A creative guide for small business owners who want their weekly newsletter to connect, convert, and feel genuinely worth reading.
If you’ve ever sat in front of a blank page trying to craft the perfect subject line, designed your layout with care, hit “send”… and then watched the open rate disappoint, trust me, you’re not alone. Even the best newsletter designs need more than pretty colours and catchy headlines to make an impact. And that’s not changing any time soon.
Email newsletters are still one of the best ways to reach your target audience, grow your brand, and share the great content you’re creating – whether that’s blog posts, new products, or updates from your creative business. But in a world of social media algorithms and mobile devices full of notifications, the only way to stand out is to be very intentional. It’s no longer enough to send the email, because we’re being flooding by emails every day. The only way to create emails that get opened is to consistently deliver something worth delivering. There’s no better way.
But how do we do this? That depends on your audience and brand. Let’s walk through six email newsletter best practices that will help you build connection, encourage clicks, and maybe even get people excited for that weekday morning email from you. I can say for myself that there are maybe five or six emails that I await to receive every week. Why? I actually took some time and did some research into each of them and found the common denominators that kept me engaged. I’ll be honest, even I was surprised to discover that it wasn’t really what everyone else was telling me newsletters should be. So I was inspired to write a little blog post about this, just in case you can take something and even marginally improve your open rates.
1.Start With Something Worth Saying
Ok, not that surprising right? The thing is though, in a world where every email marketer is telling you to “send until they’re dead”, creating unique content often is very hard to do. You’ll inevitably repeat yourself and your content and run out of interesting things to say pretty quickly.
But what is often?
If you’re a blogger, you might be slightly less challenged because you’re sharing new posts multiple times a week and then again in your emails, but even that becomes a bit tiresome to always share the same type of email.
And if you’re service or product based, that might feel like a stretch. You’re creating content around your services, products, clients, projects… and it doesn’t always feel like it would convert as well.
While we are firm believes in sharing all of it, we do notice that the frequency of the emails relative to the brand is important to grasp. So instead of telling you how often is often for you, we’d rather say this: whatever frequency makes sense for you and your brand. That might be once a week, or once a month. As often as you have something meaningful and impactful to share. Those emails have the best chance of getting opened, long term.
When your readers click into your email list, they’re giving you something valuable: time and personal information. Every message matters. Whether you’re sharing marketing goals, offering best deals, or simply delivering some good news from behind the scenes, your content should be useful, thoughtful, and human. If you’re sending out an email just because you feel you should, it’ll show.
Your goal should be someone reaching the bottom of your email and thinking, oh, this was worth it.
2.?Tell Stories Like You’re Talking To A Friend
People don’t sign up for a daily newsletter hoping for a sales pitch. They want raw material: personality, perspective and presence.
A great way to keep people reading is to infuse your writing with story. Think about how you’d describe a recent trip away, a cherry orchard in bloom or a growth moment in your business to a friend over coffee. Readers want to be drawn in and connect to your story. These little slices of life give your message texture and tone and help you stand out from a sea of generic tech newsletters and overly polished marketing strategies.
3. Designing For Clarity
Whether your audience is opening your message on mobile devices or desktops, the user experience needs to feel smooth and stable. Keep your colour palette consistent with your brand. Use bold text to emphasize the good stuff because not everyone will read every line. And include a relevant image when it supports your message – but never just for filler.
Most importantly: give them a clear call. What do you want them to do with this information? What’s the next step? Should they visit your blog? Check out new festivals or titles you’re launching? Fill out a signup form or browse email popup examples for inspiration?
Your primary CTA button should guide them toward your destination URL without friction or confusion.
4. Simplify The Signup Process
Your email signup popups (and embedded sign-up forms!) are your first chance to make a great impression. Use a headline slot that speaks directly to your target audience. Reassure them with a brief privacy policy. And highlight exactly what kind of newsletter content they’ll be receiving – weekly newsletter? Monthly roundups? Early access to new products? Then, stick to it. Nothing screams unsubscribe like inconsistency in frequency and content.
A simple sign-up form is a perfect example of where thoughtful design and copy intersect. This is your digital front door so make it welcoming.
Which leads us the the next tip…
5.?Keep Showing Up
We’ve already covered that you don’t need to email every single week to be effective – but you do need to be consistent. Whether you send a newsletter once a single week or on the first weekday morning of the month, let your audience know what to expect. Create some subtle incentives and bonus points if you include referral links or a little reward for new subscribers. And don’t forget to revisit your newsletter content from last year—there may be evergreen gems you can refresh and reshare.
Pro Tip: If you’re building a nurture sequence, old emails that you’ve already sent are great spring boards for fresh content to new subscribers just joining your list!
6.?Make It Easy To Reply, Forward, and Connect.
The best things about email marketing? It’s personal. It’s direct. And it’s a great way to nurture relationships beyond the noise of social media.
Encourage responses with a warm CTA – “hit reply and tell me what you’re working on” is often more effective than any fancy email popup. And remember: if someone forwards your newsletter to a friend, you’ve just reached a wider audience without spending a dime.
If we were to tie this blog post into a nice, neat bow we would say this: Each brand has it’s own email newsletter audience and that audience has a unique frequency. As you’re building your newsletter, watch your analytics and take note of which emails work best, how often they’re opened and then adapt. Your ultimate objective is to build a newsletter that is unique, and aligned perfectly to your audience.
Want help writing emails that feel true to you?
At The Good Canvas, we don’t just design beautiful websites – we help you share your message in ways that connect. Whether you need help writing weekly newsletters, blog posts, or finding the right signup form language to grow your email list, we’re here with thoughtful support, creative clarity, and a little bit of magic.
Let’s turn your next email into something your readers can’t wait to open. Reach out here to start the conversation:
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ABOUT THIS POST
This post is written by Donata Delano – A Web Designer, Professional Artist and Architect based in Burlington, Canada. She specializing in visual communication and web design, creating branding solutions and websites that are thoughtful, unique and aesthetically pleasing.
