What Is a Newsletter: The Essentials You Must Know

Ah, the email newsletter. Enter your inbox, and you’re probably swimming in them. But have you ever stopped to think: what is a newsletter? Is it just a boring list of updates, or is there more to it? Chances are, if you’re here, it’s because you have a sneaking suspicion that email newsletters aren’t as simple as they once may have seemed—and that’s why so many businesses are flooding your inbox with them.

So with that in mind, what really is the meaning of an email newsletter and what is its purpose? And how can you tap into its potential so that your message isn’t just another one of those ignored emails in recipients’ inboxes? It’s time to get to the bottom of this email marketing mystery.

What Is a Newsletter?

A newsletter is a form of communication sent to a specific audience via email. But what are newsletters used for? They serve to share updates, news, and valuable content catered to the recipients’ interests. Newsletters can be sent by anyone, but are most often used by organizations, businesses, and content creators to engage their audience, build relationships, and drive actions such as purchases.

Newsletters can vary in style and content but are typically designed to be informative, engaging, and visually appealing. Whether sent weekly, monthly, or according to a specific schedule, they deliver value to the audience while supporting the sender’s objectives.

What Is the Purpose of a Newsletter?

We’ve covered what a newsletter is, but what’s its purpose? At its most basic, a newsletter aims to inform—to act as a line of communication between sender and subscriber. It might provide business updates, sale information, or product updates. 

Its purpose is to do so much more than inform, though; it is the essence of what we call email marketing, and it’s one of the most important tools in your marketing toolbox. Not only does sending newsletters have an incredibly high return on investment, but doing so allows you to connect with your customers (often in a personal way), measure results, and ultimately drive conversions thanks to the ability to move your recipients through the funnel. 

Indeed, when done properly, newsletters can strategically take their recipients on a journey, from awareness to decision, advocacy and more, turning curious new subscribers into long-lasting and loyal customers. Understanding how to use a newsletter to accomplish this is pretty powerful stuff! 

How to Create a Newsletter

Creating a simple, informative newsletter may not seem like rocket science, but there’s more to defining the art of email newsletter sending than might first meet the eye. And understanding the purpose behind this can make the difference between email production being a pain to do (with little success), and super easy and pleasurable to do (and with loads of success!). Let’s crack the code on creating a newsletter.

1. Choose an Email Marketing Platform

The first step in creating a newsletter is to select an email marketing platform. This platform serves as the foundation for designing and sending your emails, managing your subscriber list, and tracking your results—so choose thoughtfully! When evaluating options, consider the following features:

• Ease of Use: Look for an intuitive interface that allows you to design emails and manage campaigns without a steep learning curve. Even better if the platform allows you to easily add lead-generation forms to your website so that you can collect emails. 
• Customization Options: Verify that the platform offers a variety of templates and design tools so you can create emails that align with your brand identity and your messaging needs.
• Automation Features: Email automation capabilities, such as scheduling emails and setting up the aforementioned customer journeys, can save time and improve efficiency.
• Analytics and Reporting: To understand your email marketing success, or lack of success, it’ll be essential that your chosen platform has robust analytics tools. (We’ll dive in more below!) 
• Compliance Friendly: Verify that the platform helps you comply with email regulations, such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM, to protect your reputation and avoid penalties. An example of this would be having unsubscribe options implemented by default. 
• Scalability: Choose a platform that can grow with your needs, whether you’re managing a small list or scaling to thousands of subscribers. This means you should be able to get started for a reasonably low price, and only pay more as you grow. 

Having a competent, pleasurable-to-use email marketing tool will likely make the difference between you regularly sending your emails or not sending them at all. So take your time to pick carefully and make the right choice—it’s an important one!

2. Build a High-Quality Email List

Building a high-quality email list is truly the secret sauce to making your email endeavors effective. Without one, you may find that email open rates or click-through rates are low, or, worse, that your emails don’t even reach people’s inboxes in the first place.

The Importance of a High-Quality Email List

So first thing’s first: building an email list is about quality, not just quantity. Focusing on relevant, truly-interested subscribers helps augment your message’s impact. Meanwhile, sending emails to a broad, less-targeted audience can even harm your sender reputation (resulting in those undelivered emails), especially if recipients mark your emails as spam. By definition, this ultimately reduces your ability to reach genuinely interested people. So the goal here is to prioritize engaged and relevant contacts so that you can obtain the best results.

How to Ensure a High-Quality Email List

Right, so how to build a high-quality email list from the get go? Here are some general tips: 

• Create a Clear Opt-In Process: Implement a double opt-in method to confirm subscribers’ interest and maintain list quality.
• Keep Your List Fresh and Updated: Regularly clean your email list by removing inactive subscribers to enhance engagement rates. 
• Avoid Purchasing Email Lists: Building your list organically means that you’re more likely to have subscribers that are genuinely interested in your content, leading to better engagement.
• Provide an Easy Unsubscribe Option: Make it simple for subscribers to opt out, which helps maintain a positive brand image and complies with regulations.
• Comply with Regulatory Standards: Speaking of regulations, adhere to laws like GDPR to build trust and avoid legal issues.
• Offer Valuable Incentives: Encourage sign-ups by providing incentives such as exclusive content, discounts, or free resources.
• Encourage Offline Sign-Ups: Collect email addresses during in-person events or at your physical store locations.
• Host Webinars or Workshops: Offer educational sessions that require registration, allowing you to gather interested subscribers.

The truth is that these steps are easy to implement and make a meaningful difference, especially if you have a good email marketing platform in your corner. With just a little extra effort, you’ll see stronger engagement, higher open rates, and better overall results from your email newsletter campaigns. 

3. Create a Calendar

The importance of a proper content calendar can’t be understated. It helps you stay organized, maintain consistency, and align your email campaigns with your broader marketing objectives. Here’s how to create an effective calendar:

• Identify Key Milestones and Dates: Start by marking important events on your calendar, such as product launches, seasonal promotions, or holidays. These dates will serve as anchors for your email campaigns.
• Align with the email customer journey: Map your email content to the various stages of the customer journey. For example:
  • Awareness Stage: Schedule welcome emails for new subscribers to introduce them to your brand.
  • Consideration Stage: Plan nurture emails that provide value through educational content, tips, or resources.
  • Decision Stage: Set up promotional emails to highlight discounts, special offers, or testimonials to encourage conversions.
  • Retention Stage: Schedule newsletters that keep your audience engaged with updates, exclusive deals, or loyalty rewards.
  • Advocacy Stage: Plan referral or shareable content to encourage subscribers to recommend your brand to others.

• Coordinate with Campaigns and Other Channels: Make sure your newsletter schedule integrates seamlessly with other marketing efforts, such as social media campaigns, blog posts, or ad campaigns. This consistency reinforces your messaging across all platforms.
• Plan for Consistency: Decide on the frequency of your newsletters—whether weekly, biweekly, or monthly—and stick to it. Consistency helps build trust and keeps your audience engaged.

Creating a content calendar not only helps your newsletters be timely and relevant but also enables you to execute a thoughtful, well-structured email sequence that guides subscribers through their journey with your brand. Additionally, it helps keep you as the sender on top of where your customers are at, and what’s happening in your business, which promotes synergies across the board.

4. Develop Your Content

Now to the meat of the matter: newsletter content! It’s what will captivate your audience and get them engaging with your message—whether that’s as seemingly simple as opening your message, or as profitable as them making that much-desired purchase. Here’s a rundown on how to write and create email newsletter content that stands out, from subject line to sale: 

• Craft Compelling Subject Lines: Your email subject line is the first thing your subscribers will see, so make it count. Keep it short, intriguing, and relevant. Use action-oriented language or highlight a benefit to entice readers to open the email.
• Focus on Audience Value: Write and deliver content that resonates with your audience’s interests and needs. This could mean how-to guides, industry insights, exclusive offers, or inspirational stories that align with your brand’s mission. Matching this up with your email customer journey will help keep your content fresh, and your customers moving through your funnel. To spark ideas, explore various newsletter examples that highlight effective ways to connect with your audience and meet your goals.
• Implement Personalization: As one of the top digital marketing trends, personalization is one of the most important components of email marketing. Use segmentation and personalization techniques to purposefully create content for specific subscriber groups. Do this by grouping subscribers based on purchase behavior, email interaction, or any other criteria you wish to identify—and then send custom messages accordingly. Addressing a defined audience’s unique preferences and challenges can significantly increase engagement rates.
• Incorporate Strong CTAs: Every newsletter should have a clear call to action (CTA). Whether you want readers to click through to your website, make a purchase, or register for an event, your CTA should be prominently placed and easy to follow. Write them using action verbs, and create a sense of urgency when appropriate.
• Keep It Visually Engaging: Use design elements such as images, infographics, videos, or even email colors to break up text and keep the email visually appealing. Your visuals should complement the message without overshadowing it.
• Stay Consistent With Your Branding: Ensure that your tone, style, and visuals align with your brand identity. Consistency helps your audience recognize your emails and reinforces your brand message.

Developing high-quality content takes effort, but at the end of the day, it’s what keeps your subscribers coming back for more. So don’t drop the ball here—make your words, design, and calls to action count.

5. Schedule Your Newsletters

You’ve got an email list, a calendar, and some killer content—now it just needs to get sent! While you could go the old-fashioned route and just hit send straight away, we advise a more strategic approach. But let’s discuss a bit more in depth.  

Send It Now or Schedule for Later

Timing matters. Depending on your audience, certain days or times may yield higher open rates and engagement. Research your subscribers’ habits or test different sending times to find what works best. Either way, lean on your email marketing platform so that you can schedule your send for the best day and time.

Create an Email Sequence

Instead of a single email blast, consider crafting an automated email sequence. As we’ve already touched on, sequences guide subscribers through a journey—whether it’s onboarding, nurturing leads, or promoting a product launch—all while building a stronger relationship with your audience. Tools for email automation let you define and set triggers for sending emails, ensuring content reaches subscribers at the most opportune moments. This helps move them along the path to conversion and loyalty. 

6. Measure Success and Fine Tune

As we touched on earlier, when it comes to email marketing, the ability to measure your success—or lack thereof—is absolutely mission critical. We’re talking metrics, benchmarks, testing, tweaking, and more.

1. Track Key Metrics: Monitor key email marketing metrics like open rates, click-through rates (CTR), bounce rates, and conversion rates to evaluate how well your campaigns are performing. For example, if certain emails have a higher open rate than others, examine their subject lines to figure out what you could improve.
2. Analyze Engagement: Evaluate how recipients interact with your content, adjusting subject lines and CTAs based on these insights.
3. Set Goals and Benchmarks: Establish and define clear, measurable objectives for your email campaigns (like, say, a 10% increase in CTR within three months) and compare your results against industry benchmarks or your past performance.
4. Segment Your List: Use the data you gather to segment your audience further. For example, group subscribers based on behavior, demographics, or preferences to send more tailored and relevant content.
5. Run A/B Testing: Experiment with different elements of your emails, such as subject lines, call-to-action buttons, design, and content, to see what works best. To do this, choose one element to test, such as the CTA, and send one email with one CTA and the other with another. Analyze the results, and modify future sends accordingly.
6. Adjust Frequency: If your unsubscribe rate is high, consider whether you’re sending too many or too few emails. Test different frequencies to find the sweet spot for your audience.

The beauty of newsletters is that they are dynamic—if you test, track, and tweak, your results can continually improve. So keep a close eye on your metrics and don’t be afraid to try and test new techniques. 

What Is a Newsletter: Wrapping Up the Essentials

That’s a wrap on the humble newsletter. Whether you’re crafting captivating subject lines, building relationships through purposeful content, or leveraging analytics to fine-tune your strategy, newsletters are the unsung heroes of marketing. So next time you’re sifting through your inbox, give all those messages a second glance—you might just find a little inspiration for your own campaigns. 

This article was originally published in August 2020 and updated in February 2025.