Email newsletters

What an email newsletter is

An email newsletter is a regular message, sent on a fixed schedule to people who gave you permission to send it, that gives them something worth opening every time: an answer, a piece of news they can use, an offer that is real. It is the one channel where you own the list, nobody stands between you and the reader, and nobody can change the rules on you overnight.

It is not a lead nurture sequence, which is automated, written once, and sent to each person in order from the day they sign up. A newsletter is written fresh, goes to everyone at once, and is dated. Most lists need both, and they do different jobs.

Who this is for

A business with a list, or a way to build one, and no consistent way of writing to it. The usual picture: a few hundred to a few thousand addresses collected over years, a newsletter that went out monthly for a while and then stopped, and an owner who knows it should restart and cannot find the hours. The second case is a business that sends regularly and gets nothing back: no replies, no clicks, no mention of it from customers.

It is not for a business with no list and no plan to build one. The first job there is the signup: where it lives, what it promises, and what arrives in the first week, which is a welcome sequence and signup copy. It is also not for a list that was bought or scraped; I will not write to a list whose members did not consent, and Canadian anti-spam law requires that consent.

What goes in it

Every newsletter I write has the same four parts, decided in that order.

The one thing. Each issue has one main item: an answer to a question customers asked this month, a change in your trade the reader should know about, a job you finished and what it taught you. One, not five. A reader who opens an email with five items reads none.

The reason to click. One link, to one page on your site, that continues the one thing: the full article, the service page, the booking form. The issue is written so that the click is the natural next step rather than an interruption.

The subject line and preview text. Written last, after the issue exists, and written as two or three candidates so you can test. These two lines are read by everyone on the list; the rest is read by the people they persuade.

The sending plan. Which day, which time, how often, and what happens to people who stop opening. Built around your list's tolerance and the consent and unsubscribe rules in Canadian anti-spam law, which I work within on every list. I do not give legal advice; where a question is a legal one, I will say so and point you to a lawyer.

What you get

The issues. Each one is a document with the subject line candidates, the preview text, the body copy with the link in place, and a note on the image if one is needed. Typically three hundred to five hundred words. Delivered on an agreed day each month or fortnight, at least three working days before it sends, so you can read it cold and change anything you would not say.

The email calendar. One page covering the next three months: the date and the one thing for each issue, so you can see the pattern and tell me when a date is wrong. Revised each month.

A quarterly note. One page every three months saying what was opened, what was clicked, what got replies, and what to change. Plain language, with the numbers taken from your own sending platform.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A two-location garden centre has a list of about eighteen hundred addresses collected at the till over six years. The last newsletter went out fourteen months ago. It had eleven items, including a staff birthday.

The restart is one issue a fortnight from February to October and one a month in winter. Each issue has one item tied to what the reader is doing that fortnight: what to plant now, which pest is arriving, the one tool worth buying before the long weekend. Each links to one page on the site, and about one issue in four carries an offer. The first issue after fourteen months is written as a plain re-introduction, with a clear way to leave the list, because a reader who forgot they signed up should be given the door rather than the spam button. The calendar is written for the season, so the owner can see in January what August will say. Twenty issues a year, one page of planning, one number tracked: visits to the store that mention the email.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. Who is on the list, how they got there, what you have sent before, and what you want the newsletter to do. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Issues per month, words per issue, the day it is delivered, and the number of revision rounds, agreed before the first issue.
3. Setup. Read access to your sending platform, a look at the last year of sends if there are any, and the first three months of the calendar. One week.
4. The first issue. Delivered with three subject lines. You pick one, change what you like, and send it or I schedule it for you.
5. The rhythm. Each issue arrives three working days before its send date. Every third month you get the one-page note and a revised calendar.

What it costs

A monthly newsletter is quoted as a fixed price per month in CAD after the half-hour call. The price depends on how many issues go out each month, how long each one is, and whether I also schedule and send them or only write them. A single issue, or a one-off restart email, is quoted the same way as a fixed price. The pricing page explains how quoting works for services without a published band.

What happens next

A newsletter that runs for a few months shows you what your readers care about, and that usually points at the next job. Often it is a welcome sequence, so new subscribers get the best of the back issues in their first fortnight instead of waiting for the next send. Sometimes it is a lead nurture sequence for the readers who click the same service page three times and never book. And if the newsletter keeps pointing at articles that do not exist yet, that is blog writing.