I love love love a good newsletter. They a powerful tool for any small business wanting to connect with their people in a very real, personal way, and alongside your your website a good newsletter is serious digital marketing bricks and mortar ,while social media is more like your rented property.
Anyhow… so every Monday morning I send out a ‘5 reasons to be cheerful’ newsletter and not only love putting it together but also appreciate the feedback it generates and the opportunity it gives me to not only share what I hope is valuable content for my readers but also tell them about new workshops and other things I have to offer. And because I see the benefits my newsletter delivers and want you to reap these too…I started running workshops that give the inspo and practical skills needed to create and write newsletters that actually get read.
After the last such workshop (which was so great – thanks guys), I put this list together as part of a follow up package for all participants and then thought it might be worth sharing round more widely, because it’s always nice to find new things to read and be inspired by don’t you think?
And on that note – the last one of these workshops for the year will be held on Monday, October 8 so please come along if you can and are keen to up your newsletter game!
In no particular order…here the 15 newsletters I always stop and read (or save for later) when they pop up in my inbox. They cover mixed bag of subject matters – food, fashion, business and writing advice but I appreciate and enjoy each and every one of them. And, I think they are all great examples of newsletter writing and creation done really really well…
15 newsletters I always stop and read
Really Good Emails– This website is a goldmine of inspiration and resources. Subscribe to their newsletter to get egs of really good emails sent to your inbox every week. The blog is awesome too.
The Daily Good – a daily (duh) newsletter with top use of white space, great header, consistent format (one thing to read, listen to, person to follow etc).
Head Ovary Heels– A fortnightly round-up style email sent via Tiny Letter. Simple but super engaging and popular
Pome – another one via Tinyletter, a poem every day at the same time. No images, nothing fancy. I love it.
Go To Skin Care– These guys always nail everything they do, from a super consistent tone of voice to branding and a great quality product to back it up. Their newsletter is an example in using white space well, in chatty friendly tone of voice and being sales-y in a way that feels like they’re just giving out really good advice and solutions rather than pushing products on us.
The London Review of Looks – Whenever this one pops into my inbox I either make the time or save it for when I have time to really savour create Ana Kinsella’s wonderful words. I love her as a writer, I love the simplicity of this Tinyletter newsletter and if you like good writing and farshon too, you might as well.
Hiut Denim Co– A UK based denim company that sends out a weekly ‘Do one thing well’ newsletter (they pride themselves on how they really do just one thing well – ie make jeans). I always find so many great links ideas and inspo in here, there my or may not be a note about a new product or a favourite style restocked but this is generally community building and branding at its finest.
Life & Thyme ‘Weekend Edition’ – A food and lifestyle website’s weekly round up of the best stories and recipes from their site. Well designed, always interesting.
Swiss Miss– great articles, clips and links.
Nicole Gulotta’s weekly newsletter – Nicole writes one of my favourite blogs Eat this Poem and has a book out of the same name. She also presides over an online community of writers called the Wild Words Collective and every wednesday sends out an encouraging email full of notes from her writing desks, links to articles and resources for writers and always a few good things to cook and do in and around the kitchen.
The Lunch Read – A diverse collection of links and articles delivered every Wednesday (they even allocate a time frame to each one so you know what to expect…)
Man Repeller– Edgy women’s lifestyle website, I feel a bit cool when I read their daily newsletter and also find it points me towards lots of great music, articles and ideas.
The Odgers & McClelland newsletter – created by Megan Trousdale (one half of this beautiful online and virtual store), this newsletter is an example of how to do it right, compelling and useful content, well written and put together and a great, gentle advertisement for all the good things they curate and sell.
Sara Tasker’s monthly hashtag newsletter – Sara Tasker of Me and Orla and the fabulous podcast Hasthag Authentic sends her mailing list (among other good things) a monthly round up of her current favourite hashtags for Instagram. I always stop and read this one and always take away a few new lovely hashtags to follow and use. Super valuable content delivered in a reliable, friendly way, backed up with Sara’s expertise.
Naomi Bulger’s monthly mail art newsletter – Naomi is my creative crush, every month she sends out a value-rich newsletter featuring mail art templates you can download, personalise and send out, plus tips for slow living, resources and links.
Dislaimers!
Just a few disclaimers about the list above; many of my favourite blogs send me an email whenever they post new content – I do the same and love receiving them, but haven’t included these here because I wanted to focus on emails that are specifically written as newsletter content.
One more thing to note about this list – it’s a snapshot in time, a collection of my personal favourites at the moment. Others will come and go depending on what I fancy reading about in that moment, so for those interested, I’ll update and change it as new goodies come to mind.
And of course, I’m sure I’ve missed lots of great newsletters so please share your favourites in the comments below.
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