A monthly newsletter for a small business that gets read

A monthly newsletter that gets read has one big story, two or three short items and a single button you want people to tap. Everything else is decoration. If you build it the same way every month, readers learn where to look, and it takes you an hour instead of a day.

Here's the skeleton we recommend to small businesses, from the subject line down to the unsubscribe link.

The subject line and the first line

The subject line decides whether the email gets opened. Say what's inside, not what month it is: "New summer hours and two new products" tells people more than "April newsletter." Keep it short, because phones cut it off.

Most email tools also have a preview text field (the gray line after the subject). Leave it empty and the inbox shows the first thing in your email, often "View this email in your browser." Use it as the second half of your subject line.

The skeleton, top to bottom

1. Your logo, small. It shouldn't fill the first screen.
2. The main story. A headline, two or three sentences, a photo and the button. This is the reason you're sending this month: an offer, a new service, an event.
3. Two or three short items. A line or two each, with a link. Holiday hours, a new project, a blog post.
4. Something useful. A tip from your trade that people can use even if they never buy. It's the part that keeps them subscribed.
5. The footer. Who's sending, why the reader is getting this, and a visible unsubscribe link.

One main button. Put five equally loud buttons in an email and people tap none of them. Everything else can be a plain text link.

Written for a phone

Plenty of people will read your email on their phone, between two other things. In practice:

• one column, normal-size text;
• paragraphs of two or three lines;
• buttons big enough to hit with a thumb;
• important text written as text, not baked into an image, because some email apps hide images until the reader allows them.

Send yourself a test first, on your phone and on a computer, and tap every link.

Who you're allowed to email

In the EU, the rule comes from Directive 2002/58/EC (Article 13): marketing emails need the person's prior consent. There's an exception for existing customers. If you got their address through a sale, you can email them about your own similar products or services, as long as you give them a simple, free way to say no, both when you collect the address and in every email after that.

What that means for you: don't buy lists, don't add everyone from your phone contacts, and keep track of where each address came from. A signup form on your website, with a checkbox that says plainly what people will get, covers most situations.

Landing in the inbox, not in spam

Since February 2024, Gmail has required senders who send more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail addresses to set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC, offer one-click unsubscribe in marketing emails and keep their reported spam rate below 0.3%. Google recommends processing unsubscribe requests within 48 hours.

A small business rarely sends that much, but the rules are a good benchmark for anyone. Easy unsubscribing protects you: someone who no longer wants your emails and can't find the link hits "Spam," and that hurts your delivery to everyone else.

The rhythm

Monthly works well for a small business. It's often enough that people remember you and rare enough that you have something to say. Pick a fixed day, keep the same structure, and jot down what happens during the month. When the day comes, the newsletter is already half written.

If you'd like help with the structure or the monthly content, see what we do on our marketing services page. For building the list itself, we wrote about email marketing under the 2024 rules.