Templates / Email newsletter
Email newsletter template
A repeatable structure with example copy in every section. Same shape every issue, so writing it takes forty minutes instead of a whole afternoon.
The reason newsletters stop going out is not lack of ideas. It is that every issue starts from a blank page, so every issue costs a full afternoon, and afternoons get eaten.
A fixed structure fixes that. Same sections, same order, every week. Readers learn where their favorite part lives, and you only ever fill in boxes.
Below is the structure, then a full example issue written out for a neighborhood bakery, so you can see what belongs in each box before you write your own.
How to use it
- 01Pick your sections from the structure block and delete the rest. Five sections is plenty, six is the ceiling.
- 02Save the finished shell as a reusable template in your email tool, with the section headings already in place.
- 03Write the main story first, then the intro, then the subject line. Writing the subject first is how you end up promising something the issue does not contain.
- 04Keep the intro under a hundred and twenty words. It is the part people read on the lock screen preview, not a place for a warm up.
- 05Send yourself a test on a phone with images blocked. If the issue makes no sense without images, rewrite it, because a chunk of readers will see it that way.
- 06Ship on the same day and hour every week. Consistency does more for open rates than clever subject lines.
The template
The structure
Six slots, in this order. Cut any of them, but do not reorder them week to week.
Subject line: one specific promise, under fifty characters.
Preview text: the second line of the promise. Never let it default to the first line of the email.
Intro, 60 to 120 words: one human paragraph in a real voice, ending with what is in this issue.
Main story, 200 to 400 words: the one thing this issue is about. One idea, one takeaway.
Three links, one line each: what it is and why you are sending it. Never a bare URL.
One useful thing: a tip, a template, a recipe, a shortcut. Something usable inside the email.
The ask, one line: read this, reply to this, buy this, book this. One only.
Footer: who you are, why they are getting this, how to leave.
Subject line patterns
Fill one in. Pick the most specific version, not the cleverest.
[NUMBER] [THINGS] for [SPECIFIC SITUATION]
The [THING] we changed this week
What to do when [SPECIFIC PROBLEM]
[NAME OF THE THING], explained in one page
Issue [NUMBER]: [THE MOST SPECIFIC NOUN IN THE ISSUE]
Rule: if the subject line could sit on top of any issue you have ever sent, it is too vague. Put a noun from this issue in it.
Preview text rules
The most wasted forty characters in email.
Write it. Do not let the tool pull the first line of the body.
Add information, do not repeat the subject. Subject says what, preview says so what.
Keep it under ninety characters so it does not get cut on a phone.
Example pair. Subject: Three things we changed on the sourdough. Preview: One of them was a mistake we are keeping.
Filled example issue: a neighborhood bakery, weekly
A real, sendable issue. Swap the bakery specifics for yours.
Subject: Three things we changed on the sourdough
Preview text: One of them was a mistake we are keeping.
Intro:
Morning. It rained all Tuesday, which meant the shop was quiet and the kitchen was not, so we spent the afternoon arguing about crust.
Three things came out of it, one of which was an accident. This issue: what changed in the sourdough, where to find us on Saturday, and the trick for reheating a day old loaf so it comes back properly.
Main story:
What changed in the sourdough
First, we pushed the bulk ferment about two hours longer. The crumb is more open and the sour note is stronger. If you liked the old loaf for sandwiches, the new one is a little more assertive. Tell us if that is wrong for you, because we can hold back a tray of the milder bake.
Second, we dropped the oven twenty degrees and added ten minutes. Darker crust, less blowout on the score. This was the one we debated for an hour.
Third, and this is the accident: a tray sat out an extra forty minutes before it went in, and it was the best loaf of the day. So now it sits out an extra forty minutes on purpose. That is most of what running a bakery is.
All three are in the loaves from Thursday onward. Same price, same size, same Tuesday to Sunday.
Three links:
A short piece on why open crumb is not automatically better bread. Worth reading before you judge our new loaf. [LINK]
The flour mill we buy from put up a video of the stone grinder running. Oddly calming. [LINK]
A neighbor of ours is running a knife sharpening morning on the fourteenth. Bring the bread knife you have been ignoring. [LINK]
One useful thing:
How to bring a day old loaf back. Run the whole loaf under the tap for a second, actually wet the crust, then put it straight on the oven rack at 200 celsius for ten minutes. It comes out close to fresh. It works once per loaf, so pick your moment.
The ask:
Saturday we are at the market on [STREET NAME] from eight until we sell out, which last week was ten forty. Come early.
Footer:
You are getting this because you signed up in the shop or on the website. We send one email a week, on Thursday morning, and nothing else. [UNSUBSCRIBE]
[BAKERY NAME], [FULL POSTAL ADDRESS]
The shell to reuse
Paste this into your email tool as the saved template. Every issue is now a fill in the blanks job.
Subject: [ONE SPECIFIC PROMISE, UNDER 50 CHARACTERS]
Preview: [THE SO WHAT, UNDER 90 CHARACTERS]
[GREETING AND ONE HUMAN OBSERVATION FROM THIS WEEK, two sentences]
This issue: [THING ONE], [THING TWO], and [THING THREE].
[MAIN STORY HEADING]
[PARAGRAPH ONE: what changed or what you learned]
[PARAGRAPH TWO: the detail that makes it real]
[PARAGRAPH THREE: what it means for the reader, and what they do about it]
Worth your time:
[LINK TITLE]. [ONE LINE ON WHY YOU ARE SENDING IT]. [URL]
[LINK TITLE]. [ONE LINE]. [URL]
[LINK TITLE]. [ONE LINE]. [URL]
One useful thing:
[A TIP THEY CAN USE WITHOUT CLICKING ANYTHING, three to five sentences]
[THE ONE ASK, one sentence, with the link or the address]
You are getting this because [HOW THEY SIGNED UP]. We send [FREQUENCY]. [UNSUBSCRIBE]
[COMPANY NAME], [FULL POSTAL ADDRESS]
Before you hit send
Six checks. Do them in this order.
Read the subject and preview together as one sentence. Do they say two different things, or the same thing twice?
Count the asks in the body. If it is more than one, cut until it is one.
Open the test on a phone. Any paragraph over four lines gets split.
Turn images off and read it again. Does it still work?
Click every link, including the unsubscribe. Especially the unsubscribe.
Check the postal address and the sender name are current. These are the fields that quietly go stale after an office move.
Where this usually goes wrong
- Redesigning the layout every issue. The design is not why people open it, and rebuilding it is why the issue is late.
- Stacking four asks at the bottom. Reply, buy, follow and forward compete with each other, and the reader resolves the competition by doing nothing.
- Letting the preview text default. The tool grabs the first line of the body, which is usually a greeting, and you have wasted the second most visible line in the inbox.
- Sending only when you have something to sell. The list forgets you between sends, then the one promotional email lands cold and the unsubscribes arrive with it.
- Three hundred words of intro before the main story. The intro is a doorway. Anything longer is a second story pretending to be a welcome.
Common questions
How often should I send a newsletter?
Weekly if you can sustain it, monthly if you cannot. Pick the frequency you can hold for six months and say it in the footer, so readers know what they agreed to.
How long should an email newsletter be?
Six hundred to nine hundred words for a weekly. That is roughly the example above. Longer works when the main story genuinely needs it, but do not stretch a thin week to fill a length target.
Should the newsletter be plain text or designed?
Lightly designed at most. A logo, a readable body font, plenty of space. Heavy templates increase the load, break more often on phones, and rarely make anyone read further.
What do I write about when nothing happened this week?
Answer a question a customer asked you. Every week has at least one. It is more useful than a manufactured update and it takes ten minutes because you already said it out loud once.
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