What to Include in a Business Newsletter

What you write in your newsletter depends on several factors, including whether you are targeting existing customers or new prospects. However, regardless of the intended audience, the main principle of delivering value remains the same.

If you target existing customers, then you should focus on communicating how your new features may be of use to them. On the other hand, if new prospects are your primary target, it could make more sense to point them in the direction of useful or interesting resources rather than product-focused content.

The tone, and the type of content in your newsletters, will differ depending on your target audience. Hard-sale messages tend to be ignored or even tossed in the trash after a while for most newsletters. That’s why it’s important to get to know your audience, understand them, and figure out what they’d be more interested in receiving in your newsletter before you start writing and sending.

Today, we’ll tell you all about business newsletters – what they are, why they are important how to create them, as well as some tips to help you get started on your path to building a popular newsletter.

What are business newsletters?

A business newsletter is an email sent to your subscribers on a (somewhat) regular basis to provide them with actionable advice and valuable insights about your business and what is happening with your product, company or employees.

Business newsletters are usually sent out from the same email address and they have a similar format in terms of the design and structure. The information changes with each newsletter.

There are different newsletter lengths, from bite-sized tips to lengthy articles reminiscent of a blog post. Whether you want to keep it short or tell bigger business stories depends on your newsletter goals and overall business strategy.

However, the more frequently you send newsletters, the shorter they should be. If your newsletter is a daily email, you’ll have a hard time producing pages and pages of actionable content.

Depending on the interval, there are different types you can create and send out:

– daily newsletter

– weekly newsletter

– monthly newsletter

– quarterly newsletter

– and other, customer intervals

Some of the biggest business newsletters include CB Insights, Harvard Business Review, Crazy Egg, Morning Brew, The Hustle, Foundr and others. If you’re looking for inspiration on the content and the format of your newsletter, these popular business newsletters are a great starting point – and subscribing is free.

Do you need a newsletter in the first place?

First of all, do you need a newsletter? A newsletter serves a crucial purpose in the marketing communications you use. It goes beyond direct sales and acts as a positioning piece to get potential and existing customers more engaged with your brand. After all, thousands of entrepreneurs and businesses use newsletters to engage their audiences.

With a strong business newsletter, you can better position your company as an expert with the content and advice you provide to readers. The right newsletter content can quickly help your brand become a trusted source of information for your target audience. You can share news stories, offer practical advice, share business insights send daily blog posts and much more.

When your newsletters deliver consistent quality, this will eventually lead to building an audience that respects your brand as an expert in the field and looks to you as a trustworthy and reputable source when they need to educate themselves or seek out expert information.

With more experience in this format, you can branch out in your newsletter topics and cover different types of content. And with more to offer, there will be more readers hitting that subscribe button to get weekly newsletters.

How to create a newsletter – 13 actionable steps for success

There are lots of different ideas that you can use for an effective and engaging business or personal newsletter. These are:

1 – Offer Newsworthy Content

Providing your audience with information they consider to be of interest to them or newsworthy is one good way to guarantee more readership of your newsletter. Don’t just create content regarding news stories directly from your company but give your take on other newsworthy events in the industry, relevant updates, and more that might concern your customers.

This helps to boost engagement by showing that your newsletter is not all about getting sales and that you actually care about providing your readers with the information they are interested in. Vary your newsletter topics from time to time, making sure you send a mix of relevant news and actionable insights.

If you’re focused on industry news alone, setting up a newsletter schedule is super simple as you can send curated but actionable content from various other sources. In fact, many startup newsletters are born this way, since these companies don’t have much to cover around their own startup news.

2 – Write How-to Content

How-to articles are some of the most popular types of content marketing materials, and it’s easy to see why. If your customers are struggling with something more than others, how-to guides and articles can be an excellent addition to your business newsletter. A good how-to article doesn’t have to be long, either. However, it should include steps that are easy to understand and can be comprehended by your readers quickly.

You can always create a blog newsletter where you share the latest articles, case studies, videos and other biggest ideas from your content team. This is a common weekly business newsletter that unfortunately not many companies do well.

3 – Provide Further Background Information

Many people are naturally curious about the history of a company or a product, especially if they are new customers, excited about your brand, and in the process of getting to know you. If you run a successful business, people will want to learn more about it.

Consider adding some insight into this kind of background information on your products, services and brand in your newsletters. For example, this could include further details on how, when and why the company was founded or developed or the things that influenced the development of the products or services you offer.

This type of content could then be repurposed in social media marketing efforts or broader digital marketing initiatives.

4 – Tell Stories

Lots of customers enjoy reading stories about products or services. These need to be real stories rather than sales pitches disguised as stories to generate as much engagement as possible.

For example, you could ask some of your most satisfied customers to tell their stories of how they came to find your product and how it has helped them and send this information out in your business newsletter.

You can share some of your personal favorites in your weekly emails or ask customers if they want to be highlighted in your newsletters. It can be a great growth strategy for both you and the customer – as they will get featured in your email list and perhaps get new customers. At the same time, you’ll show actionable ideas on how your product can help solve a pain point.

Your main aim is not to create an all-in-one newsletter but rather something that pulls readers in, and for that – you need stories. And you don’t need to be a bestselling author to write about your company either.

5 – Help Solve Problems

The best email newsletters understand what problems the readers are facing and offer trustworthy solutions. When your brand goes the extra mile to figure out customer problems and pain points, and helps with finding a solution, this will put you in the spotlight for all the right reasons.

Similar to how-to articles, a newsletter that focuses on solving a problem should also have how-to steps that are simple to comprehend and easy to follow. Your subscriber list gets spammed every day with various offers, so think of materials that can actually be helpful and show that you want to help, straight from the subject lines.

If you’re looking for newsletter topics, just look into the most common discussions your customers have with your sales and customer support teams. This is a superb tip for writing effective newsletters as you’ll provide true value instead of just regurgitating others’ daily news.

6 – Create Checklists

A checklist is easy to write and read. When designing your email newsletters, it’s worth keeping in mind that lots of people are not willing to take the time to read lengthy articles and big blocks of texts.

A checklist or bullet list of terms or items is an excellent way to structure your newsletter, as readers can more easily skim the list to get the main idea, and they always have the option of going back over it more thoroughly later on when they have the time to do so.

If you’re running out of newsletter topics, this can be an easy way to whip up a quick newsletter. For example, 10 steps to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Who wouldn’t want to read that?

7 – Tell Employee News

Many of your readers might be interested in your employees and their personal growth, especially if your business provides personal services, or if customers are often in contact with the team members. It is a good idea to include a section of your newsletter dedicated to telling recipients about the latest employee news.

Not only does this allow you to improve transparency between the company and your customers, but it can also help build relationships and ensure that there is a human face and voice to your brand. Learning about employee news can help humanise the company, which is why it’s always a good idea to do this, even if your customers are unlikely ever to meet your employees in-person.

If you’re wondering where to show your employees’ continual growth and highlight their daily life in the company, your newsletter is an excellent place next to your website.

8 – Offer Technical Tips

Over the past few years, technology has advanced significantly, with many technological advancements coming into the mainstream for people of all ages. Because of this, providing technical expertise in your newsletter related to your business and newsletter subscribers can be very beneficial.

This can be one of the easiest newsletter topics to cover if you’re not big on covering business news. You can send daily insights on how to resolve a particular problem of your target audience with actionable ideas they can apply immediately. However, try and avoid being too salesy.

9 – Accept User-Generated Content

Requesting or simply giving the option for your users to send letters to be published in your newsletter is a fantastic way to get further engagement and get your subscribers more involved with your brand. And as many sources will tell you, UGC or user generated content is the future of online marketing.

This has been quite common in newspapers and magazines for quite some time, and email newsletters can also include it. Many people are interested in getting their opinions and voices heard, and accepting user-generated content for your newsletter can be an ideal way to show your readers that you value their thoughts and opinions.

These can be personal life stories or just brain food for your subscribers. On the other hand, you can get someone with decades of experience to talk about their business successes. Think about the goals you have with your newsletter and choose your guests accordingly.

10 – Ideas for Newsletter – Add a Photo Section

Nowadays, everybody enjoys taking and looking at photos – after all, a photo is worth a thousand words. When it comes to putting your email newsletter together, you may want to consider adding a section with appropriate and relevant photographs.

For example, if you send a newsletter out with information on the events your business has been hosting or attending over the past month, then adding photos can be a great way to show the human side of your brand and allow readers to relate to your brand and employees in their business and personal life.

11 – Provide Guides

It might be worth adding a section to your newsletter that offers guides for products or services. This can be especially useful if you have many options on offer. Doing this will ensure that your customers can get a clear idea of what you do, what you offer, or the services you provide. This can be especially useful if you mainly send your newsletter to new prospects and/or have complex products or service packages on offer.

And as you’re sending out guides on specific processes and ways to solve them, this is the ideal time to add special offers just for that audience.

12 – Tell Community News

Many people prefer doing business with companies actively involved in their local community. Because of this, it can be an excellent idea to include a section in your business newsletter that details your company’s involvement in your community, such as charity events you’ve hosted or attended, donations that you’ve made to local charities, or local sports team sponsorships.

If you find out that there is a great deal of interest in this topic, you can start an additional newsletter to cover this type of content.

13 – Show Gratitude

Finally, no matter what kind of product or service your business offers, you can use your newsletter to show gratitude and thank your supporters, showing them that you are grateful for them and ultimately building a better relationship. This is especially true if your growing number of supporters and customers are the main reason business goals and milestones are successfully reached.

A newsletter is often a crucial part of keeping in touch with your customers and can be a regular part of your email marketing campaign. When done right, it can make all the difference in customer engagement and conversions, all the while giving you an outlet for your biggest ideas in business.

Wrapping up

Sending out a business newsletter can be an excellent practice in writing and online marketing. However, with a little bit of elbow grease and lots of strategic thinking, monthly and weekly newsletters can turn into a new channel for increasing your revenue and spreading the word about your brand.

To get started with your newsletter, you don’t need a lot, but to grow it, you need to take some precautions. Number one tip for building an effective and popular newsletter – keep your email lists clean.

With Bouncer, you can clean up and validate your newsletter lists in just a few seconds.

Bouncer tells you which emails are still valid and working, and which ones you need to remove to get better open and bounce rates and more engagement from your readers.

Sign up for your Bouncer account today and get more out of your existing newsletter lists!

Frequently asked questions

What is the best way to build a business newsletter?
There are plenty, but the easiest way is to offer something in exchange for a subscriber’s email. Special offers could include discounts, promo codes, digital downloads, early access to certain features and more.

How often should I send a business newsletter?
It depends on what your goals are, which industry you are in, how many people in your team can work on the newsletter and more. We suggest starting out with a monthly newsletter and then moving on to a weekly newsletter when you’re confident that you can deliver that frequently.