How to Write the Best Email Newsletter Ever

“Email marketing is the best!” “Just start a newsletter! “The leads will flood in!”

Sound familiar?

An email newsletter sounds like easy marketing. But when it comes to opening up your editor and figuring out what you’re going to write – well, that’s when it all goes a bit south. Because getting an email newsletter right involves a bit more than telling everyone what you’ve been up to this week.

Your newsletter has to be:

Informative
Engaging
On-topic
Exciting (at least, enough to keep subscribers coming back for more)

The good news is, if you want tips on how to write the best email newsletter your readers have ever seen, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll dive into what makes email newsletters great – and how to get (and keep!) subscribers.

What is an email newsletter?

A newsletter is an email that offers readers and fans who subscribe a smorgasbord of your most interesting content, announcements, and promotions.

An email newsletter is not just a roundup of the latest updates or bug fixes.

An email newsletter is not just your latest offer, spammed over and over.

An email newsletter is not a blog or life story, told via email (these terms are often interchangeable, but this example is not what we’re talking about here)

Think of your email newsletter as your “best of” – what you’ve been up to lately, behind-the-scenes insights, your best updates, as well as interesting links or content you’ve stumbled upon.

Email newsletters are regular messages with primarily informational content, or a roundup of content which your readers users can scroll through and pick and choose from. Email newsletters don’t sell: instead, they’re for developing a relationship with the subscriber. (Of course, you can have links to your latest products and a call to action – but the main focus should be on content sharing.)

What to put in an email newsletter

There’s no definitive format or formula beyond “be informative” – which is probably why a lot of people struggle when writing an email newsletter.

The first question to ask yourself is, what’s your niche? Look at your competitors’ email newsletters – if any – to see what kind of content their audiences respond to.

Rule number 1: write what people want to read.

For example, retail companies often send out newsletters that are focused on products, new releases and reviews. Health and wellness companies, on the other hand, may focus on benefits, interviews or lifestyle content rather than new products. Coaches and consultants may share their latest blog post, success stories, and personal anecdotes to keep that personal connection with their readers.

Still other newsletters aggregate others’ content from around the web. If you have a unique insight into a niche industry, you could find a small but dedicated audience hungry for regular updates only you can provide.

How to set up an email newsletter

There are many email newsletter publishing platforms you can use: some are free, some are paid, and some – like Substack – let you get paid for your newsletter.

When you create your account, before you start publishing, there’s a few non-newsletter email messages you’ll need to set up first. Often these platforms will have defaults you can use, but it’s much better for your brand messaging if you take the time to customise these messages for your readers.

Confirmation email – this will trigger when a user subscribes and agrees to receive emails from you. Not all platforms use them – some use other forms of confirming that the user consents to marketing messages – but if your platform uses this method, this will be sent to the new subscriber and require them to click a confirmation link to receive your emails. It’s worth personalising this message to keep subscribers on board through the two-step process.

Welcome email – this will trigger when the subscriber has successfully finished the sign up process. This is where you roll out the red carpet, thank the subscriber for signing up, and state exactly what they can expect to receive and when. You might want to include a welcome gift (such as the link to a lead magnet), or invitation to a Facebook group or other discussion platform if you have one.

Unsubscribe email – this email triggers when the reader successfully unsubscribes from your newsletter. It’s well worth personalising this one – as the way you say “thanks and goodbye” may influence their decision to come back. Add a request to tell someone else who might be interested in your newsletter, give you feedback about why they unsubscribed, and by all means remind them about your offer – but don’t bombard them with sales messages. And above all, never send further messages to an unsubscriber!

Try user-generated content

Don’t know what to write? Run out of things to talk about? Encourage your subscribers to send in their own stories or experiences – or offer a prize for the best photo or essay. You can even have guest writers “take over” your newsletter for a week!

Email newsletters have the same flexibility as blogs in that getting a guest writer – or making a guest post on someone else’s newsletter – is a great way to stir up engagement, boost your visibility, and refresh a stale topic. Done right, you might find yourself inspired to write on more topics after the guest post goes out.

User-generated content is also great because it is topical by nature: instead of rehashing old ideas, dredging up aged links or sharing previously-known information, getting users to weigh in on your newsletter not only makes it fresher but ensures your engagement stays high thanks to audience participation.

The future of your email newsletter

Sent out a few newsletters? That’s great – keep it going! Consistency is the number one factor in email newsletter success. No matter how regularly you send a message, make sure that it’s always timely so that audiences know when to expect your emails.

But that doesn’t mean they should expect what’s inside. Keep your content new, unexpected and engaging: the purpose of any email newsletter is to provide your audience with something they can’t get from other channels. Even if you’re curating others’ content, this means you should do it in a way that no one else does. If you create original content, it can’t be too similar to anyone else’s.

Building your lists, getting subscribers, boosting open rates and marketing your newsletter are topics you’ll want to dive into once you begin publishing. Outside the scope of this article, there’s an amazing world of email newsletters to be discovered – good luck with yours, and happy writing!