How to Write a Newsletter: A Step-by-Step Guide

By kreator earn
March 17, 2025

After I started content marketing a few years ago, I wanted to start writing a newsletter every week, sending it to an email list of about 100 existing clients. At first, it took me hours to craft one, carefully choosing every word. I hit send and waited. But nothing happened. Hardly anyone opened it, and even fewer people clicked the links I put inside the newsletter.

That was frustrating. I thought I had done everything right, and then I realized that writing a newsletter is not just about sending emails. It’s more about building a relationship with your audience or clients. If you ever struggled like this—low open rates, low clicks, or even not knowing what to write—you are not alone. So many people who are now experts in email marketing all started from there. And in this guide, I’ll walk you through how to use a simple, repeatable system to create newsletters that people actually want to read.

Step 1: Define the Purpose of Your Newsletter

First, before you start writing your newsletter, you should ask yourself: why are you sending this newsletter? A strong newsletter has a clear purpose. Here are some common goals:

Educating subscribers by sharing insights, strategies, or industry trends
Inspiring readers through personal stories or case studies
Promoting products, services, or events
Entertaining with engaging content that keeps people coming back

I suggest you pick 1-3 goals because if your newsletter tries to do everything at once, it will feel scattered. Then, choose one primary purpose and stick to it.

Step 2: Understand Your Audience

The second important thing is you need to know who you’re sending it to. To make this newsletter feel personal and not like an ad that’s everywhere, you should make it speak directly to your reader’s needs, interests, and challenges.

Consider these questions:

Who are your subscribers? Are they business owners, content creators, fitness enthusiasts?
What do they struggle with? Are they trying to grow their business, build an audience, or improve their skills?
What do they want to learn? Are they looking for strategies, shortcuts, or insider tips?

The more you understand your audience, the easier it is to create content and the easier it is to make them stick around. If they find valuable things in your newsletter, they feel a connection with you. And that’s what you need.

Step 3: Write a Subject Line That Increases Open Rates

The subject line is the most important thing in the newsletter. It’s the first thing people see, and if it’s not compelling, people will just ignore your email—that’s why your email is like sending it into the ocean.

To improve open rates, keep subject lines:

Short—under 50 characters works best
Intriguing—make people curious without using clickbait
Specific—tell them what they will get inside the email

Examples of strong subject lines:

"The one mistake that is killing your growth"
"Three Instagram growth hacks you need to know"
"This changed how I write forever"

A strong subject line gets your email opened, but also don’t use clickbait. If you use clickbait, that will do more harm than not sending it, because if the content inside has nothing to do with what your subject line is about, people will just unsubscribe or never want to open your email again.

Step 4: Write Like You Are Talking to One Person

If you have read those newsletters from big brands, you will notice their emails do not feel like formal corporate emails. Those companies have email marketing experts writing them, but we don’t need to spend a big budget to hire one. We can learn from them—they mostly write in a way that feels like a conversation with a trusted friend.

You can use a natural, human tone. And when you’re writing, you can imagine you are writing it to just one person, not thousands. Then, keep the language simple, clear, and make it more engaging.

Here’s a little trick I learned from an email marketing expert: read your email out loud before sending it. If it sounds stiff or unnatural, you’ll eventually feel it, then rewrite it in a more conversational tone.

Step 5: Structure Your Newsletter for Readability

Here’s an aspect you might never have thought about—most people do not read emails word for word, they scan them. So, your newsletter should be easy to skim.

Best practices for formatting:

Keep paragraphs short. Avoid large blocks of text.
Use subheadings to break up sections.
Include bullet points or lists to make content digestible.
Bold key takeaways so they stand out.

A messy, cluttered email makes people click away. But a well-structured newsletter keeps people engaged.

Step 6: Provide Value in Every Email

As we said in the first step, you need to have a goal for your newsletter and know who you’re sending it to. So, when you write an email, you can search for what questions your audience might have about what you’re talking about. Your email should answer the question: why should someone read this?

A newsletter should always:

Solve a problem
Teach something useful
Inspire action

Try to avoid making your newsletter just about self-promotion. In today’s world, people hate ads, and they will never open your email if it’s just promotion. Focus on what you can help with, what you can deliver. Use storytelling first, and selling second.

Step 7: End with a Clear Call to Action

Every newsletter should guide your reader toward an action. It can be any kind of action—a reply, a link click, or anything. Because without a clear next step, your readers will move on without engaging further, and it also makes it easier for them to forget what you said in your newsletter.

Examples of strong calls to action:

"Reply and let me know what you think" (encourages conversation)
"Click here to read the full guide" (drives traffic to your website)
"Grab your spot before doors close" (creates urgency for a product or service)

A well-placed call to action turns passive readers into engaged subscribers. This makes them remember your message, remember what you’re talking about—that’s what builds relationships.

Step 8: Track, Analyze, and Improve

At the end of the day, writing a newsletter is not just about sending emails. It’s about learning what works, making it work for you, and improving it over time.

Key metrics to track:

Open Rate: Measures how many people opened your email. A good benchmark is 20-30 percent.
Click-Through Rate: Shows how many people clicked links in your email. A strong rate is around 2-5 percent.
Replies and Engagement: If people are responding, it means your content is connecting with them.

If your open rates are low, you can test different subject lines. If your click rates are low, you can improve your call to action. If no one is engaging, you can try making your email more personal and using the power of storytelling.

Write Newsletters That Build Relationships

Your first email won’t be perfect. You shouldn’t spend days working on it and hoping it works perfectly. Your skill in email marketing improves by writing more emails and testing what works for you and what doesn’t. What subject lines and content styles get higher open rates and engagement? Use more of those and focus on providing value.

With all these steps, you’ll build trust and connection with your audience. And by being consistent, you can create a newsletter that people look forward to opening.