What is a newsletter?

A newsletter is an email campaign that businesses or organizations periodically send to share information with their audience.

Newsletter emails are part of a long-term email marketing strategy. They establish your brand as an industry authority and keep reminding your subscribers about your business.

A newsletter can contain:

  • Latest updates
  • Important announcements
  • Fun facts about your brand
  • Discussions about industry news
  • How-to guides
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How to create a newsletter

To successfully launch a newsletter campaign, follow the steps below:

1. Select an email marketing platform

Creating a newsletter involves various steps, including:

  • Writing text for your emails
  • Coming up with engaging subject lines
  • Choosing a visually appealing design

To cover all grounds and prevent mistakes in the process, you need an email marketing platform.

A quality marketing automation platform like Klaviyo offers everything you need to create and set your newsletter campaign in motion, from pre-built customizable templates to AI writing assistance and personalization options. Ideally, your chosen platform will offer options not only for newsletter templates but also for segmenting your audience and tracking performance.

2. Define your newsletter goal

Whether it’s to build brand awareness or keep your subscribers engaged, setting a clear goal for your newsletter campaign will enable you to identify your target audience and plan your email content.

For example, if you want to establish yourself as an industry authority, your newsletters might contain relevant industry news and your perspectives on them.

3. Identify your audience

Defining the target audience for your newsletters requires dividing your email list into smaller groups of people who are most likely to interact with particular content. This method is called segmentation, and it involves classifying your audience into segments based on the data you have about them, like their shopping behavior, location, or level of engagement.

Segmentation is also what ensures your newsletter content is personalized and relevant. With the right marketing automation tool, you can even simultaneously run multiple newsletter campaigns for different audiences.

4. Craft your newsletter

To create your newsletter, take the following steps:

  1. Create an outline: Build a rough structure for your newsletter.
  2. Choose the right design: Pick a template design that aligns with your brand and the goal of your newsletter. 
  3. Write copy for your newsletter: Write catchy headlines and text for your newsletter.
  4. Add images: Add visuals to break up the text and better represent specific ideas.
  5. Personalize the newsletter: Depending on the data you’ve collected on your audience, you can personalize by segmenting your newsletter audience or making your email content more relevant to their interests with dynamic blocks.

5. Schedule the newsletter

Pick the best time to send your newsletter—for example, daily, weekly, twice a month, or monthly. Whatever you decide, stick to your schedule to establish yourself as a consistent, reliable source of information.

When creating a schedule, pay attention to your newsletter’s average length. Your subscribers probably don’t have the time to read massive newsletters on a daily basis—so, if your emails are long, make them less frequent.

Newsletter best practices

Here are some best practices for a successful newsletter campaign:

1. Write a compelling subject line

When subscribers receive your newsletter, they’ll see the subject line first. It’s what encourages subscribers to read further or ignore your newsletter altogether, so give it extra attention.

Make sure your subject line captures the entire newsletter’s essence without being overly long—ideally, make it 40–50 characters.

If you’re not sure how to approach your subject lines, Klaviyo AI can help you write subject lines that align with your brand and resonate with the audience.

2. Make it easy to unsubscribe

Give your audience the option to easily unsubscribe from your newsletter if they don’t feel the content is relevant to them.

Unsubscribe rates may affect your campaign’s performance, but it’s worth it to try to establish your brand as fair and transparent.

3. Include deals and discounts

While product promotion isn’t the primary purpose of newsletters, you can occasionally surprise your subscribers with special discounts or promo codes. This will show your appreciation and help you establish a positive brand image.

How to create and manage newsletter campaigns with ease

A marketing platform like Klaviyo will enable you to easily create newsletter campaigns with options such as:

  • Pre-made templates: With 100+ templates to choose from, Klaviyo provides you with a ready-made solution for your newsletter design.
  • Customer segmentation: Group your audience based on specific characteristics or behaviors to personalize your newsletter campaigns.
  • Klaviyo AI: Use Klaviyo AI to write engaging content and subject lines and find the best time to send your newsletters. AI also compares your results to your competitors to give you an idea of where you stand among the competition.
  • Extensive campaign reporting: Understand how your subscribers react to your newsletters, and pinpoint areas of improvement.

If you’re ready to launch a successful newsletter campaign, sign up for Klaviyo.

Additional resources