How to Choose a Newsletter Format for Your Small Business

Starting a newsletter, whether weekly or monthly, can be a smart move for any small business. Why? It helps you maintain a regular conversation with your audience, builds trust and keeps your brand top-of-mind. 

Your newsletter can also help grow your audience and drive sales. But you've got to make sure it’s valuable to your customers or clients!

With so many different types of newsletters out there, how do you choose the right format for your small business? 

Let's have a quick chat about the pros and cons of different newsletter formats to help you make a more informed decision.

The OG of newsletters

Traditional newsletters are a classic way to stay connected with your subscribers, keeping them in the loop on all your latest brand news. They’re great because:

• They can reach a broad audience, whether you're sharing business updates, teasing upcoming promos, or breaking down your brand story into fun, bite-sized pieces.

• We know that small business budgets can be tight at times. With a variety of cool templates and design options to choose from (Hello, Canva!), it’s easy to create a newsletter without the help of a graphic designer that reflects your brand’s vibe.

• Most traditional newsletters are free, but you can mix it up with a free weekly version and a paid, more curated monthly edition for your most dedicated readers.

• It’s also super easy to track your newsletter’s performance. Tools like Mailchimp give you all the details on open rates, click-throughs, and more, so you can tweak things as you go.

The challenge is that everyone has a newsletter now, so to stand out, you need to offer real value in a sea of daily emails.

Curated newsletters

A curated newsletter works particularly well for creating a thematic newsletter or one that is a collection of your content (this can be blog posts, social media posts, etc.) centred around a very specific topic. (Remember, you are the expert here!) This lets you explore your niche, making it an obvious choice for audiences interested in specialised content.

A fantastic example is This Girl I Follow, a newsletter curated by German fashion influencer, Laura Schulte, who covers very specific topics within her niche, which is fashion. By focusing on particular trends, thrifting secrets, styling, etc. she keeps her audience engaged with content that's highly relevant to their interests.

What's more, her newsletter is a weekly free mailer, but she’s integrated a ‘pledge money’ feature, something many creators and small businesses are now doing, where readers can financially support the content they love. 

This model has gained popularity, with many newsletter creators seeing a steady increase in reader contributions, which helps sustain and grow their brand or business. Every penny helps!

Audio newsletters (podcasts)

If you’re looking to mix things up and connect with your audience in a new way, an audio newsletter could just be the thing to do it! It’s like a podcast, but shorter.

With more people now listening on the go, audio content is definitely on the rise. It’s a great way to bring more personality (and sound effects!) to your brand and build a stronger connection with your listeners. Plus, it’s still relatively new, so it can help you to differentiate your business. 

That said, creating high-quality audio content does take time, and you might need some extra skills and tools to get the job done. Also, keep in mind that not everyone in your audience will prefer or be able to consume audio content, for example, a lot of people hate voice notes, so it might not be for everyone.

Interactive newsletters

Adding surveys or clickable content is a great way to get noticed! Not only will it increase engagement, it will make your newsletter more memorable. 

But, with that extra engagement comes a bit more complexity on your end. Creating these interactive elements can be a bit trickier and might require pricier tools or some design know-how. So, it might be a good idea to introduce these features once your business is more established.

At the end of the day, choosing the right newsletter format for your small business is like choosing the right outfit - it’s all about what suits you, your audience's tastes, and what you have in your closet (or budget). 

And remember, you can always switch things up later on - you don’t HAVE to, for example, do an audio newsletter forever! You can switch to a curated or interactive format if you find that your audience prefers these types of comms.