Whether you’re creating a newsletter content strategy from scratch or need to spice up your stale emails, we have plenty of ideas for you.
We’ll start by covering ideas for more newsletter-style emails and then dive into regular, old-school emails usually sent by companies with their own products or services.
Let’s go!
Newsletter Email Ideas
Let’s begin with 29 ideas for your newsletter.
1. Guest Contributions
This is a great way to help with the content load and get access to another audience. Whoever you get to contribute will likely share the newsletter with their audience.
Also, it doesn’t have to be written in the newsletter itself—it could be a podcast or video you do together that you highlight in the email.
Creator Spotlight highlights a different newsletter owner each week:
2. Quizzes
People can’t resist answering quizzes, especially when it’s trivia related to your niche. Enjoy Basketball does this very well:
People are passionate about being right, and they can’t resist participating.
3. Polls
These are similar to quizzes, except you’re getting predictions or preferences. It’s another Enjoy Basketball staple:
4. Challenges
If you can create a step-by-step challenge that has tangible results at the end, you’ll have subscribers foaming at the mouth to get started! It’s fun for subscribers to participate when they know you and other readers are doing it, too.
Here are a few examples, but you can figure something out for almost any niche:
- Write one email a day for 30 days.
- Cut out sugar for 30 days.
- Hike the longest trail in your state.
- Pitch 3 clients on a high-ticket package.
- Write the first chapter of your book.
Always make them concrete and time-bound, and follow up! Mention the challenge in future newsletters and share wins from your readers—along with your results as well.
5. Ask for Replies
One of the best ways to create rapport with your readers is to ask for replies. Simply ask a question at the end of the email and say “hit reply and let me know.”
This isn’t feasible once you boast a healthy subscriber count, but in the beginning, use your personal touch as an advantage. You’ll be surprised at how many people want to give their opinions and exchange feedback with you.
It also helps you identify your core subscribers that you can lean on to discover content ideas and reader demographics.
6. Infographics
Presenting information from your newsletter in an engaging image is always a win. They’re fun to look at and more reliably draw attention than text.
Here’s one from Creator Spotlight:
7. Predictions
While not all newsletters can benefit from predictions, it’s practically essential in some fields. For example, if you write a financial newsletter and give your take on topics, your readers very often would like to know what you think is coming down the pike.
8. How-To
Teaching people how to do things that you’re already successful at? Always a winner.
For example, a golf writer could share how they fixed a slice, or a marketer might teach how to edit an image to fit correctly into a newsletter.
9. Giveaways
People love free stuff, especially if you can offer something with a high perceived value. You can use programs like ViralSweep or Brand Movers to make this happen automatically.
The common low-tech way to handle this is to have your subscribers send you an email that proves you took the required action—such as forwarding you a receipt or sending a screenshot of their social media post promoting you.
10. Referral Program
Many newsletter owners share that a well-built referral program can massively increase subscriber count.
Here’s how Marketing Brew does it at the end of each of their newsletters:
To some people, it's too much work to find 25 people so that you can win a backpack. To others, though, this is a worthy challenge and they’ll take you up on it.
11. Insight
What’s your take on a particular news story or trend that’s happening? Are you frustrated by something that’s going on? Do you have any analysis on the latest Google update, a popular baking technique, or golf course design?
The Hustle has enough clout to get a response directly from Taco Bell in response to a story:
While that level of insight is hard to pull off for a smaller newsletter, you can often reach out to the author of a particularly impactful or viral blog post, tweet, or video and report back to your readers.
12. Pull back the curtain
This can manifest in a few ways, such as a multi-million dollar newsletter sharing things happening at the office or a single creator telling you about his life.
Next Draft owner Dave Pell shares snarky comments about his own existence fairly often:
13. Address common challenges
People in your niche face the same issues. You likely already know what they are.
An SEO newsletter could discuss how to pivot when a site starts dropping in traffic, or a fitness newsletter might address the difficulty of getting to the gym while working from home.
14. Curate
Here’s the most common (and easiest) newsletter idea on this list! In fact, many newsletters are built on curating the best articles around the web and commenting on them.
1440 aggregates the top news stories from the day and gives impartial summaries:
People love curated content because they can stay in-the-know by skimming your newsletter.
15. Top 10 Lists
No, the “listicle” isn’t dead—people love them as much as they always have. This is a no-brainer content idea that works in any niche. Here are a few examples:
- 10 worst design trends
- 10 best foods to eat before 8 AM
- 10 best golf courses in Europe
- 10 best hairstyles for women over 50
- 10 best routers for homes under 2,000 square feet
16. Upcoming industry events
Many subscribers expect this sort of information from a niche newsletter. They read you to stay informed, so pass along upcoming events and cement your status as an industry insider (whether you see yourself as that or not).
17. Advice
With your experience in your niche, you can provide advice that many on your list will gladly accept and love you for.Here’s an excerpt from an email sent by Troy Broussard:
He’s clearly been through this situation and gives advice that can be incredibly helpful for people in experiencing this.
18. Free Templates
Here are few examples of this in action in a few different niches:
- Sports cards - Collection tracking spreadsheet
- Designer - Website header files
- Copywriter - Sales page template
- Nutrition - Meal planning spreadsheet
People love done-for-you content.
19. Free Coupons
As your subscribers' go-to resource in your niche, coupons are the perfect type of helpful content. Sometimes, this comes in the form of your newsletter sponsor giving the discount, but if it’s relevant to your audience, that’s a value-add.
20. Gift Ideas
Christmas nearing? Browse Amazon for relevant products that people on your list might like to give. You can assume that people on your list know other people with the same interests.
For example, a golf newsletter owner could find endless golf ideas. Their readers surely know other golfers to gift those to, or can put it on their Amazon wish list for someone to buy for them.
Bonus: you can use your Amazon affiliate links to make a little dough with your recommendations.
21. Job Postings
Find a job opening related to your niche that your subscribers might like? Go ahead and do what Money With Katie does in her newsletter:
This makes it feel like she’s looking out for her subscribers, whether any of them actually apply to those jobs or not.
22. What You Wish You Knew When You Started
Most readers on your list know less than you do about the niche—even if you don’t think you’re particularly an expert! Most people underestimate their own knowledge.
This means that you can easily share some things that you didn’t know but do now. Odds are, there are plenty on your list that would resonate.
23. Point Out Your Mistakes
In a similar vein, you can point out things relevant to the niche that you’ve done wrong. For example, perhaps you’re in sales, and you can share a pitch that went wrong. Or, a freelancer could explain something they did that made them lose a client.
Not only do people love hearing stories of things gone wrong, but you can also teach valuable lessons from them.
24. Recycle Content From Other Platforms
If you’ve already posted great stuff on YouTube, your podcast, or even on X or Facebook, go ahead and share it in your newsletter as well.
Creator Spotlight often has a long-from video that goes more in-depth with the featured creator:
25. Break Down Something in Detail
Savannah Gilbo’s newsletter for writers often deconstructs scenes, worldbuilding, characters, and more to teach writers how to do those things better.
Here's the subject line of an email she sent out:
Not only do people love breakdowns, but we’ve heard people like Harry Potter as well. That’s a winning subject line.
26. Life Hacks
You’re basically giving advice and strategies, in list form. While “hacks” aren’t quite as viral as they used to be, your readers will still love the format.
27. Quotes
James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter always follows this format:
- 3 ideas from him
- 2 quotes from others
- 1 question for you
He’s got a few million subscribers, so it works for him.
28. Pure, Unfiltered, Sales Pitch
Most newsletters don’t sell. They inform, entertain, and inspire (usually). If the author is selling something, it’s often a footnote or an indirect pitch.
Then, there’s someone like Ben Settle, who sends out a daily email with a blatant pitch in every single one of them. However, his readers stick around because he’s created an indelible brand, and he teaches/entertains in every email.
He doesn’t even try to hide his sales link:
29. Recommendations
We’ll end this section with one of the best newsletter ideas. Your readers trust your opinion and your taste, or they wouldn’t read you. What you recommend carries a lot of weight.
Here are just a few ideas for recs:
- Podcasts
- Food
- Golf courses
- Movies
- Podcasts
- Apps
- Software
- Stores
- Clothing brand
- Books
Old-School Email Ideas
Now that we’ve given ideas for newsletter-style content, let’s explore ideas that are more common in traditional email marketing.
In general, these are the types of emails sent by companies trying to sell their own products and services rather than monetizing the newsletter itself.
30. Seinfeld Emails
Russell Brunson teaches in his book DotCom Secrets about sending daily, entertaining emails. You take a story, often something that happened to you, and turn it into an email with a relevant lesson—much like how Seinfeld told stories about everyday things in a way people loved to watch.
31. Product Launches
Yes, it’s salesy and self-serving, but the secret is to make it feel like it’s actually a benefit for your reader:
He gives value (despite announcing a new product) by giving it out for free!
32. Product Improvements
These are terrific content when they’re important and relevant. For example, a software adding a heavily-requested feature or a new edition of a book would be great for your subscribers to know.
An obscure update about your course? Not so much.
33. Company updates
The most important thing here is to share only updates that your readers care about. They will mostly ignore new hires and office events.
However, people do care about pasta:
34. Company job openings
With people on your list already interested in your niche, many of them are likely to be excited about potentially working with your company. Someone who’s already familiar with your brand is easier to onboard than someone who’s never heard of you.
35. Accomplishments
Social proof is one of the best ways to draw people to your products and services. One way to do this is to show unbiased accomplishments and awards.
For example, you could mention being named one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies or note a benchmark that your company hit (e.g., “we just hired our 100th employee!”).
This shows your a real company with real growth.
36. Testimonials
Speaking of social proof, be sure to share customer success stories often! The most impactful of these will usually be a video testimonial—either one that they record themselves or one done by a pro videographer you hire. It could also be quotes collected from Facebook comments, Google Reviews, or email replies.
37. Case Studies
These can be similar to testimonials, except you fully break down the success story. People considering your product or service love to see a step-by-step of how your brand helped someone else with similar challenges.
38. Announce Webinars
Through webinars, you can teach, and you can sell. They’re a terrific medium for going deep on a topic, but then you can naturally turn it into a hard or soft sales pitch.
Either way, be sure that you’re notifying your list when you do them:
39. Go ALL Image
When you have a simple message, sending out a single image can be particularly effective. Of course, it’s easy if your brand is Dominos:
40. Share Blog Posts
The easiest and quickest way to get eyes on your blog posts is to send them to your list. It’s an easy win to seed your post with views and (hopefully) shares. It helps Google index your post faster, and you can start getting engagement statistics (like time on site) that show Google that it’s a quality article.
This is essentially what The New York Times emails out multiple times a week (although they might bristle at calling them “blog posts.”).
41. Company Vision
This is a perfect idea for a brand-new subscriber. As Simon Sinek famously says in his book Start With Why, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
There’s a reason companies spend so much time on branding, packaging, slogans, charity initiatives, and more. They want people to identify with them and approve of how they go about their work.
42. Give out freebies
Jon Morrow, an incredibly successful blogger and online entrepreneur, once sent out an incredible offer to his list:
It may not seem like a big deal, but for someone of his stature to do this must have been incredibly time-consuming.
43. New Customer Emails
Perhaps an obvious one, but many smaller brands miss the mark here. Make sure new customers get more than a receipt—make it as simple as possible for them to take action with what they just purchased.
That could mean a download link, login details, or where they can access shipping information. Nail this experience, and you might have a customer for life.
44. Adoption Emails
Similar to new customer emails, certain brands can do well with helping their customers begin to take action. For example, a software company might send out a training video about getting started. A health coach might check in to ask if you’ve downloaded MyFitnessPal yet.
45. Product Training Videos
These can be especially effective for feature-heavy software, especially if the learning curve is high. In B2B environments, users are especially invested in learning how to use software because they likely need it to do their jobs well.
46. Flash sales
While much of what you do should lead to a sale, sometimes a quick “we’re selling this at a discount because we feel like it!” can work well. For brands with simple products, the only thing you need to explain is that a sale is happening.
For example, clothing brands and restaurants can announce sales without needing a lengthy pitch. Just say “50% off for today,” and that’s the email:
47. CEO’s Opinion
This is when a CEO, a perceived expert in the industry, gives their take on relevant news. For example, the CEO of a house-flipping company could explain why investing in real estate shouldn’t stop during a recession. Or, the CEO of a nutrition company could explain what they think about the latest fad diet.
48. Research-Heavy Content
Some of the most shared/forwarded emails and articles are pieces of content that provide a ton of research about a particular topic. This isn’t a few statistics you can find with a quick Google—this is something that takes hours to put together.
It’s even more effective if the research comes from internal experience, such as a marketing company sharing an in-depth poll or study they did with their list.
49. Interview a Team Member
It could look something like this:
“We interviewed our Chief Content Officer, John Smith, about what types of content stand out in today’s oversaturated landscape. Here’s what he had to say.”
Find someone with an impressive title, and your readers will love hearing what that person says about the topic.
50. Customer Loyalty Program
This is as simple as emailing your current customers and reminding them of the benefits they get by referring others to your program.
If you’ve created something awesome, it’s likely some are already referring you. Reminding them of the program can push them to do even more.
51. FAQ
While a good FAQ always plays, it works especially well mid-funnel. This could be someone who’s already joined your list and is going through the sales process. A well-timed FAQ could give them the information they’ve been looking for in a format everyone loves.
52. Behind the Scenes Tour
Some companies have trouble appearing human. Each sales person could record a 1-minute tour of the office and send to every person they close.
53. Happy Holidays!
This is a classic, easy win. People are happy on the holidays, and opening these emails helps people associate that feeling with your brand.
54. New Employee Pets
While perhaps off-brand for some companies, few people are going to be upset about seeing cute puppies in their inbox, especially if you can humanize your employees in the process.
55. Employee Poll
If you have a decent-sized company, you could send out a short, relevant poll. For example, let’s say your company sells video games. Send out a poll to find out the favorites among the employees.
56. Write a “State of the Industry”
Sometimes called a “manifesto,” this is often an in-depth document written by someone well-respected. For example, let’s say your company operates movie theaters. The CEO (or an employee ghostwriting for the CEO) could produce a 20-30 page document detailing what’s happening to movie theaters, why they’re going away, what the future looks like, and what factors can influence that future.
This sort of content, done well, often goes viral.
57. User Stats
The most common example is the Spotify Wrapped email sent to every user showing their listening habits for the year. Here’s another example from Grammarly:
58. Be Contrary
Don’t make stuff up that you don’t believe in, but an opinion that differs from most others can certainly grab attention. Ben Settle’s daily email basically embodies this as he attempts to teach the world they should sell something every single day.
How to Create Better Content
Ready to improve your content? With Letterhead’s integrated AI, you can instantly punch up your content and avoid typos or grammar errors. Go ahead and schedule a consultation with us today to see how we can help your email marketing.
