How to Start a Newsletter That People Actually Want to Read

When we started our company newsletter, we weren’t sure where it was going to take us. We had no clue that it would end up being our most profitable marketing channel to date.

The Ad Spot is our newsletter for marketing professionals who want to stay up to date on trending ads.

What’s the difference between that and Adweek? Simple. It’s paywall-free.

We send one email to our subscribers on Friday mornings — it’s a quick rundown of the week’s most talked-about ads. The Ad Spot keeps our intended audience informed, it interests our clients (who are typically CMOs, Marketing Directors, Marketing Managers, or just business owners who have an interest in marketing), it shows off our writing and creative skills, and just by putting it together it keeps us up to date on what’s happening in our industry. The content we use in our newsletter has even been turned into blog content that brings in traffic and subscribers.

That’s a win-win-win-win-win.

We don’t just create newsletters for our own company, though. We’ve started and built newsletters for clients that have brought in 10,000+ subscribers — that’s enough interest to completely transform a business when the subscribers are true fans. We’ll talk about those specific examples below, but before we show you how to start a newsletter (and choose a topic) that people actually want to read, let’s define what a newsletter is to us.

What is a newsletter?

If your first thought when you hear the word “newsletter” is a memo that circulates to your customers via the mail, it’s time for a change of perspective. Today, the term newsletter is used to define any sort of regularly scheduled email that you send to any interested consumers who’ve subscribed to your updates. It’s no longer defined by just company updates or sales opportunities. A newsletter can be any information you want to share with…