8 Tips for Authentic and Effective Email Newsletter Writing
Inside The Intuitive Writing School community, the topic of newsletters comes up a lot.
Business owners ask:
How do you decide what to put in your emails?
How long should my newsletter be?
There are so many things I want to say; should I cram it all in there?
I want people to enjoy my newsletter, but what if it’s boring?
How often should I send my newsletter?
Can I sell stuff in my newsletter?
All great questions.
I love email, so I’m thrilled to discuss this topic with you. There’s definitely lots of figuring out to do with email newsletters. Like most advice, especially intuitive writing advice, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. And even what works for someone today will change.
There's no one set of answers that will work for everyone or will work for you every time. It's going to change.
Let yourself have fun with your email newsletter writing. Never force the words — your readers can tell.
Below you’ll find answers to these email newsletter questions. I encourage you to try on some of the advice and see what works for you. Play and have fun with it!
1) How often should I send my email newsletter?
First, how often do you want to send newsletters? In content creation, staying consistent is helpful for your audience to get to trust you. If you say you’re going to send a weekly email, send a weekly email to help set their expectations. Let them know they can rely on you to deliver on your promise.
Then, decide what consistency means for you—daily, weekly, twice a month, monthly, quarterly, whatever it is. Do what works best for you, and if you need to change the frequency in the future, go ahead and change it.
Then, consider what’s typical for your readers. Are they overwhelmed? Maybe an infrequent newsletter will serve them better. Are they hungry for information now? You might send weekly emails.
If you choose a monthly format, it may look like more of a round-up email and can include various links.
If you're emailing weekly, you want to give them only one thing to do: one goal — read this article, listen to this podcast, and learn about this thing.
2) How long should my newsletter be?
How much to write will depend. I've experimented in the past with two different newsletter styles.
One, I’ll include an entire blog post in the newsletter so that readers can get all the information right there, without needing to click to visit my blog. If you’re not concerned about having your readers click (or take action) in your newsletters, you can include everything right in the body of the email.
Another strategy, if you'd like your readers to get used to clicking to read more from you, is to write a teaser (more on how to do that in a second) and then direct them to your blog. Sending readers to your blog (which lives on your website) tells search engines that there’s good stuff on your website, which will help with SEO.
When readers are in the habit of clicking (taking action) in your emails, they’ll be more likely to click when you share that kind of thing. Whether you’re asking them to click to explore a new service, class, or product, you’re setting the expectation that the good stuff is simply behind a quick click.
If you’re selling (which most businesses and authors are), eventually, you want people to click because you want them to visit and take some kind of small action.
3) How do you decide what to put in your emails?
How much do you have to say? If you have a lot to say in one email, consider upping your frequency or including short snippets that lead to longer pieces. This is great if you send a monthly newsletter and have a handful of things you’d like readers to explore — listen to this podcast interview, grab my signed book, read one of these three new articles, or check out this guest article.
When writing a newsletter snippet — you can often copy and paste the first 25% of your blog post and then tweak it so it reads appropriately for email.
Keep your email newsletter skimmable.
Check your email analytics and see if most of your readers engage with your emails on their phones, computers, or tablets. This can also give you some clues on how to format your email newsletters. If they’re reading on their phones, chances are they might prefer to stay right there in their inboxes instead of clicking away, especially if they’re working on getting through a bunch of emails.
If you have multiple topics in an email, add subheaders letting people know what they’ll read.
4) There are so many things I want to say; should I cram it all in there?
Include as much as your people need to know. Consider saving some content for a later newsletter or adding a bonus newsletter that same week. Most people are getting too much information, not too little. This is also where you can keep the lengthy writing on your website (where we want people to get comfy and hang out for a while) and leave the snippets for the inbox.
5) I want people to enjoy my newsletter, but what if it’s boring?
You can’t control what people think of you. And if your goal is to entertain people, I invite you to dig deeper. If you’re an entertainer, by all means, entertain away. If you’re an author and/or run a business, does entertaining your readers (and potential clients) improve their lives? Do you want to be known as an entertainer?
If you’re sharing content that lights you up and you’re inspired to share, that is a better gauge for what to include in your newsletter.
People will unsubscribe. It’s okay. If you haven’t already, make sure you unsubscribe from those email updates about when subscribers opt out of your emails. You don’t need that information delivered to your inbox as it happens. Sure, keep an eye on your unsubscribes, but there’s no need to obsess over them. For every unsubscribe, wish them well, thank them (in your head, not literally), and trust they’re helping make room for more aligned subscribers.
At first, it might feel scary to email a bunch of people. Remember, they raised their hands and said they wanted to hear from you. They said YES. Whether you’re emailing three people, three hundred, or three thousand — on the receiving end of your email is ONE person. One person looking to learn something from you, buy something, or be inspired.
When sending newsletters is a new activity to you, it will feel uncomfortable at first because you haven’t built the neurological container for it yet. You haven't done it. So it's all new. And until you’ve sent a newsletter, your brain is like, “Whoah, we don’t do things like this.” And it will attempt to stop you from trying to keep you safe. The first few emails you send might feel like a push. You can do this!
But once you've sent one and then two, think about how you'll feel about sending newsletters a couple of months from now.
6) Can I sell stuff in my newsletter?
How many emails do you have waiting for you in your inbox with new things for you to buy? Do you get mad at them for selling to you? No.
First, make sure you’re aligned and authentic in what you promised your newsletter subscribers. If you promised weekly career coaching advice and you send a sales pitch every week, that’s kinda shitty, and they’re probably going to bail.
As a general rule, you can sell in every email — this is why I link to my services page or a specific offer in my email footer (keep reading for an example). You can also include a brief section at the end of each newsletter that describes why working with you is the bomb.com.
Now, if we’re taking sales emails — think about sending roughly one sales email for every three to five content emails. That might vary depending on your business and the sales cycles for your industry.
If the goal of your email newsletter is to ultimately convert readers to book a consult or buy a product, then yes, sell to them. And if they don’t buy, you probably want these people to unsubscribe.
7) What do I include in every email?
Create a footer to appear at the bottom of every email that reminds subscribers who you are. How often have you received an email and wondered, “Who is this person, and how did I get on this list?”
Include a photo of you and/or your logo, a short line about who you are and who you work with (this is your Intuitive Intro), and a link to whatever you’re promoting. Feel free to play with it and experiment with different footers. Here’s a recent footer in my email newsletter:
And because I’m an author, I include a link to one of my books in most emails. Like this:
Intuitive Writing Tip: Have fun with email newsletter writing. The best newsletter for your subscribers is the one that felt like a joy to write.
8) What do I put in the subject line?
Your email subject line has one job — entice your reader to click to open the email. Now, I’ve seen some clickbaity, barfy email subject lines. There’s a balance to staying authentic.
I usually recommend writing your email subject line last. With your newsletter written and ready to go, a subject line will usually stand out. Then, keep it simple. Never sacrifice clarity in an attempt to be witty. A confused reader is one who ignores or deletes your email.
If you send a monthly newsletter, consider making some portion of your subject line consistent:
“Intuitive Writing: Monthly tips and strategies for February.”
If you’re emailing a new blog post, you can include the blog title in the subject.
Intuitive Writing Tip: Write the subject using lowercase characters to make your emails feel friendly and approachable. Your emails from friends aren’t in title case, right?
Keep it casual for a conversational tone.
Create a swipe file of subject lines that grab your attention. As an email subject line catches your eye, save it to a list or file it in a designated folder. We’ve got lots of email subject line swipe files in the writing community resources.
The more you start paying attention to great subject lines, the more you’ll build a bank of attention-getting subjects from which to draw when you need them.
I hope you begin to love email as much as I do. I could write an entire book about email newsletters, but instead, I encourage you to have fun and bring your curiosity and good vibes to your email newsletters. Play, experiment, try new things, see what feels aligned, and see what resonates most with readers.
And, as always, energy is everything. When you sit down to write emails to your subscribers, aim to be in a clear, grounded, calm space. Keep negative vibes and critical self-talk away from your email writing, and your readers will feel the difference.
I lead by example in my email newsletters. Want to see?
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There’s more (a lot more) where this useful writing advice came from. Keep reading:
