiment with different content formats and CTAs and stay updated on email marketing trends to keep your newsletters fresh, engaging and effective.

Thank you, Really Good Emails , for providing some of the images for the newsletter examples in this article.

Related Posts

10 newsletter design ideas for your next email campaign

How to make a newsletter your audience will love

30 newsletter ideas that will interest your readers

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How to write a newsletter introduction: Examples to inspire your next newsletter issue

Last updated:  26 December 2023

Ahmed Chougle

WordPress writer.

Writing an effective newsletter introduction is all about getting a busy, distracted subscriber interested enough to keep reading the rest of your newsletter.

The goal of your first sentence is to get your reader to read the next sentence. If you haven’t hooked them, chances are they’ll stop reading and click on the next email in their inbox. A missed opportunity.

Hence, an awesome newsletter introduction is really important for building engagement, loyalty, and conversions over time.

The problem is that writing a good newsletter intro isn’t always easy. It requires creativity, attention to detail, and some basic knowledge about your audience.

In this article, we’ll give tips on how to write a perfect newsletter introduction and share some real-world examples to get you inspired for your next issue.

Best practices for writing catchy newsletter introductions

1. be clear and concise.

Don’t overwhelm your readers with too much information or bore them with long, rambling sentences.

Think about what you want to say and why your readers would care. Then, get to the point quickly.

If you’re not sure where to start, try writing a list of bullet points or short sentences that capture the essence of what you want to say. Then, flesh out those points with a few more sentences. Once you have a rough draft, go back and edit for clarity and conciseness.

Keep in mind that every audience is different. So, don’t be afraid to experiment with formats and styles until you find something that works for you and your readers.

Real-world example: Brainstorm Force

The team at Astra clearly states what the newsletter is about right at the beginning. The second line tells subscribers who this update is for (eCommerce) and the benefits (enhances the shopping experience). The third line goes into a little more detail and reassures the readers that it helps makes things super easy.

This could’ve been a dense paragraph, but Astra manages to fit a lot of key information in just 3 lines.

2. Don’t bury the lede

Everyone’s busy. Tell your subscribers the juiciest bit right at the top to get them hooked. You don’t want to bore your readers and have them give up on your newsletter before they even get to the good stuff.

Burying the lede is a common term in journalism where the most important part of the story is placed at the end or hidden in the middle, instead of summarised at the beginning, where it belongs. 

An effective introduction should be short and one that takes readers to the main point of the newsletter before any background information or supporting details.

Real-world example – Jared Newman, advisorator.com

After the first sentence welcome message which stays the same every week, Jared immediately dives into the main point of the email so that you know exactly what the rest of the email will be about (DuckDuckGo’s email privacy tools), in the first 10 seconds of opening the email.

3. Start with a hook

A good newsletter introduction should always start with a hook. This could be an interesting statistic, a personal story, or a question that piques the reader’s curiosity. The goal is to get the reader’s attention and make them want to read more.

Real-world example – Simon Harper, srhdesign.co.uk

Simon catches the attention by mentioning the birthday presents and then hooks the reader by further telling them that it has finally arrived and that it’ll be something special just for his subscribers. What a great way to entice subscribers to keep reading!

4. Be personal

The best newsletter introductions are personal and make the reader feel like they are part of a community. A good way to start a newsletter introduction is by telling a story that is personal to you and relatable to your reader. This will make your newsletter seem more like a conversation rather than a one-sided broadcast message. 

Another tip for writing personal introductions is to address your readers by name. For this, you can use mergetags in your email marketing software to pull the reader’s name into the newsletter automatically.

Real-world example – Viktor, user-interface.io

Even though this is a newsletter about user interface design, Viktor starts off by talking about the weather in Armenia and his vacation. 

This allows readers to build a relationship with him as a person, rather than just skim his UI tips. 

5. Focus on the benefits for the reader

What will they gain from reading the newsletter? Why should they care about what you have to say? What is in it for them? If you can answer these questions in your introduction, you will have a better chance of getting them to read the rest of the newsletter.

By highlighting how the newsletter will improve their life or business, you will immediately capture their attention and interest. In order for them to understand the benefits, be specific and give examples.

Real-world example – MailerLite

In this example, MailerLite clearly states the benefits the readers will get from reading the newsletter, i.e. 19 strategies to increase the conversion rate. 

6. Use a consistent one-line summary introduction

People subscribe to more than one newsletter and receive 100 to 120 emails daily in their inbox. When they receive your newsletter, they may not remember why they subscribed to you or what your newsletter is about.

By including a consistent one-line summary introduction at the top of each newsletter, you remind your subscribers what the newsletter is all about and why they’ve subscribed.

Real-world example – Shane Parrish, Farnam Street Brain Food

Shane uses a consistent one-liner summary in his weekly newsletter – Brain Food is a weekly newsletter full of timeless insights.

This sets expectations of what the newsletter contains, and how often a subscriber can expect to receive. it.

That’s it! If you follow these best practices, you can be sure that your newsletter introduction will effectively engage readers and encourage them to read the rest of the content.

Takeaway: Email newsletter introductions

Your newsletter introduction is as important as your subject line.

The subject line is the first thing recipients see when they open their inbox, and the introduction is the first thing that they see when they open a specific email. The newsletter introduction is your opportunity to hook a reader and get them interested to read the rest of your email.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the email newsletter introduction so important.

The introduction to your email newsletter is important in setting the tone for the rest of the content. A good subject line catches the reader’s attention, and a good introduction grabs their interest.

It’s the first thing your readers will see after opening the email. It should be engaging and interesting, but most importantly, it should be clear about what the newsletter is about. A good introduction will make it easy for readers to understand what they can expect from the newsletter and will encourage them to keep reading.

How to start a newsletter with an introduction?

You can start a newsletter by introducing the newsletter itself, explaining what readers can expect to find inside, and perhaps providing a brief overview of the main topic of the current issue. You can follow the tips that we’ve shared above to write an eye-catching introduction that’ll hook your readers.

How to introduce yourself in a newsletter?

If you’re writing the introduction for a welcome email, you can start by telling your readers who you are and what you do. This’ll help them connect with you and understand your perspective. Next, tell your readers why you started your newsletter. Finally, end the introduction by encouraging them to reply or ask questions. This will make them feel valued and engaged.

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How to create viral thought leadership content, how to grow your email list – proven tactics for all stages.

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How to Write a Newsletter Article

Learning objectives.

Upon completion of this comprehensive and engaging course, you will be able to:

• Discuss the 4 key goals of newsletters as a scholarly publication outlet
• List the 5 core differences between a newsletter article and a journal article
• Identify the 5 target audiences for newsletter articles
• Compare and contrast the 3 main types of newsletter (organization, company, consumer)
• Describe the 7 key parts of a newsletter and how to prepare the 3 standard parts of a newsletter article
• List 9 popular topics covered in effective newsletter articles
• Discover newsletters in your field and successfully determine which has the best goodness-of-fit with your article
• Avoid the most common mistakes when writing and submitting newsletter articles
• Discuss best practices in starting your own scholarly newsletter (including branding, archiving, social sharing, and dissemination strategies)
• Use graphically designed templates to create a digital newsletter

Devin Reese, PhD is an internationally acclaimed science writer and ecologist whose research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Herpetology and the Journal of Wildlife Management . After graduating from Harvard University with her Bachelor’s in Ethology and her PhD in Integrative Biology from U.C. Berkeley, she served as a Science and Diplomacy Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Reese spent five years developing instructional materials for the Smithsonian’s Science Education Center, followed by seven years as the lead content writer for the Smithsonian’s Q?rius Center at the National Museum of Natural History. Her work with the award-winning Smithsonian Science How Team resulted in team accolades from the American Alliance of Museums, the National Museum of Natural History, and EdTech Digest. Since this time, her extensive background in science communication and work with organizations throughout Latin America, South Asia, and Southern Africa has resulted in positions as a scriptwriter for PBS as well as an editor for the World Wildlife Fund.

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How to Write a Newsletter Article

Newsletters have become a workhorse in business communications. They are used for marketing, dissemination of information, teambuilding, fundraising, etc. But how do you write an effective newsletter article?

Informational Marketing

The first question to consider for any writing is: who is your audience ? Are you writing to potential customers or donors? Fellow members of your organization or workplace? The audience should affect the tone and style that you use. The tone used to address colleagues is likely different from that used with potential customers, clients or vendors.

The second question: what is the purpose of the newsletter? What do you want to achieve? Are you disseminating information to colleagues and co-workers, or are you trying to drum up business?

Newsletters help build trust with potential customers by positioning your organization as an authority in its field. This kind of newsletter likely contains various soft-touch selling techniques to place your organization in prospects’ awareness, while avoiding blatant marketing messages. Even if the prospect might not be ready to buy today, if he has received/read a few of your newsletters, you will be positioned as an expert in the field.

Choosing the Form

Regardless of the purpose, most articles fit one of these types:

• Narrative human interest
• How-to’s and tips

News – Remember that, whatever the purpose, your article is news. The reader should come away with the four basic “W”s of journalism: Who, What, When, Where. Depending on the nature of your story, you might also need a Why and a How.

News stories start with the most important information in the first paragraph, then expand with more details in descending significance. Avoid any sensational tone, and stick to the facts.

If your audience is potential or existing clients, you should also include a transition that relates the news to your organization, such as a pertinent quote from the CEO.

Narrative/Human Interest – This form focuses on the personal nature of the story. It minimizes the prominence of facts and figures and focuses on real humans. Your goal is to create an emotional or empathetic response in your readers. You want them to connect with the focus of the story, the hero or heroine. If possible, let the subject tell the story through direct quotations.

Even though the article should not stray from real events, it should also be structured as a dramatic narrative, using the following structure:

• Conflict . What was the conflict? What happened to our heroine?
• Insight and complication . The subject experiences some sort of help, insight or idea that will lead her back to safe territory or to a happy ending. Along the way, however, she might experience further complications that must be overcome.
• Resolution . How did it all turn out? What did the subject learn from her experience? How did she use her insights to overcome the conflict or adversity?

If your audience is current or potential customers, articles like this are a great way to paint your organization in a positive light if you helped the subject of the article in some way.

How-to’s and Tips – This is a popular form of newsletter article because people are always looking for ways to do things, better, faster; to side-step annoyances; or to help with a task that seems daunting until it’s broken into a few simple steps—for example, this article.

The introductory paragraph sets up the problem that you’re offering to solve and highlights why this is important. Following that should be a transition sentence that says, “You can change this by… ” or “Here’s how to… ”

After that, just write the list. Make it easier to read with bullet points or sequential numbers.

This article type builds goodwill with future or current customers by not only giving them something valuable—something that helps them—but also establishes your organization as an expert in the field.

So, how did we do? Did you find this article helpful? Do you have a favorite tip to add? Please comment below. You’ll find more tips in our free special report, How to Harness the Power of Newsletters .

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