Category: newsletter advice

If you’re in business, knowing how to write a newsletter article well can boost your response rates. Adding your unique brand voice and personality to the content will help your business e-newsletter stand out.

This article assumes:

1. That you want to write a short e-newsletter article.
2. That you know your target market.

Let’s walk through five steps, from potential topics (if you need one) to the writing process from start to finish or watch the video below for key highlights.

1. Exploring Your “Why” to Get to Your “What”

Businesses usually send newsletters to get more leads. If you know why you’re sending the newsletter and have already decided on a theme for it, fit your article into that overall topic.

Otherwise, to find a topic for a one-article newsletter, brainstorm ideas, use article templates to form one, or consider telling a story. Or jump ahead and get organized to start writing.

To brainstorm topics, consider what will appeal to your readers. Look at any existing customer data, such as:

• Sales records
• Reviews
• Website analytics
• Social media metrics

What’s currently trending in your niche? Also, ponder what people tend to ask, complain, or rave about. If you’re still not sure what to feature, keyword research, questions on social media, and customer surveys can yield insights.

Artificial intelligence software might save brainstorming time. Because of its current limitations, if you use it, check the results. Will the content connect with customers? It might have nothing to do with your target market or your goals. If you decide to use AI, the following advice can screen unsuitable topics.

To enhance lead generation and narrow your topics, link your article goals to the different stages of the buyer’s journey: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision-Making.

• Awareness: Customers are getting familiar with your business, product, or service. If your business is new, this is a good excuse to introduce yourself, any of your staff, your mission, and your offerings. Or you could feature a new product or service or an upcoming event.
• Consideration: They’re thinking about buying and could be looking at competitors’ offerings, too. Information that fosters decision-making works well here. A “how to” article, like this one, fits this category. Use it to highlight an aspect of a product or service.
• Decision-Making: Customers are ready to buy. More information lets them determine if your business is right for them. An article featuring the benefits of working with you or buying from you can influence readers to contact you.

Get a Free Easy 5-Step Business E-Newsletter Template

2. Finding the Format: Another Way to Generate an Engaging Topic

Knowing your goal and the buyer’s journey stage leads to your subject matter. Narrowing down the subject refines the article template. The format may also frame the topic.

Common newsletter articles include:

• An editor’s or “welcome” note: example – Sundvick Legacy Center
• A short news item: example – Dwyer, Spino & Goncalves newsletter
• A teaser for an existing blog post, such as the first paragraph or two with a link to the full piece: examples – DFD Russell Medical Center newsletter; Aviva Senior Living newsletter; HORNE newsletter

The format of these articles is also simple, making them easier to write with little planning, saving you time and energy.

3. Keeping It Interesting and Useful to Hook Readers: Consider Storytelling

Overall, remember that your piece should be useful, or in marketing terms, offer value. To help readers identify with you, tell a story. Michael Katz, who teaches professionals how to understand marketing, details his storytelling method effectively.

To find good stories, list interesting things you saw or experienced recently, such as a colorful rainbow or a fun trip. Think about experiences you’ve shared. Tie one to a useful business lesson or insight connected to your expertise. Then describe the experience, elaborating on the lesson. Joey Havens of the accounting firm HORNE does this well.

“A personal story is effective because you can tie it into writing a newsletter article effortlessly.”
Carmine Mastropierro, How to Write a Newsletter: Step-by-Step Guide

If you’re stuck, AI offers a head start. Directing it to tell a story for a newsletter in your industry will produce content to tailor to your business. You can even ask it to mimic other writers’ styles. Edit the output because other people might tell the same story. And depending on your instructions, if the story doesn’t apply to your business, it will spin some fiction.

4. Getting Organized: Focusing on the Structure and Writing the Article Effectively

Newsletter articles tend to be brief and pull text from other sources, like articles or landing pages. Many business newsletters feature around 300 to 500 words of content. Business customers can be too busy to spend ten minutes reading your newsletter. Consider the length wisely while you keep your audience and what you might know about their habits in mind.

Research is easier before you draft an outline.

AI software may shortcut outlining, especially if you seek inspiration. For example, ChatGPT 3.5 created the below outline below for this article. If you’re weighing whether AI could help you, compare ChatGPT’s outline to the structure of this post, which I wrote without AI. If I had given it a more specific prompt, ChatGPT might have taken a more creative approach.

AI-generated content tends to state the obvious and sometimes lacks depth or interesting takes on a subject. Your unique perspective, tone, and style create distinctive writing.

When you structure your piece, if it’s a “listicle,” number each step to simplify the format and scannability. Otherwise, consider the basic AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action) format.

As you write, heed the guidelines from the AMA Handbook of Business Writing, which include crafting a title that will attract curiosity and keeping words and paragraphs short and focused.

Drafting the Piece From Start to Finish

The beginning: your opening sentence or paragraph — how will you build attention? Get to the point powerfully. State an interesting fact, quote someone, or take us into the middle of a scene.

1. Example #1: Information articles: This Sundvick Legacy Center newsletter features a short editor’s note by one of their attorneys. It starts with the fact that October is National Estate Planning Month, and leads into a paragraph about why it’s a good time to consider estate planning.
2. Example #2: Storytelling: Set the stage. In the article linked to from this newsletter, Joey Havens begins with a description of a “blue and white object laying just in front of me” in a hotel lobby.

The middle: how will you build on the interest and desire you’ve generated at the start? Add what readers should know next to encourage them to read on. Use transitions to tie ideas or paragraph together smoothly.

1. Example #1: Informational articles: The Sundvick Legacy Center note leads into a statistic about how 70 percent of estate planning fails, and the firm wants readers to fall into the successful 30 percent. They then build on that statement: “That means creating a comprehensive plan tailored for you and your family and walking through the journey of properly funding your trust.”
2. Example #2: Storytelling: Joey signals he has reached the middle of the piece by transitioning into telling us what he mistook the object for and what it turned out to be.

The end: how will you inspire people to take action? Summarize any key points. If your goal is to gain feedback, ask a question.

Use a call-to-action (CTA) to entice readers to contact you or to visit a blog or a landing page. Each year, email service provider MailModo publishes its State of Email report, which surveys more than 150 email experts. Their 2023 report states that CTAs with action verbs or featured offers were most effective for them. If you’re not promoting anything, close with a simple “farewell.”

1. Example #1: Informational articles: The Sundvick newsletter note ends with a statement urging readers to take action before another year passes. They follow it with words encouraging them to schedule a consultation.
2. Example #2: Storytelling: Joey ends his story by emphasizing that if we can’t see problems clearly, they can look bigger than they are. It’s better to wait to consider them with a fresh perspective.

Whether you start in the middle, write the end first or the beginning last, just write. You also don’t have to create your headline first; some writers save it for last. Whatever you do, don’t judge your writing. Listening to your inner critic can stifle your writing; you could start to read what you’ve written and begin editing, which is a “no no.”

Why? Because often it’s better to let your words rest or to “sleep on them” and return with a clearer view later. It’s like buying a cut-glass vase and seeing when you brought it home that it’s chipped. The flaws may become clearer later when you’ve rested your mind and can examine your work thoroughly.

“You can’t go wrong by providing value to your readers. If you know your readers well and you have expertise that can help them solve some of their common problems, email newsletters are a great place to share that expertise. But make sure to provide content that is truly unique and informative. You want to make sure you’re offering value and not adding to the clutter.”
Kathy Bryan, Electives

Though AI can write an article draft, it could produce a bland one that is a mismatch for you or your business. If you use AI content, add your brand voice, style, and tone.

5. Prepare Your Article for Adoring Fans

When you plan or edit your piece, consider these points:

1. Scannability and Accessibility: Where could you place bullet points or numbers to slice concepts into smaller parts for easier skimming? An image also enhances visual appeal and breaks up a block of text. From the headings to the body copy, ensure it follows a logical order. Also, consider accessibility: how it looks and sounds for people with disabilities. Prefer short words, sentences, and paragraphs free of jargon.
2. Editing and Proofreading: polish your newsletter so it looks professional. Some ways to do that include printing it on paper and reading it aloud and having others go over it.

Once you have a topic and an outline, writing a newsletter article becomes less daunting. Now that you know how to write a newsletter, if your words are flowing, it will almost write itself. And when your masterpiece is ready, add it to your latest newsletter and share it on social media and elsewhere.

To save time formatting your newsletter, subscribe to Five-Minute Business Writing Tips and get my free Easy 5-Step Business E-Newsletter Template.

• First published: April 3, 2023
• Last updated: November 22, 2023