17 Stellar Ideas to Perfect Your Business Newsletter and 30 Free Templates

17 Stellar Ideas to Perfect Your Business Newsletter and 30 Free Templates process.st/business-newsletter October 8, 2020

Jane Courtnell October 8, 2020 Business, Marketing, Writing

This is a guest post by Hannah Butler, who works as a web developer, designer, and writer.

According to a study by Digiday, Vanity Fair’s newsletter readers consume 2x more content than any other audience segment.

Another study by Parse.ly found that Greentech Media’s newsletter visitors spend 80% more time on site than visitors from other channels.

These studies reflect the effectiveness of business newsletters for engaging your audience, retaining readers, and converting prospects.

However, we at Process Street know that writing a business newsletter can be challenging.

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That is why we have put together this article detailing how to write a business newsletter.

You will learn the underlying principles behind newsletter writing, along with top tips and tricks for how to create compelling content consistently. And if that isn’t enough, we give you 30 top – free – template resources to speed up the process, helping you save time on tedious, repetitive tasks.

Check out our Creating a Newsletter checklist given below for a quick taster regarding what our templates have to offer.

Click here to access our Creating a Newsletter checklist!

Click on the relevant subheader to jump to the section of choice. Alternatively, scroll down to read all we have to say.

With that said, let’s get started.

Why bother writing a business newsletter?

Source

A newsletter reports news and activities related to an organization or business in a general sense. This report is sent to members, customers, or employees in an electronic or printed form.

What’s the point of a business newsletter?

The point will be different per organization, but in general, newsletters need to provide value to your readership.

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Exactly what you write in your newsletter will depend on whether you’re targeting existing customers or prospects, but the principle of delivering value holds up, regardless of the intended audience.

If you start with an underlying intent to provide value, you’re one step closer to writing good newsletters.

Ask yourself: Who is going to read the newsletter, and how can I deliver value to their inbox?

If you’re targeting customers, you might want to communicate how your new features can help them. If you’re targeting prospects, it might make more sense to offer less productfocused content, and point them to interesting or useful resources.

Depending on your target audience, your tone, as well as the content type, will differ.

When I review clients’ newsletters, more than 75% of the time they are inundated with hard-sale messages. After several mailings, their target audience learns to tune the newsletter out and toss it in the trash. This is a costly mistake that can be avoided with some simple foresight and consideration.

Do you need a newsletter?

Newsletters serve a purpose in your marketing communications collateral mix. We are talking beyond direct sales here, with the newsletter acting as a positioning piece.

That is, a business newsletter will help position your business as expert content and advice, providing a trusted information source for your target audience, customer, client, or whomever it reaches.

If you deliver consistent quality in your newsletters (see newsletter ideas below ⬇), you will eventually build an audience who respect you as an expert, looking to you as a source of truth to educate themselves on making a purchase, and to seek additional expert information.

Whilst this article is targeted towards the email business newsletter, the newsletter ideas below can be easily used for business’s posting newsletters on their website. Whichever delivery channel you utilize, I’m certain you will find the newsletter ideas valuable and an excellent springboard for generating topic ideas.

How to write a newsletter

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I have broken down how to write a business newsletter into 17 steps, which are as follows: 1.

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Provide newsworthy content Produce how-to articles Provide product or service stories Provide product or company background information Give information on how to solve a problem 4/11

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Provide technical tips Give a checklist of sorts Provide industry updates Detail employee news Display new employee profiles Give community-related news Conduct interviews Include a section: Letters to the editor Include a product/service selection guide Give any seminar/trade show conference dates Include a photo section with captions Provide promotional sales information

Step #1: Provide newsworthy content One way to guarantee readership of your newsletter is to provide your audience with information that is deemed newsworthy or of interest to them.

Example: If you are a financial planner, information about luxury tax increases or decreases by the federal government would be a newsworthy article because it affects how your customers invest their money.

Step #2: Write how-to articles How-to articles do not need to be lengthy, but should provide easy to understand steps that your readers can comprehend in a short amount of time.

Example: An auto mechanic may send out monthly newsletters that include a section on how to check a car owner’s battery cables, or how to check the car owners’ tire pressure.

Step #3: Tell product or service stories People love reading stories about products or services. I am not talking about sales pitches, but genuine stories. Stories could include how a product helped a customer save time or how a service helped a customer save money. Stories can be viewed as a soft sale. I mean, the story and experience itself can persuade someone to use your service or product.

Example: An insurance agent can include a newsletter article that highlights how a renter benefited from having renter’s insurance after a home robbery.

Step #4: Provide product or company background information People are often curious about the history of a product or company, when the organization was founded or developed, and anything that has influenced the development of a product.

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Example: If you are a bakery, you can highlight how your bakery came into existence, when and why cupcakes or cakes were invented, or information about specific ingredients used in your products.

Step #5: Help people solve a problem Helping people solve problems will put you in the spotlight as a hero.

Solving a problem is closely related to how-to articles. That is, a solving a problem article will give how-to steps.

Example: A personal trainer may send out a bi-weekly newsletter explaining the benefits of healthy eating to prevent inflammation in joints. Or how to lose weight through exercise and eating. Both solve a problem, the former solves the problem of pain whilst the latter solves the issue of potential health and self-esteem related problems.

Step #6: Provide technical tips Technology has exploded over the last decade, with technological advancements hitting mainstream for all ages of people. Providing technical expertise related to your business and readership can be beneficial.

Example: A credit union may provide a monthly column on technical tips for its members. The technical part ties into their online banking products. Also, with an aging target audience, articles are provided giving technical tips for using smartphones, computers, and tablets in conjunction with their financial products. These articles prove to be extremely valuable.

Step #7: Create checklists Checklists are easy to write and easy to read. You should take into account that people are not willing to read long bad-structured texts. They prefer a list of items. Using checklists in newsletters means customers can skim the list to catch the main idea.

Also, checklists provide a handy way for your readers to information.

Example: A marketing campaign checklist gives your customers useful, well-structured information stimulating them to find out more about the topic. It goes without saying that they then visit your web site.

Step #8: Demonstrate industry updates Providing updates about the industry your business is part of keeps your readers informed about industry changes, as well as your business. This could relate to price increases due to changes in industry processing techniques or new regulations.

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Example: A steel distributor may send out a quarterly newsletter, providing specific news on different markets, and how laws affect steel imports, which could drive up the cost of steel.

Step #9: Tell your employee news You may be surprised, but your readers are interested in your employees, especially if your business provides personal services. Including a section dedicated to telling employee news can help you build trustworthy relationships with your customers. This will also increase company-level transparency.

Example: A local property management company that deals with tenants may include information about a recent employee giving birth, taking leave, and who will handle their account.

Step #10: Publish new employee profiles This could fall under employee news, however, some place employee profiles in a separate section. In this case, your customers get to know how you treat your team, showing customers how they, as clients, can be treated too.

Example: A bicycle shop may include profiles of any new employees who join their team, providing additional information about the employee that is applicable to biking.

Step #11: Tell community related news You’ll find that people like doing business with those that are involved with their community. Give news about your business’s involvement in the community, including any local sport sponsorships, donations, or charity events.

Example: A local cosmetology school sends out a quarterly newsletter to its students and potential clients with articles about how they are offering a free haircutting session to members of their community.

Step #12: Send over interviews and non-employee profiles Newsletters often include expert or celebrity interviews. These types of stories can lend credibility to your newsletter since your customers find out testimonials on your business.

By the way, they can see the people you are working with too.

Example: A local computer repair shop’s bi-annual newsletter may include interviews from industry experts about the state and direction of technology and specific computer brands.

Step #13: Accept letters to the editor 7/11

Soliciting letters from your readers is a great way to get them involved in your newsletter and your business. You already see this in newspapers, and newsletters aren’t an exception.

People want to be heard and know that their opinions and thoughts are important.

Example: A local city government will send out monthly newsletters to provide letters from citizens who may express their concerns for city issues.

Step #14: Provide product/service selection guides Consider adding a section that offers a guide for your products/services, especially useful if you have lots to offer. In this case, your customers can know clearly what you’re doing and what services you’re providing.

Example: A photography studio could send out a newsletter that includes a guide to your services and what’s included in each package.

Step #15: Send over seminar/trade show/conference dates It’s always important to keep your readers informed about any of your upcoming trade shows, seminars that you may be giving, or conference dates. This helps you find and expand your target audience with loyal customers sharing this information with others.

Example: A local sports trainer may provide information about upcoming seminars they’re holding or any conferences they are attending as an exhibitor.

Step #16: Make a photo section with captions People love photos and looking at them. After all, a photo is worth a thousand words.

Consider including a section that shows professional, appropriate, and relevant photos of events that you host or attend with captions explaining where you are, what you are doing, and who’s in the photo. Doing this shows your human side, allowing your readers to relate to your business and its employees.

Example: A local fitness gym may include images of its members (with their permission) working out and enjoying an aerobics class.

Step #17: Add promotional sales information Use this category sparingly. This category falls under the selling category. It’s okay to push your product or services, but it’s not okay to have your newsletter as a sales-only communication vehicle.

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However, adding a truly valued sales promotion is always welcomed by your readers. If you are consistent with your promotional sales, your readers will learn to expect it and look forward to your newsletter.

Example: An auto service center that sends out monthly newsletters may include a monthly promotion for services or products offered at significant savings for their readers.

Business newsletter templates to streamline your newsletter campaigns

A newsletter template gives a reusable structure for the consistent and repeatable creation of quality business newsletters.

At Process Street we have been working hard to provide you with top template resources to help you perfect the creation of your business newsletters. Check out these templates below. They are all free and ready for you to jump in and use today.

Creating a Newsletter Weekly newsletters are a fantastic way to communicate with your customers everything they need to know in a single, helpful email. However, unless you have some sort of process in place to regulate the quality of these newsletters, they could end up being fraught with spelling and grammatical errors, or even broken links.

That’s why we here at Process Street have come up with this template for creating a newsletter. Run our Creating a Newsletter template every time you need to create a newsletter 9/11

Click here to access our Creating a Newsletter template

Newsletter Template Process Our Newsletter Template Process acts as a guide for you to create an engaging and actionable newsletter that you can send via email to your subscribers. The Newsletter Template Process is designed so you can focus and deliver your newsletter’s aim effectively.

Click here to access our Newsletter Template Process!

HOA Newsletter Template Writing a newsletter is not particularly difficult. Writing an excellent newsletter that grabs and holds the attention of its readers, however, is much more of a challenge.

Thankfully, it’s not as hard as you may think.

Run our HOA Newsletter Template to create and deliver a first-class newsletter to your HOA members Click here to access our HOA Newsletter Template checklist!

Sending your business newsletter using an email marketing campaign process As it has been mentioned, newsletters should be a part of an email marketing campaign.

For your email marketing campaign, I recommend you create several templates so as to not waste time.

Below I have listed 17 more template processes to perfect your email marketing campaign, from sending a newsletter, to email tracking, to sending an upsell sequence of emails.

Whilst you’re creating your campaign, don’t miss out on one more important factor – writing follow up emails.

Why is it important?

Since people can skip your email accidentally or delete it by mistake, reaching out to them again is a great idea.

Below I have listed 10 useful templates to help you do this:

Getting started with Process Street 10/11

Process Street is superpowered checklists.

So far you have been introduced to 30 top template resources to help you create a business newsletter, and then send this newsletter as part of your email marketing campaign. As you work through these templates you will come across features such as: Stop Tasks to ensure task order.

Dynamic Due Dates, so no deadline is missed.

Role Assignments, to ease task delegation within your team.

Approvals, allowing decision-makers to give the go-ahead (or rejection) on important items.

Task Assignments, to assign users and groups to individual tasks in your checklists.

Embed Widget, allowing you to view and interact with other apps without leaving your checklist, automating steps that would otherwise sap your time.

As you can tell, Process Street as a lean software comes jam-packed with features that make any business process more effective and efficient.

You can create your template resources in Process Street, just like the ones given above.

For more information on how you can do this, watch the below video: Basics of Creating and Editing Templates.

Simply sign up for Process Street today and get started!

Creating a newsletter via Process Street is both simple and effective Newsletters can be an important part of your email marketing campaign and general communications collateral mix. The newsletter should not be used solely as a hard sales tool, but as a communication device that helps position your company as an expert in its field of business. By positioning your company, customers will recognize your leadership and begin to seek your advice, services, and products. !

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