Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective ways to reach and engage with your audience. However, understanding what is a newsletter and how to effectively use it can significantly enhance your marketing strategy.
Newsletters are particularly powerful email marketing tools for small businesses and ecommerce. They help build stronger connections with your audience and are ideal for sharing updates and promoting goods and services.
So, what is a newsletter, and how can you consistently deliver valuable content that encourages engagement and interaction?
In this article, we’ll not only define what is a newsletter but also explore real-world examples of successful newsletters and strategies that make them work. We’ll discuss the best practices to help you craft newsletters that resonate with your audience and boost engagement.
Drive more sales with Omnisend’s personalized, high-conversion newsletters
A newsletter is an email sent regularly to a specific list of subscribers. It contains news or curated content related to a specific topic or organization and follows a consistent format and schedule. You can send newsletters as often as you like, but most often they are sent weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
Newsletters allow businesses to stay in touch with customers who have expressed interest in receiving marketing communications. Whether it’s promotional content or educational resources, newsletters play an important role in email marketing.
To further understand what is the purpose of a newsletter, let’s discuss the ways newsletters contribute to effective email marketing:
Keeps audiences informed about company updates, industry news, and product launches
Delivers targeted content based on subscriber interests and behaviors
Establishes brand authority and trust through valuable, consistent content
Drives traffic by promoting new products, blog posts, and special offers
Enables conversions through strategic calls to action
3 newsletter examples
We’ve provided a newsletter definition in detail, and you can also check out these archives to learn about newsletters and gain a better understanding.
Now let’s explore real-life examples of how businesses use newsletters to achieve their marketing goals:
1. You’re Looking Well
This newsletter from You’re Looking Well promotes a skincare and wellness routine with a focus on consistency and science-backed products. The tone is sophisticated and educational, designed to build trust and highlight the benefits of its product.
The “Discover the Regime” CTA is strategically positioned to guide readers toward exploring and purchasing products. The newsletter also contains detailed yet concise content explaining the importance of skincare, probiotics, and magnesium.
Including personalized engagement (a quiz) and incentives like discounts on a customer’s first order further enhance customer connection and drive action:
Outsite, a co-living accommodation platform for remote workers, promotes responsible and sustainable travel practices, offering tips for mindful exploration. Its newsletter is educational and inspiring, appealing to socially conscious travelers.
The design is a light, natural color palette with high-quality images that reinforce themes of responsible tourism and cultural appreciation. Each section offers actionable advice, providing genuine value and establishing trust and engagement with the audience:
Image via Really Good Emails
3. Misfits Market
This subscription-based grocery delivery service uses a newsletter to showcase its product offerings. The newsletter content stands out with visually appealing designs and distinct “eating,” “rescuing,” “chewing on,” and “shipping” sections.
The tone is casual and conversational, using phrases like “What we’re eating” to create a friendly, approachable, and community atmosphere. Also, the color-coded sections with complementary food photos help organize different product categories while maintaining visual interest.
Overall, this Misfits Market newsletter is primarily promotional, encouraging purchases through CTA buttons like “Shop Back to School” CTA buttons. However, it strikes a balance by educating customers about its food waste reduction mission (rescued shrimp):
Image via Really Good Emails
Why use a newsletter?
So, what is a newsletter, and why should you send one? Beyond sending emails, other benefits of using newsletters in your digital marketing strategy include:
Improve conversion rates: Newsletters allow you to share targeted content and offers that guide subscribers toward purchase decisions. As you consistently deliver value, subscribers are urged to take action. This includes making a purchase, signing up for an event, or downloading a resource.
Gain new subscribers: A newsletter encourages recipients to share and forward to receive referral incentives. When existing subscribers find value in your newsletter content, they’re more likely to recommend it to others, creating organic list growth through word-of-mouth.
Driving business forward: Regular newsletter communication keeps your brand top-of-mind. This consistent presence helps maintain customer engagement, generate repeat business, and create lasting relationships that contribute to long-term business success.
We’ve defined what is a newsletter, and now let’s discuss how to create one. At first, creating a newsletter may seem daunting, but it’s not a complex process. With a few simple steps, you can easily craft newsletter content.
Prefer a video? This step-by-step tutorial will show you everything you need to know about making an email newsletter that gets clicks.
1. Define your audience
Effective newsletter marketing begins with understanding your target audience. Before focusing on your newsletter design or content, you need to define your audience.
Conduct in-depth research to identify your target audience’s preferences, pain points, and goals. Discover their preferred content format, communication style, and the best time to send emails.
Understanding your audience helps you choose the right tone, language, and design that resonates with them. This targeted approach boosts the chances of recipients of your newsletter opening, reading, and taking inspired action.
2. Choose a platform
Before you consider how to create a newsletter, you need to select the right email marketing platform. This is crucial because the platform is where you’ll design, send, and manage your newsletters.
Email marketing platforms like Omnisend offer a wide range of features for effective email marketing, including:
Drag-and-drop email builders for easy design
Pre-designed templates to get you started quickly
Segmentation tools for targeting specific audience groups
Automation capabilities for scheduling and sending emails
More importantly, choose a platform with analytics and reporting tools to track the performance of your newsletters and make data-driven improvements. It should also allow you to scale easily as your subscriber list grows.
3. Design a template
Your newsletter’s design is the first thing readers will notice. So, you need a visually appealing and user-friendly template. A well-designed newsletter template enhances readability, reinforces your brand identity, and keeps subscribers engaged.
Here are some design tips to consider:
Avoid overwhelming subscribers with too much text or too many images
Use white space effectively to create breathing room and guide the reader’s eye
Stick to consistent fonts, colors, and branding elements to reinforce your identity
Ensure mobile responsiveness as most people read emails on their phones, so test how your design looks on smaller screens
This newsletter example beautifully portrays the design tips we’ve itemized above, from imagery and text to mobile optimization:
What is a newsletter without engaging content? Using catchy email subject lines encourages recipients to open your newsletters. However, ensure your subject lines are under 50 characters to avoid truncation on mobile devices.
Use strong action verbs to create a sense of urgency or pose a question to pique curiosity. Using a subject line tester can help you optimize your subject lines before hitting the send button.
Additionally, your newsletter content should deliver on the promise of the subject line. Use clear and concise language, summarize text with headings and bullet points, and include visually appealing images or graphics.
Focus on providing value to your subscribers, whether it’s through informative articles, exclusive offers, or entertaining content. For instance, you can share a blog post, announce an upcoming event, or offer an exclusive discount.
5. Write newsletter content
When writing your newsletter content, clarity is paramount. Use simple, direct language and avoid jargon or technical terms your subscribers might not understand.
Also, use short paragraphs to improve readability, and write as if you’re speaking to the reader. Phrases like “we thought you’d love this” make your newsletter feel more personal.
Each newsletter should focus on providing genuine value. It should also maintain a consistent message and brand voice, allowing subscribers to instantly recognize your newsletter. Also, include a link to your website or blog for additional details.
Seasonal events and holidays like Black Friday and Christmas
Educational content, such as how-to’s, guides, and tips
6. Add CTAs
What is the purpose of a newsletter without a CTA? Using a call to action is one of the newsletter best practices we strongly recommend. It incentivizes readers to sign up, make a purchase, or read a blog post.
Use hyperlinks or visually distinct buttons to make your CTAs stand out and encourage immediate action.
Strategically place your CTA in your newsletter, typically after key sections or at the end of the email. Ensure it features contrasting colors and clear, concise text. Some popular examples include “Learn More,” “Shop Now,” “Get Your Discount,” “Sign Up Today,” and “Download Now.”
7. Review and test
Before you send newsletters to subscribers, carefully proofread your content for any grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors. Even small mistakes can damage your credibility.
Next, meticulously check all links within your newsletter to ensure they direct users to the correct pages. Broken links can frustrate your subscribers, resulting in lost business opportunities.
Remember to test your newsletter’s responsiveness across different devices and email clients (Gmail and Outlook) to ensure it displays correctly for all subscribers.
Finally, consider A/B testing different elements of your newsletter, such as subject lines, CTAs, and layouts. You can send two slightly different versions of your newsletter to a small audience segment. Then, analyze which version performs better in terms of open rates or click-through rates.
Newsletter templates
Creating new newsletter designs can be time-consuming, but you can increase your newsletter marketing efforts with Omnisend’s free templates. Omnisend has a catalog of stunning newsletter templates for various industries and events.
Omnisend’s drag-and-drop editor lets you quickly modify layouts, colors, and content to match your brand’s unique style and message. Each template has a responsive design, ensuring your newsletters look perfect across all devices.
Image via Omnisend
Start creating engaging newsletters with Omnisend email newsletter templates
Designing a truly effective newsletter involves more than knowing what is a newsletter. Here are essential tips for implementing your newsletter ideas to engage subscribers and increase conversions:
Segment your audience to deliver personalized content that resonates with specific subscriber groups
Use short, personalized subject lines and preheaders
Maintain a consistent sending schedule to build reader anticipation and trust
Test different sending times to identify when your audience is most engaged
Encourage two-way communication by asking for feedback or running polls
Track your results and analyze your metrics to identify areas for improvement
Conclusion
A well-crafted newsletter is a powerful email marketing tool for driving customer engagement and business growth. In this article, we discussed what is a newsletter, what to include in a newsletter, and how to use newsletters, taking insights from real-life brands.
Remember to maintain consistency in your design and sending schedule, provide valuable content, and always preview and test your campaigns before sending. Also, leverage Omnisend’s free newsletter templates for maximum results.
FAQ
1. What’s the difference between a newsletter and an email?
An email is any electronic message sent over the internet. Conversely, a newsletter is a type of email regularly distributed and focused on providing valuable content to a subscribed audience. Think of it this way: all newsletters are emails, but not all emails are newsletters.
2. How often should I send a newsletter?
You should send a newsletter based on the preferences of your audience and the content you intend to share. For instance, weekly or biweekly newsletters are common for regular updates. Monthly newsletters work well for less frequent news or curated content. Simply choose a schedule you can maintain and stick to it.
3. What is a good newsletter open rate?
A good newsletter open rate varies by industry, target audience, and newsletter content (promotional, educational, or feedback). However, anything above 20% is considered decent. Focus on improving your own open rates over time before comparing yourself to industry averages. Consistent testing and optimization will lead to better results.
Karolina is a content project manager and team lead at Omnisend, where she blends creative strategy with a keen focus on competitive intelligence. Outside of work, Karolina finds balance through her love of gardening, exploring new hiking trails, biking, and raising a bunch of boys.
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