10 tips for selling more through newsletters

By Martin Thorborg. Updated September 2026.

Newsletters can sell products. Lots of products. I’ve written and sent hundreds of them myself since 1995, and they’ve generated revenue for the businesses I’ve worked with. But it took me time to learn what makes people look forward to the next email and what makes them hit delete. Here are ten tips to save you making some of the same stupid mistakes I did.

1. Send something worth reading

Be careful about promising a newsletter every Monday if you don’t have something interesting to say every Monday. It’s better to be honest about what people can expect and then keep that promise. I write when I have something to say. That suits me, but an online shop with new products every week could easily have a different rhythm.

Every email should give the recipient a reason to open the next one. That might be a useful tip, a story, a relevant offer or something that makes her day easier. If you’re sending just to tick a box on the calendar, you’ll quickly become one of the senders people ignore. So look at unsubscribes, clicks and replies too when assessing whether your frequency works.

2. Find the time that works for your readers

I’ve had good experiences sending around lunchtime, but that doesn’t make noon a law of nature. The best day depends on who you’re writing to and what you want them to do. An email to a buyer at work and one about a weekend break don’t necessarily have the same ideal sending time.

Test a few different days and times over several sends. Compare emails with roughly the same content and offer so you don’t confuse a strong offer with good timing. Look at clicks and purchases, and remember that differences can be down to chance. My old experience of driving taxis was that payday made a noticeable difference to both fares and tips. That might be worth testing in your business, but it’s no promise of twice as many sales.

3. Get the right people onto your list

Make it clear on your website what people get from your newsletter. Free, useful material can be a good reason to sign up if it’s about the same subject as your future emails. I’ve used E-pusher Light myself to attract people interested in e-commerce. What matters is the connection between what you give away and what you write about afterwards.

Make it clear that people are signing up for marketing, who sends it and what it’s about. Keep evidence of consent and make unsubscribing easy. A competition or free guide mustn’t hide the sign-up. A confirmation email is a good way to catch typos and fake sign-ups.

You can work with others to promote your newsletter, but another company’s mailing list isn’t your mailing list. Don’t buy or swap addresses in the belief that you automatically have permission to email them. And assess the quality of your new readers: a thousand people who only wanted to win a prize may be worth less than a hundred who actually want to hear from you.

4. Make sure your emails can get through

There’s no point writing the world’s best newsletter if it gets rejected or ends up in spam. Your newsletter provider and whoever manages your domain need to make sure SPF, DKIM and DMARC are set up correctly. In brief, SPF specifies the permitted sending systems, DKIM signs the email and DMARC controls what happens when the sender domain check fails.

Ask them to check that your visible sender and technical authentication match too. That’s called alignment. If you already have SPF for ordinary emails, the newsletter system needs to be incorporated into the existing setup where relevant. You mustn’t create multiple SPF records for the same domain.

Use a recognisable sender, provide an easily accessible unsubscribe link and have your provider support one-click unsubscribing when receiving systems require it. Remove addresses that don’t exist and keep an eye on spam complaints. The technical side matters, but it can’t rescue emails people don’t want.

5. Use the preview text properly

Many inboxes show both the subject line and a short text beneath it. That text is often called the preheader or preview text. Use it to give people another reason to read your email, rather than starting with a message about what to do if the newsletter isn’t displaying correctly.

For example, if your subject line says ‘My new book is on its way’, the preview text could be ‘Read the beginning of my life story’. It should complement the subject line and deliver on its promise. Most newsletter systems have a separate field for it. A link to view the email in a browser can still be useful, but it doesn’t have to be the first thing the reader sees.

6. Know what you want the reader to do

Before you write, know who you’re writing to and what you want to achieve. Do you want to sell a product, get a booking, share a story or strengthen your relationship with customers? It’s easier to write a good email when you know the answer.

Choose one important next step and make it clear. If the email is about your new book, that might be reading an excerpt. If it’s about a hotel stay, it might be checking available rooms. You can have several links, but the reader shouldn’t be in any doubt about what matters most. Consider splitting the list by interests so you can send more relevant emails.

7. Show why your offer is relevant

Sales copy should help the reader understand why the offer is interesting to her. Describe the need or problem, show how your product can help and explain specifically what she gets, what it costs and how to proceed.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. But you need to stand behind what you promise. A book about e-commerce can give the reader ideas for improving her shop; it doesn’t guarantee more revenue tomorrow. Use concrete examples and documented results when you have them. And remember that a good story can sell too. Not every email needs to start with a problem to solve.

8. Spend time on the subject line

If the subject line doesn’t spark interest, the rest of the email will struggle to do its job. It needs to be relevant to your audience, and the reader should understand why she should spend time on you. Curiosity, a clear benefit and a specific offer can all work, but there’s no magic word that works every time.

Write several options before choosing. ‘Last chance’ must mean last chance, and ‘free’ must mean free. You might get an extra click with an exaggerated headline, but if the content disappoints, you’ve spent some of the reader’s trust. Test subject lines when your list is large enough for meaningful comparisons, and avoid turning a small difference into a great truth.

9. Make the email easy to read on a phone

Break the text into manageable paragraphs and use a layout that works on a small screen. A long, unbroken wall of text can make even a good message look like hard work. That doesn’t mean every email has to be short. A longer story can work well if the reader wants to follow it.

Make sure the type is readable, links are clear and buttons can be tapped with a finger. Don’t put your main message only in an image, because images may be blocked. Send yourself a test, read it on your phone and try the links and buttons before sending it to the whole list. It’s a boring routine, right up until it saves you from an embarrassing mistake.

10. Use your ending and measure what matters

A good opening should make people want to read on, and a good ending should make clear what the reader can do now. A PS can be a nice way to repeat the most important offer or link. But don’t assume everyone always reads your PS, and don’t put important information only there.

Then look at whether the email did what you wanted. Did you get clicks, replies, bookings or sales? The open rate can be a guide, but it isn’t a reliable count of people who read the email. Apple’s privacy protection, among other things, can fetch content in the background, so a recorded open doesn’t necessarily mean a reader.

Use the results to improve the next send, and read the replies you get. Someone who takes the time to write back can tell you more than an impressive number in a report. The most important thing is still to send something the recipient thinks is worth receiving.

Best wishes
Martin Thorborg