How to write a newsletter subscribers are eager to open on every send

My inbox is packed to the brim. So is yours.

And the inbox of almost everyone you send your newsletter to.

So even though building an email list is the key to creator growth, standing out in busy inboxes and making a real impact is tough.

Nailing your newsletter writing is the way through.

By knowing your audience inside out and showing up with a newsletter they can’t wait to read, you future-proof your business because you’ll build a lasting relationship with your subscribers—an asset that will support your income for years to come.

Here’s everything you need to know about writing a newsletter for your success as a creator.

The five elements to target in your newsletter writing

Here are the five elements that matter when writing a newsletter:

1. Subject line
2. Preview text
3. Email copy
4. Call to action
5. Signature

Let’s dive into each and explore the elements and how to write them for newsletter success.

Pssst: once you write your newsletter, send it using simple and beautiful email templates.

1. Subject line

Your subject line is the first thing your subscriber will see when they open their inbox. So it’s important to craft subject lines that hook the audience’s attention and inspire action while remaining honest and interesting.

Kit creators have an average email open rate of 43%—meaning that our creators must be thinking of engaging subject lines!

Take a look at these creators’ subject line examples:

Try these tips when writing your newsletter subject lines:

• Experiment with subject line formulas. For example, Ness Labs’ newsletter always has its name in the subject line, as does the Why We Buy newsletter. Newsletters from Natalie Ellis and Bossbabe are always in lowercase and those from Dickie Bush and Ship 30 for 30 start with a compass emoji.
• Consider different subject line lengths. Subject lines shorter or longer than the standard might stand out more. Try using just one or two words or going long, and see how it impacts open rates.
• Use ChatGPT to get subject line inspiration. Prompt ChatGPT to write email newsletter subject lines for a specific topic and build upon the ideas from it.
• A/B test two different subject lines to find the winner. This lets you send a more successful email newsletter and learn from the data for future editions.

2. Preview text

Notice the text directly after the subject line? That’s the preview text, one of the most overlooked aspects of email newsletter copywriting.

You can strategically use preview text to invite subscribers to open your newsletter.

The preview text is typically pulled from your newsletter’s first line, but that’s usually not specific enough, so you can—and should—manually set it.

Use these tips when writing your newsletter’s preview text:

• Try using the same preview text for all newsletter editions. For example, Kat Boogaard always uses, “Happy Friday! Here’s my best advice and some awesome freelance gigs.” A fantastic way to build familiarity.
• Give more context with preview text. Mention the format for that edition (“5 tips to unlock incredible benefits”), a question you’ll answer (“Should you be on Snapchat?”), or a teaser for what’s inside (“This is the one skill you need”).
• Lean into FOMO. If something in your newsletter is time-sensitive, use your preview text to indicate the clock is ticking.

As with everything, aim to test different preview text snippets to see what performs best with your audience. People respond to email content differently, so experimenting will help you find the best approach.

3. Newsletter body copy

Great subject lines and preview text help ensure your reader opens your email. What happens after that depends on your newsletter body copy.

You can use these types of copy in your newsletters:

• Original writing (or links to original content)
• Curated content
• Interviews and case studies
• Industry news
• User-generated content (UGC)
• Promotions and sales pitches
• Entertainment

Check out 15+ newsletter email examples to get inspired for each of these.

Promotional vs. informative content

Remember to keep your promotional and non-promotional emails balanced. Your newsletter should be about value first, so make sure you’re giving subscribers enough before asking for anything in return.

Here’s a great way to look at the ratio of value-building and sales emails:

We have this idea of capital: trust with your audience is a capital that you have, and every time you send an email, you need to either be increasing that capital by giving a lot of value to the reader. If you’re making a sales pitch, you’re spending some of that capital, and you’ve got to keep a balance there.

– Jon from Little Coffee Fox

How long should a newsletter be?

Email copywriting expert Samar Owais says, “An email should be as long as it needs to be. While industry and type of email play a role in length, it’s more about the relationship between the brand and its subscribers. If they’re used to receiving longer, value-packed emails from you, then your 1,000+ word email could very well have a high open and click-through rate.”

In other words, focus on your message and make your emails the length they need to deliver it. And there’s always an option to tweak and experiment with your newsletter length over time.

4. Call-to-action

Inside your newsletter, you’ll want to have a central call-to-action (CTA).

Your CTA will quickly tell your audience what you want them to do after reading your email. When your CTA is clear, it helps you drive the desired action and increase conversions—clicks on a blog post, product sales, affiliate sales, and more.

Best practices for composing your newsletter CTA

Here’s how to write your newsletter call-to-action:

• Use strong call-to-action words. See the image below for a list of words to make your CTA more powerful.
• Go with specific vs. generic verbs. Instead of “Click here” or “Try it now,” opt for distinct copy like “Listen to the episode” or “Order yours here.”
• Don’t overwhelm your subscribers with too many CTAs. And if your newsletter naturally has many links (for example, you share curated content), use formatting to make it easier to browse.
• Visually distinguish your CTA from the rest of the content. Use color and contrast to make a CTA button stand out, or separate the CTA link into its own paragraph.

5. Email newsletter signature

Once you’ve crafted educational, entertaining, and story-driven body copy to go inside your email, it’s time for your signature sign-off. What you choose as a signature to end your emails is entirely up to you.

It can be a simple sign-off like “Best, [your name here]” or “See you next time, [your name here]”.

Or you can implement links and mini CTAs based on what you’re prioritizing in your creative business at the time of sending the newsletter. These can include your blog posts, specific social media channels, a lead magnet you want to drive signups to, or even paid products.

9 more tips and tricks to master the art of writing newsletters

Now that you’ve learned about the five elements of newsletter writing, let’s take it up a notch with these extra nine tips and tricks.

P.S. Check out Kit’s guide on email newsletter best practices for your newsletter signups, design, and engagement—so you can build a strong foundation for newsletter growth.

Have a distinct and memorable brand voice

If someone removed your name from your emails, how many subscribers could recognize you wrote and sent it?

The tone and style of your emails are one of the first things your subscribers will notice, so it’s worth being intentional with your brand voice and the way you convey your message.
For example, here’s a snippet from a newsletter by Jules Acree, a lifestyle content creator. Her newsletter is called Slow Brew Sunday, and the gentle style and tone of her emails reflects that:

The opposite example is this bit from Ash Ambirge’s newsletter called Selfish Forever. Ash is loud, bold, and unapologetic:

See the difference? While you don’t have to go to any one extreme when it comes to your voice, it’s worth defining a brand voice your subscribers will recognize, relate to, and remember.

Make your newsletter content relevant and personal

Think back to the last email you got from a friend or coworker. Did the email address you by name? Did it mention something specific relevant to your daily life?

Your email newsletters should be the same.

Write your newsletter as if you’re writing to one person because that’s exactly what’s happening—one person is reading your email, whether you’ve sent it to 100 people or 10,000 people.

You can personalize emails in several ways: by addressing your subscribers by their first name, using email segmentation to tailor emails based on subscriber behavior (like email link clicks or specific lead magnets they downloaded), and even by giving your newsletters the look and feel of plain-text, peer-to-peer emails.

If your subscribers feel seen and heard with every newsletter they open, you’re golden.

Use “you” to keep your newsletter personal

WIIFM (what’s in it for me?) is a famous marketing acronym that will transform your email copywriting. The concept is simple: your copy must clearly outline why your reader should care about your newsletter.

The quickest way to achieve WIIFM-copy is by replacing “I” statements with “you” statements:

• “I wrote a new ebook detailing how…” → “My new ebook will help you learn how…”
• “I’m going to show you how…” → “You’re going to learn how…”
• “I have a 50% off sale right now” → “You can save 50% off right now”

See how the above “you” statements aren’t self-serving? You’ll want to do the same thing inside your email.

Focus on the benefits before the features

One of the biggest newsletter copy mistakes creators make is emphasizing features when they should be highlighting the benefits.

For example, if you are writing an email to gauge interest in your new course or webinar, you’ll want to focus on benefits—like the way they’ll feel after solving challenges they’ve struggled with for months, rather than the number of lessons or printables you’ll give them.

Benefits are often more successful in making the sale because they create an emotional tie for your subscribers.

For example, here’s how Quinn Tempest, a business and marketing coach, promotes her free workshop through benefits (attract dream clients, stop feeling overwhelmed, make your to-do list delightful) instead of features:

Use your newsletter to tell a story

Whether you’re promoting your most recent blog post, your upcoming webinar, a paid product, or simply teaching your audience something they crave to learn, try doing so by telling a story.

These can be stories from your own experiences or past clients or students. Stories are relatable and personal, making it easy for subscribers to engage and connect with what you’re sharing in your newsletter.

Your goal here is to make your reader feel something, and that emotion will often translate into more trust because your audience member will feel heard, seen, and understood.

Write newsletters with great readability

Most readers skim your content and won’t read every word.

As a creator, your job is to make your newsletter as easy to digest as possible, highlighting key points and making your CTAs hard to miss.

Improving the readability of your newsletters is an effective way to ensure your audience absorbs more of your information. You can do this by:

• Using short paragraphs (e.g. 1-3 sentences long)
• Bolding or italicizing key information
• Breaking up long lists into bullet points
• Making links and buttons easy to spot with colors and spacing
• Implementing newsletter design elements like headers and sections for longer emails

Your ultimate goal is to guide your readers easily through your content as they consume it on any device.

Implement the basics of conversion copywriting and sales psychology

Your newsletter is a platform that will enable you to both build an audience and make a living. It’s about more than pure education and entertainment—it’s also about converting subscribers into buyers.

Conversion copywriting focuses on the why behind someone pressing your ‘buy’ button. The more you know about how your ideal client or customer’s brain works—what makes them tick, seek solutions, and take action—the more you can optimize your conversion copywriting as part of your newsletters.

Some ways you can add conversion copy to your newsletter include:

• Scarcity, like discounts or bonuses for subscribers who buy your digital product that expire at a certain time and date
• Social proof, like testimonials, tweets, and case studies about your product or even about your previous teaching
• Voice of the customer, which means you’re using phrases and words your audience would use to describe a problem
• FAQs, which allows you to tackle potential objections and insecurities in advance

The best part about conversion copy is that it doesn’t just work for sales—it’s valuable throughout the email marketing funnel when you’re still only serving free content and building that initial trust with a subscriber.

Don’t forget to check your email newsletter

Once you’ve written your newsletter, give it some space to breathe. In other words: don’t just wrap up your final sentence and hit send.

Instead, take a few minutes to re-read your email and double-check it for spelling and grammar mistakes.

For one, it lets you catch any issues with flow, missing links, or elements you meant to include. And, of course, it helps you keep mistakes to a minimum to build authority and trust.

Tools to check your grammar and spelling

Check out these tools to make grammar and spell checking easy and quick:

• Grammarly helps with spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors
• Hemingway Editor catches hard-to-read sentences, grades your readability, and helps you simplify your writing and make it more direct
• ProWritingAid offers handy tools like style score, sentence length, and detector for weak adverbs and passive voice
• Ludwig helps you find the best phrases for what you want to say through contextualized examples taken from reliable sources

Avoid going silent on your subscribers

Stay top of mind with your audience by showing up in their inbox regularly.

What ‘regularly’ means in practice is totally up to you as long as you stick to your chosen cadence. This can be twice a week, once per month, or anywhere in between.

When you stick to your schedule, your subscribers will learn to expect your emails on a set day and time—and there’s magic in that.

Not just that: sending consistent newsletters helps your email deliverability.

Final tips before you commit to writing newsletters

Now that you know how to write a newsletter your audience will love, check out these final tips:

• Don’t run out of inspiration. Lean on email newsletter examples from creators you like—especially from other industries and fields—to keep a running list of ideas you can try out.
• Know your audience. The more newsletters you send, the better you’ll know the people on the receiving end. Embrace email replies and social media interactions to learn about the audience you want to serve.
• Select one topic to write about. By doing this, you’ll become the go-to person for that topic, and you’ll be able to dive deep and give real value to your subscribers.
• Choose a newsletter frequency you can stick to. Sending two newsletters per month for the next ten years is much better than sending one email every day for a month and then giving up forever. Check out the best times to send your newsletter.

And if you need a powerful tool to send your first or next newsletter and grow your audience for the long run, start for free with Kit.