Email Marketing: The Definitive Guide


The Content Newsletter

The Content Newsletter is a newsletter that provides 100% pure value.

The value can be in the form of a handful of tips. Or links to helpful resources. Or a personal story.

The exact type of value doesn’t really matter. As long as you don’t pitch anything, you’re good.

In fact, pure value newsletters are so rare that your subscribers will LOVE you for them.

For example, I sent out this Content Newsletter a while back:

How to create content – Email

(A handful of copywriting tips.)

And dozens of people replied to my email to thank me.

Newsletter email replies

With that, here’s the template:

The Content Newsletter

Intriguing Subject Line

Use a subject line that will make someone curious about what’s inside your message.

For example, I used the subject line “How I Got 45.5% More Traffic (In 7 Days)” for one of my Content Newsletters. And that email got a 32.3% open rate.

How I got traffic – Subject line

Bold Opening

Start your newsletter off with something SUPER compelling.

That way, you hook your reader right off the bat.

Personally, I like to kick things off with a mini-story.

Backlinko – Personal story email

But you can also use a straightforward intro that previews what’s coming next.

Backlinko email – Straightforward intro

Either way works.


Valuable Content

Now it’s time to deliver the goods.

If you’re not sure what to write here, I recommend going with a list of 3-5 actionable tips that people can use that day.

Otherwise, you can teach your subscribers an important lesson in the form of a story.

Backlinko email – Story

Or curate links to content that will help your reader achieve a specific outcome, like this newsletter from Ramit Sethi.

Email links

CTA

Nope, you’re not pitching anything in your Content Newsletter.

But that doesn’t mean you should skip your call-to-action.

So:

How can you use a CTA if your email is 100% value?

Well, when I send out a story to subscribers, I use a CTA that asks people to reply with their opinion or take.

End with a CTA

Or let’s say you just sent out a list of links to Paleo breakfast recipes.

Your CTA could be to try one of the recipes this week.

The type of CTA you go with isn’t that important.

The important thing is to always include a CTA in your newsletters.

That way, when you DO pitch something, your subscribers aren’t caught off guard.