A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Engaging Newsletters In Less Time
Is Creating and Sending Your Email Newsletters Stealing All Your Time?
This streamlined 8-step workflow is about to become your new best friend.
We all know the power of email newsletters to nurture relationships. But creating, formatting, and sending high-quality newsletters consistently can be challenging when you’re short on time and long on to-do’s.
Today I want to share with you a rinse-and-repeat system for creating must-open, gotta-read-newsletters without sacrificing all your time and energy. From ideation to inbox, this streamlined 8-step process will help you produce impactful newsletters faster than ever.
Step 1: Use Voice-to-Text for Idea Capture
Why it Matters: Capturing your creative ideas as soon as they strike is essential for generating fresh, engaging content. Voice-to-text technology ensures that no brilliant thought goes unrecorded, even when typing is inconvenient.
How to Do It:
During commutes, walks, or any offline moments, open the voice notes or memo app on your smartphone.
Use the microphone feature in the bottom right hand corner of your screen to speak your newsletter ideas and thoughts aloud.
The app will transcribe your spoken words into written text that you can easily review and organize later.
Once you're ready to start your newsletter, go through these recorded notes and categorize the thoughts into relevant themes or topics.
Press the microphone icon in your smart phone’s Notes app to quickly record your newsletter notes on the go.
Step 2: Establish Clear Tone Guidelines
Why it Matters: Consistent tone and voice are crucial for building a strong brand identity and fostering a personal connection with your audience. By defining your brand tone guidelines upfront, you ensure that all your content maintains a cohesive and authentic style—no matter who’s drafting content.
How to Do It:
Create a document that outlines your brand's preferred tone and style for email newsletters. Include guidelines such as:
Use casual, conversational language that resonates with your target audience
Keep sentences short, punchy, and action-oriented
Use active voice
Remove fluff and focus on the core message
Include vivid, specific details to create an emotional connection
Ensure tone is relatable and speaks directly to the reader
Reference your tone guidelines when creating new content to maintain a consistent voice across all your newsletters.
Step 3: Leverage AI for Rapid Drafting
Why it Matters: AI writing assistants can significantly cut down on drafting time, enabling you to quickly transform your rough notes and ideas into a structured first draft, which you can then tweak and polish.
How to Do It:
With your ideation notes and tone guidelines in hand, use an AI tool like ChatGPT (or whatever you prefer) to generate a first draft. Use this prompt: "ChatGPT, using the attached tone guidelines and notes on [topic], please draft an outline and 300-word introduction for my newsletter in my brand's voice. [copy/paste in your notes]"
Review the AI-generated draft and make any necessary additions or modifications to align it with your personal perspective, including examples, data points, or anecdotes that resonate with your audience.
Step 4: Create a Reusable Newsletter Template
Why it Matters: Using a newsletter template streamlines the formatting and layout process, so you don't need to recreate it month over month.
How to Do It:
Open a new Google Doc or your preferred word processing software.
Set up sections for the different components of your newsletter, such as:
Header (including the date/month)
Send date
Subject line(s)
Email body copy
Footer (with your sign-off, social links, etc.)
Future newsletter ideas
Use consistent heading styles to define a clear hierarchy within the document.
Customize the font, colors, and add any branding elements or images to match your visual identity.
Save this document as a template in a dedicated folder.
Whenever you're ready to create a new newsletter issue, simply open the template and make a copy.
Below is a screenshot of my own newsletter template in Google docs. I have a master folder for the year and at the start of each new month, I simply make a new copy and name it that month.
Step 5: Streamline Editing With a Cheat Sheet
Why it Matters: An editing checklist helps ensure your newsletter is polished, error-free, and impactful by providing focused guidelines to follow.
How to Do It: Create an editing checklist that covers things like:
Scannability and Structure
Break up long paragraphs into shorter, skimmable sections
Use bullet points and numbered lists for easy scanning
Bold or highlight key information sparingly
Active Voice and Personal Tone
Address the reader directly using "you" for a conversational tone
Use "I" or "we" to maintain a personal, relatable perspective
Opt for active voice over passive sentence constructions
Conciseness and Clarity
Remove redundancies and unnecessary words or phrases
Shorten wordy sentences to improve clarity and flow
Conversational Cadence
Use transitional words and phrases like "but," "so," and "that's why"
Maintain a friendly, conversational rhythm throughout
Proofreading
Use tools like Grammarly to catch grammar and spelling errors
Read content out loud to catch any awkward, hard-to-read sentences
Mobile Optimization
Ensure content is easy to read on mobile
Further break up text sections for improved mobile viewing
Readability
Aim for a Grade 7 reading level (Hemingway Editor is a fantastic tool for this!)
Strive for an informal, friendly, conversational tone
Using a checklist speeds up the newsletter editing process, so you can get it out the door quickly.
Step 6: Create a Subject Line Swipe File
Why it Matters: An attention-grabbing subject line is crucial for improving email open rates and ensuring your newsletter content reaches its intended audience. A swipe file of proven, effective subject lines can give you quick inspiration in a pinch.
How to Do It:
Create a spreadsheet. Whenever you come across a subject line that piques your interest or has performed well, add it to your swipe file.
When you’re ready to craft the subject line for your own newsletters, refer to this swipe file for inspiration and ideas that have resonated with your audience in the past.
Continuously update and expand your swipe file to keep it fresh and relevant.
Step 7: Use an Email Audit Checklist
Why it Matters: Before hitting the "send" button, it's crucial to double-check that all elements of your newsletter are in order. An email audit checklist ensures no crucial steps are overlooked, minimizing the risk of errors.
How to Do It: Create a comprehensive checklist that covers areas like:
Sender name and subject line accuracy
Functionality of all links and call-to-action buttons
Mobile optimization and responsive design
Visual alignment and layout consistency across different email clients
Compliance with relevant laws and regulations (e.g., CAN-SPAM Act, GDPR)
Go through this checklist before scheduling your newsletter to catch and resolve any potential issues. Grab my 10-point Email Audit Checklist here.
Step 8: Create a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
Why It Matters: Establishing an SOP for your newsletter creation process ensures consistency and efficiency.
How to Do It:
Create a document that includes sections for: date created, description, links to tools/required docs, the chronological steps of your newsletter creation process
Pro tip: consider creating a quick Loom video of you running through the process so anyone can easily perform the task
By creating and adhering to an SOP, you can streamline the entire newsletter creation process, making it more manageable and less time-consuming.
Bonus Tips: Additional Time-Saving Email Newsletter Hacks
To further streamline your newsletter creation process, consider the following:
Content Batching: Dedicate specific days or blocks of time to batch-creating multiple newsletter editions or generating all the necessary visuals and graphics for the month. This approach minimizes context switching and enhances productivity.
Scheduled Inspiration Sessions: Regularly set aside time to consume inspiring content related to your newsletter topics, such as books, podcasts, or industry articles. This practice will help keep your creative well full and ensure that you always have fresh ideas to share with your audience.
Leverage ChatGPT Prompts: Here are 5 prompts you can use to efficiently generate content and ideas using ChatGPT for various newsletter stages:
Content Idea Generation: "ChatGPT, can you help generate topic ideas for my next four weekly newsletters focused on [topic], specifically targeting [your audience] who want to [outcome they desire]?"
Writing Email Content: “ChatGPT, based on the theme [insert your theme], can you draft an engaging 100-word introduction for my newsletter that includes [tips and a motivational quote]? My brand voice is [encouraging and professional]."
Subject Line & Pre-Header Creation: "ChatGPT, I need five compelling email subject lines and matching pre-headers for a newsletter about [topic]. Make them catchy and likely to boost open rates."
Call-to-Action Suggestions: "ChatGPT, please suggest 3 persuasive calls-to-action I can include at the end of my newsletter about [topic] to drive responses and engagement."
Feedback and Improvement Request: "ChatGPT, I’d like your feedback on improving the clarity, flow, and persuasiveness of this newsletter draft about [topic]. Please provide specific suggestions."
Content Calendar: Use a shared digital calendar (e.g., Google Calendar, Trello, or Asana) to plan and track your newsletter topics, themes, and sending dates.
Content Repurposing: Leverage AI to repurpose key points, quotes, or statistics from your newsletter into bite-sized social media posts to maximize the reach and engagement of your content. Here’s a ChatGPT prompt to try: "ChatGPT, please convert the key points from the following newsletter copy into five engaging [type of social media post]?" [paste in newsletter copy].
Ready, Set, Publish!
Creating your newsletters doesn’t have to be a chore. With the right tools and a bit of planning, you can turn your insights and ideas into engaging content that resonates with your readers—and do it all in record time.
