Businesses, bloggers, creators, and organizations can still use email newsletters as one of the best ways to market themselves. Even though social media and other digital communication channels are becoming more popular, email is still a great way to get a return on investment. Studies show that email marketing makes a lot more money per dollar spent than most other marketing methods. Emails go straight to your audience’s inbox, unlike social media posts that can be buried by algorithms or disappear in a few hours. This makes a personal connection and gives you a direct line of communication with people who have actively chosen to hear from you. A well-written email newsletter can be your most valuable tool for building a community, promoting products, sharing knowledge, or getting people to visit your website. The good news is that you don’t need to be a tech expert or have a lot of money to make a good newsletter. You just need a clear plan and to stick to it.
Step 1: Decide what your newsletter is for and who it is for
You need to be very clear about why you’re making this newsletter and who it’s for before you write anything or pick a design template. Every choice you make after this one will be based on this one. First, think about what you want to get out of your newsletter. Do you want to become a thought leader in your field, build relationships with potential customers, keep current customers interested in your brand, boost sales of certain goods or services, or create a community around shared interests? Instead of just wanting to “stay in touch with customers,” you should have a clear and measurable goal. For example, you could want to “increase repeat purchases by twenty percent” or “position myself as the go-to expert in sustainable fashion.”
It’s also very important to know your target audience in great detail. Picture your ideal subscriber in your mind. What are their age, gender, interests, problems, and goals? What issues keep them up at night, and what answers are they looking for? What kind of content would make them look forward to your emails instead of deleting them right away? Think about how they read: are they busy professionals who need short, easy-to-read content, or are they fans who enjoy getting into the details of topics they care about?
When you know what your audience likes, what problems they have, and what they want, you can make content that really connects with them instead of just adding noise to their already full inboxes. Spend some time asking current customers or community members what they think, looking at analytics from your website or social media, and looking into what other newsletters in your field are doing well or poorly. This research phase may seem boring, but it’s what makes the difference between a newsletter that does well and one that doesn’t, with low open rates and high unsubscribe rates.
Step 2: Pick the Best Email Marketing Platform
Choosing an email marketing platform is one of the most important technical choices you’ll make because it will hold your subscriber list, let you design and send emails, and give you important analytics. The good news is that there are a lot of great platforms out there at different prices, and many of them have free tiers for people who are just starting out. Mailchimp is a popular choice because it has a simple interface and a generous free plan. ConvertKit is made for bloggers and creators. Constant Contact is known for its great customer service. Substack is great for writers who want to make money from newsletters. HubSpot or ActiveCampaign are more powerful platforms for businesses that need advanced automation and CRM integration.
When looking at platforms, keep a few important things in mind. First, look at the pricing structure and see if it fits your budget and growth plans. Most platforms charge based on how many subscribers you have, so make sure you know how costs will change as your list grows. Check the design features and template choices to make sure you can make newsletters that fit your brand’s style without having to know how to code. As your list grows, the ability to send welcome sequences, trigger emails based on how subscribers act, and divide your audience into groups becomes more and more useful. Find out if the platform works with the tools you already use, like your website platform, e-commerce system, or customer relationship management software. Check the analytics and reporting features to make sure you’ll have the information you need to make your newsletters better over time. Lastly, think about how likely it is that your newsletter will be delivered. A well-designed newsletter is useless if it ends up in spam folders. To get the best inbox placement, most reputable platforms keep good relationships with email service providers. Don’t make this choice too quickly. Use free trials to try out different platforms and find the one that is easy to use and meets your needs.
Step 3: Build your list of subscribers in a way that is both ethical and smart.
The quality of a newsletter’s subscriber list is what makes it useful. To build that list, you need to be patient and have a plan. The most important rule is to grow your list naturally by getting people to sign up to get your emails. Never buy email lists or add people without their permission, as this is against anti-spam laws, hurts your reputation as a sender, and leads to subscribers who are not interested in your products or services. Instead, try to get people to sign up for your email list by offering them something of value in exchange for their email address.
Make it easy for people to sign up for things at many different points of contact. Put signup forms on your homepage, blog sidebar, about page, and footer in places that make sense. You could use exit-intent popups that show up when people are about to leave your site and give them one last chance to stay connected. Make a lead magnet, which is a free resource that is useful and solves a problem that your target audience has. Examples include an ebook, checklist, template, video course, or exclusive content. Compared to generic “sign up for our newsletter” requests, this incentive makes a big difference in conversion rates. You can promote your newsletter on social media, in your email signature, on business cards, and at events or presentations. If you have a physical store, let people sign up at the register or through in-store promotions. Make it as easy as possible for people to sign up. Asking for just an email address at first works better than long forms that ask for a lot of information all at once. You can get more information over time as the relationship grows. Be clear about what subscribers will get, how often you’ll email them, what kind of content they’ll get, and how you’ll keep their information private. If you set clear expectations from the start, your subscribers will be more engaged and there will be fewer complaints.
Step 4: Make a plan for your content strategy and editorial calendar.
For a newsletter to be successful, it needs to be consistent. The best way to make sure that happens is to plan the content carefully. First, decide how often you want to send them, whether that’s every day, every week, every two weeks, or every month. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question; it depends on how much useful content you can consistently make and what your audience wants. A weekly newsletter is a good middle ground that keeps you on people’s minds without overwhelming them. However, some successful newsletters send out daily emails, while others do well with monthly deep dives. No matter how often you send, stick to it. Sending messages at random times teaches your audience to ignore them.
Make content pillars, which are the main topics or themes that your newsletter will cover. These pillars should be in line with what you know and what your audience is interested in. A newsletter about living sustainably might have sections on eco-friendly home tips, ethical product suggestions, recipes that don’t waste food, and news analysis about the environment. Having established pillars stops you from staring at a blank screen and wondering what to write about. They also make sure that your content is always new. Make an editorial calendar that shows what you’ll write about weeks or months ahead of time. You don’t have to write everything ahead of time, but having a plan helps you avoid rushing at the last minute and lets you make sure that your newsletter content is in line with important events, seasons, product launches, or industry trends. Keep your main structure, but make sure that timely topics can be added easily. Think about making templates for different types of content, such as one for curated link roundups, one for in-depth tutorials, and one for personal stories or case studies. Templates make it easier for you to create your newsletter and give it a structure that readers will recognize and like. Lastly, make content in batches when you can. A lot of successful newsletter writers set aside certain times to write several issues at once. This helps them stay in the creative flow and makes the ongoing commitment easier to handle.
Step 5: Make a newsletter template that people will want to read.
The way your newsletter looks has a big effect on whether or not people read it or close the email right away. You don’t have to be a graphic designer to make a good newsletter, which is good news. Simple designs often work better than complicated ones. Most email marketing platforms offer professionally designed templates that you can change to fit your needs. This gives you a polished starting point. When choosing or making your template, make sure that it is easy to read and works well on mobile devices. More than half of emails are now opened on mobile devices, so your newsletter needs to look good and work well on small screens. Before you send your design to everyone on your list, test it on a few different devices.
Make sure your design is simple and free of clutter, with lots of white space that lets the content breathe and doesn’t overwhelm the reader. Use the same colors and fonts for your brand as you do for your other marketing materials to make them look the same and help people remember your brand. Put your logo in a prominent place, like the header, so that people who get your newsletter right away know it’s yours. Use headings, subheadings, and formatting to make a clear visual hierarchy in your content that helps readers follow along with the email. It’s scary and hard to read large blocks of text, especially on mobile devices. Break up the text into short paragraphs. Use images wisely to make your message stronger, make it more visually appealing, and break up the text. However, don’t let images take over; many email clients block images by default, so your newsletter must get its point across through text alone. Make sure to include clear, big calls to action that tell readers exactly what you want them to do, like reading a blog post, shopping a sale, or giving feedback. Use buttons or other unique formatting to make these CTAs stand out. Last but not least, make sure your template has all the necessary parts, such as an unsubscribe link (which is required by law in most places) and your mailing address. These may seem like small things, but they are very important for following the rules and gaining your subscribers’ trust.
Step 6: Write interesting subject lines and preview text.
Your subject line is the most important thing you’ll write because even the best newsletter content won’t matter if subscribers never open the email. Your subject line needs to stand out in a crowded inbox and make people want to open your email. Short subject lines work best—try to keep them to fifty characters or fewer, since longer lines get cut off on mobile devices. They make people want to know more, make them feel like they need to act quickly, or make it clear what the benefit is. Try out different ways to see what works best for your audience. You could ask questions, use numbers or lists, make bold statements, personalize the email with the recipient’s name, create urgency with time-sensitive offers, or just be clear about how valuable the email is.
Don’t use tactics that seem like they are trying to trick or spam people, like using too many capital letters, too many exclamation points, or words like “free” or “urgent” in all caps. Also, don’t use clickbait that doesn’t deliver on its promise. These methods might temporarily raise open rates, but they could hurt trust and lead to more people unsubscribing in the long run. A lot of email clients also show preview text, which is the first few lines of your email that show up next to the subject line in the inbox. Don’t waste this valuable space with boring text like “View this email in your browser.” Instead, write interesting preview text that goes well with your subject line and gives the reader more information or a reason to open the email. The subject line and preview text work together like a one-two punch to get people to open the email. Most email platforms have A/B testing tools that let you try out different ways to write subject lines. Send the same newsletter to small groups of people on your list, but with two different subject lines. Then, send the winner to the rest of your list. Over time, this testing shows you what works for your specific audience, which lets you keep raising your open rates.
Step 7: Write content that is useful and interesting
When people open your email, the content must live up to the promise of the subject line and give them real value that makes the time and attention they spend worthwhile. Don’t bury your lead with long introductions or generic greetings. Instead, start strong with an interesting opening that grabs readers’ attention right away. Get right into something fun, useful, or interesting. Use a real person’s voice when you write, not a corporate robot’s voice. Think about writing to a friend or coworker and telling them something that is really useful or interesting. This method makes your newsletter feel more personal and less like an advertisement.
Make sure that your educational, entertaining, and promotional content is in the right amounts. The exact ratio depends on what your newsletter is for, but a common rule of thumb is the eighty-twenty rule: eighty percent of the content should be useful, educational, entertaining, or inspiring, and twenty percent should be promotional and help your business goals. When promotional content is mixed in with real value, subscribers are okay with it. But if a newsletter is too salesy, people will quickly unsubscribe. Tell stories whenever you can, because people are naturally drawn to stories. Stories, whether they’re about your customers’ successes, your own experiences, or case studies, connect with people on an emotional level and make information easier to remember than just facts. Be clear and give advice that can be acted on; vague or general tips don’t help. Instead of telling readers to “improve your productivity,” give them specific tools, techniques, or systems they can use right away. Add useful links that take readers to more resources, blog posts, products, or other useful content, but don’t give them too many choices at once. There should be one main action you want readers to take in each newsletter, and there should be links to other pages that support that action. Lastly, keep an eye on the length. There is no one perfect length, but you should respect your readers’ time. Get to the point quickly, edit harshly, and get rid of anything that doesn’t help your newsletter. Some people like short, easy-to-read newsletters that they can read in two minutes, while others like longer, more detailed ones. Your analytics will show you what your audience likes best.
Step 8: Look at the data, make changes, and keep getting better.
Making and sending your newsletter is just the first step. The best newsletter creators see each send as a chance to learn and use data and feedback to improve their approach. Email marketing platforms have powerful analytics that show you exactly how your subscribers read your newsletters. Keep an eye on a few important metrics that show how well things are going. The open rate tells you what percentage of people who got your email opened it. This shows how well your subject lines and sender name grab people’s attention. The click-through rate shows how many people clicked on links in your email. This tells you how interesting your content and calls-to-action are. The unsubscribe rate shows what percentage of people who got this email chose not to receive it again. Some unsubscribes are normal and even good, but sudden spikes in the rate show that something about that newsletter didn’t connect with people. Bounce rate tells you what percentage of emails couldn’t be delivered. A high bounce rate means that there are problems with the list that need to be fixed.
To see patterns and trends, don’t just look at surface-level data. What kinds of content get the most people to interact with it? What kinds of subject lines get the most people to open them? What days and times of day work best for sending? Are there links that get clicked on a lot more than others? This information helps you make decisions about your content strategy and lets you focus on what works and get rid of what doesn’t. Ask your subscribers what they like, what they want more of, and what isn’t working every now and then to get qualitative feedback. A simple survey or reply-to prompt can give you information that numbers alone can’t. A lot of subscribers will like being asked and feel more connected to a newsletter that really takes their preferences into account. To keep your email list clean, get rid of subscribers who haven’t opened or clicked on any of your emails in the last few months. It may seem strange to shrink your list, but inactive subscribers hurt your deliverability and make it hard to see how engaged your subscribers really are. Most platforms let you make re-engagement campaigns that send a last-chance message to inactive subscribers before you remove them. As new technologies, rules, and subscriber expectations come out, the email marketing landscape changes. Stay up to date on the best practices. Things that worked great two years ago might not work at all now. Read blogs about email marketing, join groups for people who make newsletters, and always try new things while keeping track of how they work.
Making a good email newsletter is both an art and a science. You need to be creative when writing the content and strict when optimizing it. These eight steps will help you get started, but keep in mind that it takes time to make a newsletter successful. You need to be patient, consistent, and really care about giving your subscribers value. It’s normal for your first newsletter to only go out to a few people and for your early work to feel awkward or unsure. Every person who has ever made a successful newsletter started out just like you. The most important thing is to get started, learn from each send, slowly improve your method, and keep doing it even when growth seems slow. Instead of worrying about things like your total number of subscribers, focus on building real relationships with them. A list of five hundred people who are very interested in what you have to say and do what you suggest is worth a lot more than a list of ten thousand people who don’t care. Instead of sending out a newsletter like a broadcast, think of it as a conversation. Ask for responses and interactions, and remember that every email address belongs to a real person who has chosen to let you into their inbox. This is a privilege that should never be taken for granted. If you put in the time and effort to plan and execute your email newsletter well, it can help you reach your business or creative goals and build a loyal community that will support your success for years to come.