What is a Newsletter and How Can It Help Your Business?

What is a newsletter?

A newsletter is a letter (either physical or in the form of an email) on a topic of interest to its recipients. Newsletters are most commonly associated with the marketing discipline of email marketing, which is used by many businesses.
Newsletters today are most often digital emails sent to a list of recipients who have voluntarily chosen/agreed to receive emails.

For example, they may have signed up for your newsletter in one of the following ways:

Directly on your website, e.g. in connection with a purchase or expression of interest.
A competition on social media.
At a physical event.
To receive free tips, tricks or similar by email

Why create newsletters?

There are several reasons to send newsletters. Fundamentally, it is about improving your ROI on marketing and sales, which newsletters can greatly help with. In fact, email marketing is the channel that overall delivers the highest ROI.

Here is why you should create newsletters and work with email marketing:

Higher ROI (return on investment)
More effective lead generation
Higher CLV (customer lifetime value)
Higher conversion rate

How do you write a good newsletter? + 6 Tips

To answer how to write a good newsletter, we first need to establish what a good newsletter actually is. And that depends on your business and your goals for your newsletters.

Broadly speaking, a good newsletter is:

Newsletters that create value for the recipient.
Newsletters that create value for your business — including on the bottom line.

And these two things are inseparably linked: because newsletters that create value for the recipient are also the ones that drive conversions, build loyal customers, and thereby strengthen your ROI.

Here are 6 general tips for writing a good newsletter that creates value for both the recipient and your business:

Write recipient-oriented content (Focus on: Where is the value for the recipient?)
Have a concrete objective and strategy for your newsletters.
Make sure your newsletters end up in your customers' inboxes — and not in spam.
Invest time in writing great subject lines that ensure your newsletters get opened.
Have a clear CTA (Call-to-action)
Use the data you collect, and continuously optimise and test.

How much does it cost to create a newsletter?

The reason email marketing is one of the marketing channels with the highest ROI? It doesn't cost much, but delivers great value — when done right.

A newsletter costs nothing to create and only takes your time. That said, you will need email marketing software to send newsletters. Several of these are also free — otherwise the price typically depends on the number of contacts or emails.
Among the popular systems you can use to send newsletters are: