Here are 12 email newsletter ideas. Click on one to learn more.
- Roundups (of blog posts, videos, or relevant news stories)
- Frequently asked questions
- What I wish I knew back then
- Happy distraction
- Introducing our team
- Best practices for _______
- User-generated content (testimonials, photos, videos, etc.)
- Interview with a happy customer
- Resources and downloadable content (ebook, white paper, infographic, etc.)
- Relevant top-10 list
- Seasonal or holiday content
- Trends for this season, this year, etc.
Email newsletters are outstanding for building and maintaining relationships with customers and other interested parties. And monitoring email marketing performance is straightforward.
But sometimes you’re all out of ideas for email newsletter topics. That can be a real problem because you want recipients to actually look forward to receiving your email newsletter.
Maybe you need to look at it from a different angle. If you were part of your company’s ideal audience, what would you want to see in your inbox?
These 12 email newsletter ideas can help you change things up and keep your newsletters from becoming too predictable. Most of these ideas can be adapted to any industry or niche.
1. Roundups
You can round up many things. If your email newsletter is an industry newsletter, you could round up this month’s (or this year’s) most important blog posts.
For an eCommerce business, you could round up this season’s biggest new products. If you operate an insurance business, you could round up this year’s most important claim trends.
2. Frequently Asked Questions
What do people ask you or your team? Why not devote an email newsletter to answering those questions?
Not all your questions have to be specific ones that people ask you. They could also be informational, or questions that someone might ask. People love answers.
3. What I Wish I Knew Back Then
An email newsletter devoted to hard-won lessons can be tremendously valuable, particularly for industry newsletters. But there are countless other examples of this format.
For example, “What I Wish I Knew Before Trying to Build My Own Website” would appeal to many people. So would “What I Wish I Knew Before Taking the Licensing Exam,” if your business caters to licensed professionals. Help others learn from your experiences.
4. Happy Distraction
There may be times when email newsletters have to come secondary to major local, national, or world events. In these cases, stepping back from your usual newsletter fare can leave a positive impression.
Suppose most of your recipients live in a region that was recently hit by a natural disaster. People probably don’t want to read about new technology in their industry at that moment. Uplifting photos, or even photos of cute baby animals “allow” recipients to breathe while letting them know that you can read the room and remain in touch through difficult times.
5. Introducing Our Team
The best email newsletters have a genuine human element. Writing a newsletter where you introduce your team members and their roles is a great way to humanize your business.
What’s more, this information can be valuable to recipients who are ready to buy. If they know you have a digital marketing expert on staff, they may feel more likely to choose your business because of that specific expertise.
6. Best Practices for _____
This can be industry-specific or designed to appeal to your company’s customers. If you run a lawn care business, for example, you could list best practices for preventing brown spots on your lawn.
Best practices can be adapted for just about any type of business:
- Best practices for reducing your insurance premiums
- Best practices for updating your website
- Best practices for stretching your food dollars
- Best practices for improving your golf swing
The possibilities are almost endless.
7. User-Generated Content
Content created by customers can carry significant influence. Whether it’s a photo a customer sent of themselves using your product, or a screenshot of statistics showing how great your service is, user-generated content builds trust.
If you don’t normally get this type of content from your customers, ask for it. You can ask for user-generated content on your website, in your brick-and-mortar business, or even in another edition of your email newsletter.
8. Interview with a Happy Customer
Like user-generated content and testimonials, interviews with satisfied customers pack a punch. They let readers know how your products or services perform for actual people.
You have to reach out to your long-term or enthusiastic customers, but many will be receptive to the idea. You don’t even have to interview them in person. Interviewing over the phone or by email can work wonderfully.
9. Resources and Downloadable Content
Educated customers are generally happy customers. Help your ideal audience understand your industry, products, or services better with online collateral they can download.
White papers, ebooks, and infographics are effective types of downloadable content. Plus, once downloaded, it resides on their device all the time, even when they’re not online, so it’s maximally accessible.
10. Relevant Top-10 Lists
Like many other entries on this list, top-10 lists are almost endlessly adaptable. Whatever your industry or customer base, you can create a captivating top-10 list.
Here are a few examples:
- Top 10 Shoes to Take on Vacation
- Top 10 Mistakes People Make Building a Website
- Top 10 Conditions Chiropractors Treat
- Top 10 Cocktail Recipes for the Home Bartender
11. Seasonal or Holiday Content
Some industries naturally gravitate toward seasonal or holiday content. But any type of business can tailor the occasional newsletter this way.
If, for example, your newsletter goes out on Tuesdays and Christmas Eve happens to fall on a Tuesday, you could make the Christmas Eve edition of your newsletter heavier on holiday wishes and lighter on industry information.
12. Trends for _____
People are interested in the direction industries are heading, whether on a personal or professional level. What features will flat-screen televisions have next year? What changes in the transportation supply chain are emerging?
When you write an email newsletter about trends relevant to your audience, you make them feel informed and more confident. And when they associate your brand with confidence, they’re likely to think more positively about your company.
Email Newsletters Deliver ROI
Email newsletters and email marketing in general are marketing tactics with an excellent return on investment. While delivery of your email newsletter should be predictable, you should not allow the content in it to grow stale.
It’s not easy to come up with email newsletter ideas. But there are many themes that can be tailored to almost any email newsletter, regardless of industry.
The key to knowing how to tailor themes to your email newsletter is knowing your audience. Every audience wants to be informed without being bored. Changing up your newsletter content is a terrific way to keep recipients engaged.
Put Email Marketing to Work for You
Email marketing is inexpensive and effective. But it must be done with a customer-centered strategy to work. Your email service platform can help tremendously, as long as you know how to use its features.
There’s no question that most of the “expense” of email marketing is in content creation. And the content must be compelling if people are to open their emails and click on the information inside. But this expense is usually repaid many times over in an effective email marketing strategy.
If you like the concept of email marketing and other digital marketing but would prefer to focus on your core business objectives, perhaps we can help. Schedule a call with our team and we can discuss the many ways you could be using email and digital marketing to help your business grow.
