If you’re like most business owners, coming up with content ideas for your newsletters and email marketing campaigns is an ongoing challenge. You know it’s important to stay in touch with your subscribers on a regular basis, but you don’t know what to send.
In previous blog posts, we’ve provided ideas to add variety to your email campaigns, and sample text for 10 types of emails to send customers. The content suggestions in those posts include some of the most common types of emails marketers send. But they are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other ways to engage and entertain your newsletter subscribers. Here are some newsletter content ideas you may not have considered:
1. Product Updates
One effective way to keep your subscribers engaged and informed about your small business is by sharing regular product updates. January is a particularly good time to share product updates to re-engage your customers. These updates not only showcase what’s new in your offerings but also help build anticipation for upcoming launches, events, or promotions.
If the news is about improvements customers have been asking about, talk about the requests, and how you worked to create what your customers wanted. Show a photo and include a link to a dedicated landing page where subscribers can learn more and make a purchase.
For new product launches, or an upcoming special sale, don’t limit yourself to one newsletter promoting the product or sale. Build up anticipation for your new product or service by sending a series of newsletters each focusing on a different benefit prior to the launch.
2. Upcoming Events
Share any upcoming events related to your business such as workshops, webinars, trade shows and pop-up shops with your audience. Provide essential information such as dates, times, and locations along with registration links if applicable.
If the upcoming event is a trade show that you’ll have a booth at, let your readers know how to find you once they arrive. Let them know about any raffles you have planned, cool giveaways you’ll have on hand, times that you’ll be doing demos, etc.
If the upcoming event is a workshop or webinar, let your email subscribers know if there is a limit on the number of people who can attend and remind them to register in advance to reserve their spot.
For events you control, offer your email subscribers an early-bird discount if they sign up by a specific date.
3. Product Reviews and Testimonials
Sharing customer reviews and testimonials in your newsletter content builds trust with your subscribers. People often want to know what results your existing customers have with a product before making their own buying decision. Positive customer reviews and testimonials help reinforce the benefits of your products and doing business with you.
You can either include snippets of these reviews in your newsletter or link to a dedicated testimonials page on your website or your Google Business page where potential customers can read more about the experiences of others.
Include a reminder in your newsletter asking customers to leave you a review, too. Give them a link to the location to enter their reviews.
Encourage customers who are leaving reviews or giving testimonials to do more than say how good your product or service is. Encourage them to comment on specific ways what you sell has solved a problem and or improved their life or business.
4. Industry News and Trends
Keeping your subscribers on top of the latest news in your industry is another type of newsletter content that resonates with readers. It helps to establish you as an authority and keeps your readers interested in receiving your mailings. Sharing relevant industry news not only keeps them engaged, it also helps you and your customers stay on top of trends and developments that could impact business.
Dive into recent advancements, emerging technologies, or new strategies within your field by sharing articles, blog posts, or reports from reputable sources. For example, if you’re in the digital marketing space, consider linking to resources discussing current digital marketing trends. Demonstrate to readers that you are knowledgeable about the most current advancements in your field by providing pertinent resources.
Sharing industry news helps build trust with readers and encourages them to turn to you when they need advice or solutions related to your industry.
5. Expert Advice and Tips
In addition to sharing external content related to industry trends, offer expert advice based on your own experience or knowledge. Share tips on how businesses can adapt to these changes or capitalize on new opportunities. You might even invite guest experts to contribute their thoughts through interviews or guest posts – this adds credibility while expanding your network.
6. Relevant Research Findings
Just like you, your readers will want to know about research data that affect their business or life. Keep them informed by keeping an eye out for research studies conducted by well-known organizations like Pew Research Center, Gallup, the U.S. Census Bureau . These and other private and government organization often publish findings relevant across various industries and lifestyles.
- When sharing research findings, be sure to link directly to the original source or a reputable summary of the study.
- Highlight key takeaways from the research that are most relevant to your audience and provide context for how these insights can impact their businesses.
7. Company News & Updates
You don’t want to brag about how great your company is or how wonderful your employees are when you’re introducing new products or paying for ads to sell a product or service. When your primary goal is to sell something now, you need to focus on the customer and how they will benefit when they own the product or service.
But you can and should provide company information in other mailings (and on non-selling pages on your website). Letting your customers and prospects know about what’s going on at your business can make your customers feel more connected to your business. It can also foster trust, confidence, and loyalty. Here are some types of company news and updates to share.
Milestones & Achievements
Celebrate your business milestones and achievements by sharing them in your newsletter. Whether it’s winning an award, reaching a significant number of customers, publishing a book, or launching a new branch, let your subscribers know about the achievement. But remember to tell your subscribers you “didn’t do it alone.” It was their support and business that helped you win the accolade or reach the goal.
Employee Spotlights
Your employees are the backbone of your business, so why not give them some recognition? Introduce members of your team through employee spotlights that highlight their skills, accomplishments, and unique stories. This personal touch can help humanize your brand while showcasing the talent behind its success.
- Name: Include their full name along with their job title or role within the company.
- Bio: Share brief background information on their education or work experience relevant to their position at the company.
- Achievements: Highlight any notable achievements they have accomplished during their time at the organization (e.g., promotions).
- Favorites: Add some fun facts about what they enjoy doing outside work hours, their favorite hobbies, or even their go-to snack.
Behind the Scenes Content
Give your subscribers a peek into the inner workings of your company by showcasing photos and stories about office events, team-building activities, or other aspects of daily operations. Share photos and stories about daily operations, office events, or team-building activities that showcase your company culture.
Where appropriate, show an image of how you use a product in your own business. For instance, when one of my businesses sold labor law poster years ago, we took a photo of the poster hanging in our office and included it on a web page.
Behind the scenes and product in use content not only fosters transparency but also makes it easier for customers to relate to you as a small business owner.
- To avoid legal problems, get written permission from your employees before including their photograph, name, or other personal information in your newsletter or on your website.
8. Educational Content
Offering instructional material in your newsletters is an excellent way to exhibit your expertise and provide value for your followers. Here are some ways you can do that.
How To Guides & Tutorials
Create step-by-step guides or tutorials related to the products or services you offer. Demonstrating the ease of use for your products or services can help customers get the most out of their purchases. Software companies, for instance, often have tutorials and guides to help their customers learn to use their products.
If you’re a marketing consultant, you could share tips on creating effective social media campaigns. If you’re a web developer, you might share tips on setting up ecommerce sites to maximize sales.
Include the tips or tutorials in an email newsletter or use the email to point customers to video tutorials you have on your site or on YouTube.
Guest Interviews and Articles
Collaborate with influencers or experts within your niche. Interview them or ask them to contribute guest posts that provide unique insights and knowledge. Ask the guest to point to their interview or post from their own newsletter.
FAQs & Troubleshooting Tips
FAQs address common questions that customers have about your product or service. Providing these resources in email to new customers saves time for both parties by reducing customer support inquiries while empowering subscribers with valuable information at their fingertips.
In addition to incorporating FAQs in a mailing to new customers, include a FAQs page on your website.
Learn how DMARC authentication helps keep your newsletters from being blocked as spam.
9. Engaging Content
Creating interactive experiences can not only provide amusement, but also impart knowledge and understanding about different facets of your business or field. Here are some ideas for engaging content that small businesses can send:
Quizzes & Polls
Quizzes and polls related to your subscribers’ interests or relevant topics within the industry are a good way to engage your audience. This type of content can allow users to compare themselves to others or test their knowledge. It can also provide valuable insights into customer preferences, which can be useful for future marketing efforts. You might create an interactive quiz about common misconceptions within the industry, allowing participants who complete it successfully access special offers as an incentive.
Trivia
Similarly, trivia questions can be a light-hearted way to engage subscribers while testing their knowledge of relevant subjects. For example, you have a bakery, you might ask email subscribers to guess how many apples it takes to make a deep-dish apple pie, or how many pounds of flour your bakery uses each month.
Incorporating engaging content into your small business newsletter is an effective strategy for maintaining interest among subscribers and fostering loyalty towards your brand. By offering interactive experiences such as contests, quizzes, polls, fun facts, and trivia questions related to industry topics or company history, you can create memorable moments that resonate with readers long after they’ve closed the email.
Newsletter Content FAQs
This page contains affiliate links from which we may make a commission if you make a purchase through the link. Learn more.
Why Small Businesses Need Newsletters
Small businesses use newsletters as an affordable way to reach out to customers, build relationships, build brand recognition, and establish themselves as experts in their field. Additionally, a customer newsletter, when sent on a regular basis, helps remind customers to visit your store or website and make more purchases.
How Email Newsletters Save on Marketing Costs
Email marketing is the most cost-effective form of marketing and advertising available to small businesses. For instance, using Constant Contact, you could send five or more marketing messages a month to up to 1,000 subscribers for as little as $30 a month. Those mailings could consist of promos, special offers, informational newsletters, or other content you want to share.
By contrast, the average cost of search engine pay-per-click ads is $2.59 per click. At that price, if there are just 100 clicks on your pay-per-click ad in a month, it would cost you $259.00.
Furthermore, your email newsletter reaches your customers in a place they are likely to look at every day: their inbox.
How many articles are ideal for newsletter?
In our experience, a newsletter should contain no more than two to three articles. In most cases, one article is enough. The reason: most people will just click through the links in one article, and that one article is usually the one that’s featured in the email subject line.
If you have a lot of information or product announcements to share, send additional mailings on different days. Don’t try to jam all the information into one email.
