5 types of email newsletter (with examples)
With the TikTok ban coming into force in the US, and the ‘will he won’t he’ around whether Trump will reverse the decision (*UPDATE: he did!), one thing is for sure.
Small business owners need to be WAY more clued up when it comes to taking care of their community.
Sure, post on different social platforms, share content and get eyes on what you do. But don’t assume those followers will always be there waiting for you.
How can you make sure you don’t lose your audience?
It doesn’t even have to be as monumental as an entire platform being *deleted*.
Technology hiccups, unintentionally falling foul of guidelines and societal shifts in behaviour, can all mean your carefully curated feed and keen commenters are left bereft.
And while they might quickly move on to other platforms and other businesses, you’ll be left picking up the pieces.
Potentially starting from scratch.
Ouch!
If you don’t have an email newsletter, what are you waiting for?
Get those eyes back onto your own ‘internet estate’ at every opportunity.
And save your strongest comms for a platform you can control.
In short…
Ask your community to subscribe to your list and then get into their inboxes.
Yes really.
There’s no time to lose.
Choose an email marketing software – drop me a line if you need some advice. Get that free starter account set up. Create a super simple opt-in box on your site and you’re good to go.
Even if you then procrastinate on actually sending out regularly, simply collecting those emails is very much the first step.
Maybe it’s not as hard as you think…
“I just don’t know what to include in a regular email newsletter,” is something I often hear from small business owners. And yes, I’ll admit it can take some time to get going at first.
But once you realise it DOESN’T have to be that complicated.
You CAN start out slow.
And you CAN take time to work out what works for you.
You’ll find it’s perfectly possible to send out a newsletter to your audience, relatively regularly, without it costing the earth in either time, money or indeed sanity!
Take inspiration from these types of email newsletter
There’s no point in reinventing the wheel. There are several types of newsletters that business routinely use, because they’re relatively simple, they’re structured and they serve a purpose.
Yes, best practice suggests you should make it personal, tell stories, engage your audience emotionally and build trust and authority for your brand. And yes, you can work on all of these things.
But when you’re just getting started?
Well then it’s as much about building habits and seeing what resonates…
So if you’re stuck for ideas or struggling to get started, try out some of these types of email newsletter:
Promotional
Perhaps the most obviously type of email newsletter – no doubt you receive numerous promotional emails in your inbox daily. I certainly do!
Getting a promotional newsletter right is about choosing a current offer, or a product or service that’s particularly relevant to your reader, and shouting about that thing.
But there’s one thing to be careful of.
For your audience to take these seriously and jump on the offer. You either need to be presenting precisely the thing your audience happens to need at that moment, in which case brilliant! Or you have to have already built up enough ‘good will’ credits as it were. I.e. you’ve proven your worth, offered value and given your audience a reason to want to buy from you.
And don’t worry about being too sale-sy, you can write this type of email in pushy or non-pushy language depending on your audience and your brand voice.
There’s also a sense of urgency created by the ‘Ends TOMORROW’ banner at the top.
Company news
Share exciting news and announcements about what’s going on in your business. Have you recruited a new staff member? Do you want to share about your mission or vision, or some charity work you’ve engaged in? Or perhaps you want to promote a competition?
This is one of the types of email newsletter that can really help your audience get to know you, and importantly, your values. It’s not overtly salesy (which sometimes feels like a relief, right?), but it can be the driver for some great conversations and amazing advocates.
National Book Tokens often uses its email newsletters to promote competitions that are of interest to its audience, as well as talking about what they do and how they help local booksellers.
There are no strong sales tactics here, simply a mention that ‘Every gift card bought and spent represents an investment in high street bookselling.’
They’re clearly sharing their values and looking to connect with like-minded people.
Educational
Educational email newsletters are great for adding the value and proving to your audience that you are the expert.
And of course you have plenty of options here.
You might write a long form email that covers of a topic and signposts to other places for further info. You might select one blog post or article, write a short intro piece as your email and then link to your site. Or you could even share a selection of other people’s articles on a particular subject, with credits and links of course. This could be particularly useful for a time-poor audience that is keen to find information from authorities on a topic, but wants it all in one place.
SEO specialists, Yoast, tend to concentrate on educational content, sharing lots of useful information about SEO generally as well as more specifically how to use their products to get the best out of your website.
They’ll always signpost back to a larger, more detailed article on their site and follow up with a relevant ad or offer.
Curated content
A curated content newsletter often looks like short snippets of text with images and large brand-colour buttons. Think magazine style – never giving the full picture of anything, instead linking off to articles on your own site or those of others.
The options for curated content are many and varied, and curated newsletters can be a super quick way of pulling together a weekly email, particularly once you have an established template and are in the mindset of looking out for ideas.
There are so many examples of companies that use curated content. City Experiences is one, theming their emails and offering snippets that link back to numerous related blogs they’ve previously published. A great way to keep themselves front of mind, inspire a love of travel and benefit from a huge back catalogue of travel-related articles.
Meanwhile, BBC Maestro sends out a monthly email with several different sections – that often repeat. From introducing new courses, to linking back to blog articles, quotes from courses, links to YouTube channels and offers and information about the service, they cover off all the bases.
Storytelling
If you’re feeling brave, or you particularly love – or are in the mood for – writing, simply tell your readers a story.
It might be one from your past, a little snippet of something that happened last week, or a case study about a customer or client who loved what you did for them.
Preferably something relatively simple, preferably something they can relate to, and certainly something that relates, however tenuously, to a product or service you’re offering.
You’ll include that bit at the end.
Stories offer the perfect way to engage with your audience on a person to person level – particularly if YOU are the face of your brand. And there are plenty of psychological reasons why. But for now, let’s just say start a note on your phone and jot down any fun ideas that come into your head. You never know when you might need them.
Mel Robbins – podcast host, author, speaker etc. employs storytelling in every email she sends – without fail. Because she knows it’s such a great way to infuse them with her voice and gain that truly personal connection…even though it’s unlikely she writes them all herself.
Each story will come round to a life lesson and a link to whatever it is she’s promoting – her books, podcast episodes etc.
There’s science to it!
So which type of email newsletter is right for you?
That’s actually a bit of a trick question.
You can absolutely mix it up.
If you’ve got some cool company news you can share that one week, perhaps with a link to an article for further information and an ‘ad’ for a related service?
Perhaps the next week there’s been a big shift in something in your industry, so you decide it’s a great time to provide education to your audience, by curating an email that shares your own view and a link to a white paper on your site. Plus a mention of a service relevant to that news.
And then the following week you might share a case study of a client who benefited from a particular service that aligns with your business strategy. Along with real results that they achieved. Don’t forget a simple CTA to encourage readers to get in touch for similar results.
You might even choose a monthly magazine style newsletter by creating a template you come back to each time. One that contains a little bit of everything. An intro story, links to further info from your own website or other thought leaders in your industry. A mini case study or simple testimonial and an ad for services or product promotion – all relevant to the ‘theme’ of the newsletter.
All super relevant to your audience.
Let me know, what are your favourite types of email newsletter to create?
And if you’re stuck with what to include or you need someone to pick up some of the slack, get in touch. I can devise a package that gives you as much or as little support as you need when it comes to curating and creating your newsletters. As well as coming up with ideas and making sure they align to your business goals.
