25 Rules For Running a Great Newsletter

In 2012, I became BuzzFeed’s first newsletter editor. There were no rules or best practices to follow. I was building an email program pretty much from scratch, and I had to figure things out as I went.

But a dozen years later, I’ve developed a set of rules for creating a great newsletter based on my observations and trial and error. They’ve evolved over the years, but even as technology and tastes change, I maintain these guidelines apply to just about every type of newsletter. 

If you want to create a great newsletter of any kind, these are the rules to keep in mind:

1.) Email is an “owned” channel, but ownership belongs to your reader.

An “owned and operated” channel is any platform that allows you to reach your audience directly, like newsletters, print, or podcasts. With social media platforms, you can build a massive audience, but the audience belongs to the platform. They’re the ones who decide if your content will be seen or not. And that became abundantly clear when certain social platforms, like Vine, shut down. You could build an audience there, but when Vine disappeared, so did your audience. You couldn’t take them with you to another platform.

It’s true that email allows for a direct connection with your audience. I can take my email list to any email service provider (ESP) of my choosing. When I send an email, there isn’t an algorithm keeping me from getting that email in front of my readers.

But the longer I work in this field, the more I understand that “owned” isn’t the right way to explain email. The inbox is the reader’s space — not yours. You have to earn your place in the inbox every time you send a newsletter.

And as such, you have to play by the rules of the digital living room. Subscribers allow in a handful of lucky guests: family, friends, and maybe your newsletter. So every time you send an email, you have to:

• Send what they asked for, when they asked for it.
• Work to build reader habits and routines.
• Remember that in the inbox, trust is hard to win and easy to lose.

2.) Identify a clear audience for your newsletter.

Too many newsletters are for “everybody.” The best newsletters have a specific audience in mind. Every newsletter operator needs to be able to answer a few questions clearly:

• What does your ideal reader care about? 
• What are they motivated by?
• What are they inspired by?
• Where do they live? 
• Where do they work?
• What do they like? (Besides your newsletter, of course.)

The more you understand about them, the better you can serve them.

3.) You need to understand the job of your newsletter.

Most newsletters aren’t built around the needs of their readers — they’re built around what the sender wants to promote. But that’s a mistake.

When you’re building around a reader’s needs, think about the “job” of the newsletter. The job is what your newsletter does for that reader. Ask yourself: How can I, as the creator behind a newsletter, make decisions based entirely on what will best serve my audience?

What might that job be? I’ve got a few ideas here.

4.) Launch fast, then make things better.

The first thing you put out into the world doesn’t need to be perfect. If it is, you’ve probably waited too long to launch.

Your goal is to get your idea out into the world as quickly as possible. The sooner it’s out there, the sooner you can see how your audience responds to it. All the good stuff happens after the idea is out in the world.

I love this example from Rick Steves, the author and travel guide. It’s a perfect example of launching fast. (I endorse all of this — well, except the “Valium as first-aid kit” idea.)

Steves now runs a company that brings in $120 million a year, but he had to start somewhere. Don’t worry too much about where you start — just start.

5.) Use AI for productivity, not creativity.

You’re the creator of the newsletter. It’s your job to write and create this product — don’t turn that over to AI just yet. But you can use AI in your newsletter production process.

A few ideas: Use AI to brainstorm subject line ideas for your newsletter or to mock up the first version of a piece of art that you want an artist to draw for your newsletter. Use it to transcribe an interview so you can quickly get that content out in the world. Use it to sort through the feedback you get from reader surveys and figure out what common themes came up in that open-ended question you asked. 

AI can help — as long as it’s used for productivity.

6.) Be willing to go where others aren’t.

Others move in packs. So don’t just follow the trends — find spaces where you can try things that no one else is trying.

This is particularly important when it comes to pricing a paid newsletter offering. Lots of newsletters sell a subscription at $5 per month, not because it accurately reflects the value of that newsletter to readers, but because other newsletters sell a subscription at $5 per month. Do that, and you’ll chase the crowd all the right to lower annual revenue.

One of my favorite newsletters is Ann Friedman’s. She’s always one of the first to try something new. She invested in newsletters while most other writers were pivoting away from them. She launched a paid newsletter product long before Substack became a household name. And she’s still willing to launch weird stuff. Here’s a favorite recent example: Just for paying members, she launched a special hotline that readers can dial to hear a message from her.

It’s unusual and it’s a great example of going where other readers aren’t. Doing that over and over often leads to unexpectedly great results.

7.) Some topics are at peak newsletter.

There are always people who will tell you that newsletters are dying or that there are too many newsletters out there. I don’t believe that to be true.

But I do believe there are four types of newsletters that have reached “peak newsletter” — we have so many great newsletters already serving readers in these spaces. We no longer need people to launch newsletters in these four formats:

• How to use AI 
• Investing in cryptocurrency
• The news summarized in 5 minutes or less
• 5 things I read this week

If your newsletter pitch is based on one of these concepts, you may find that there isn’t an audience looking for your content anymore — they’re already being served by another great newsletter.

But there’s one exception: If you’ve got a B2B twist on one of these newsletters, you might have an opportunity. Another AI newsletter? No, thanks. But a newsletter aimed specifically at how travel agents or accountants can use AI to improve their workflow? That might build a niche, loyal audience.

8.) Every year, identify one new way to make money.

Look through this list of money-making opportunities with your newsletter. You could:

• Sell subscriptions or memberships
• Ask for donations or tips
• Add in advertising or affiliate content
• Sell “classified” ad space
• Get paid to recommend other newsletters 
• Sell products, ebooks, or merch
• Consulting, coaching, or teaching
• Host ticketed events or workshops
• Use your newsletter to drive money-making opportunities outside your newsletter, like landing a freelance writing gig

Pick one of these that you haven’t explored before, and focus on it this year. Start small and see if you can prove out that there is a revenue opportunity for you there. If there is, then you can double down on that idea. If not, move on to the next idea.

9.) Make your choice: Hyperscale or hyperniche?

Here’s something Zain Kahn, founder of Superhuman, told me in a recent interview:

You either are very hyper targeted to a very, very specific niche that no one else is covering. You can go to sponsors within that niche and go, ‘Hey, do you want to buy from us?’ Or you’re one of the big guys — you have hundreds of thousands or millions of readers, and then you can sell an advertiser at scale.

There are so many competitors in the newsletter space, so figuring out where you stand within the landscape is crucial. Most advertisers either look to reach a broad audience or an incredibly targeted one, but a newsletter stuck in the middle might struggle to sell ads.

As more newsletters enter your topic area, you’ll need to make the choice: Do you want to scale up to be one of the big players? Or do you want to niche down?

10.) Only ask for a reply if you’re going to offer value in return.

Getting readers to reply to your newsletter does often improve deliverability, but too many newsletters deploy lazy tactics to get those replies. Many, in a welcome email, write something like, “I want to make sure this newsletter reached you, so hit reply and say YES.”

You can do better than that — you’re missing the real opportunity with replies, which is to build an actual relationship with the reader. If you’re going to ask for a reply, offer something of value in return. Ask your readers a question, and make sure you reply back to everyone who writes to you. Share links or ideas with them after they reply, or offer them an exclusive download — but only if they reply back to you first.

Will that require more work? Sure. But the reader will get actual value from it, and if they get value from you on Day 1, they’ll be likely to return for years to come. After all, you’ve already given them so much before they’ve even gotten their first newsletter.

11.) Win back your inactive readers, or let them go.

There’s a reason many email platforms refer to longtime inactive readers as “zombies” — they’re on your list, but they actually hurt your engagement and deliverability. There’s no reason to keep them around.

Instead, send them lots of different emails to get them to re-engage. Ask them to:

• Change their preferences.
• Pull you out of the spam folder.
• Read a popular story.
• Stay on your list

And if they don’t? Unsubscribe them.

12.) Operate in all four growth quadrants.

There are so many great ways to grow your list, but the best newsletter operators don’t just pick a handful of tactics. They operate in four different growth quadrants: Owned, Earned, Algorithmic, and Paid.

Owned

Owned growth refers to tactics you deploy on a channel that you fully control. For instance, a landing page on your website, a pop-up on articles on your blog, or a lead magnet you create and host. It could also be a checkbox on a checkout form when someone’s buying a subscription or merch or a sign-up that happens at an event you host. If you’re growing your list in a place you fully control, that’s an owned opportunity.

Earned

Earned growth refers to tactics that come as a direct result of the relationships you’ve built or the quality of the work you’ve produced. Usually, if you’re growing away from your owned platforms, you have to pay for it — but thanks to your work or relationships, you’ve earned the right to get this promotion for free. Earned growth might mean promoting your newsletter during a podcast appearance or at a conference, backlinks to your site from another blog, or recommendations that another newsletter makes after someone signs up for their newsletter.

Algorithmic

Algorithmic growth refers to growth that piggybacks off a third-party algorithm — often a social media channel. If you build an audience on Twitter or LinkedIn and then drive people from those posts back to your newsletter, that’s a great example of algorithmic growth. If you optimize your site to reach readers through search, that also falls under this category. The advantage of algorithmic growth is that it allows you, for free, to reach a wider audience than you usually could. The disadvantage? You don’t have control over those channels, and they can change the rules of their platform at any time.

Paid

Paid growth refers to any tactic where you have to pay to grow. That might mean advertising on social media platforms, search engines, or in other newsletters. It might mean leveraging paid recommendation networks, like Sparkloop’s Partner network or Beehiiv’s Boosts. It could also mean acquiring another newsletter, running a giveaway, or launching a referral program.

13.) Start collecting more than an email address.

The more you know about your readers, the better you can target them with the right content or offers.

So don’t settle for collecting only an email address. Ask for more — who they are, what they’re interested in, or what they do for work. This process of slowly collecting more data is known as progressive profiling. You can collect it via a post-subscription form, an in-newsletter CTA, a survey, or at an event. And once you’ve got the data, you can start to segment your list. 

Workweek does a particularly great job of this. They ask a few questions after a reader signs up about a reader’s job title, field, and location. Later on, if they’re looking to run an event — say, a workshop aimed at CEOs in digital media in Austin, Texas — they’ll be able to identify the exact people they should contact.

14.) Look outside your newsletter orbit for inspiration.

Look at how non-profits use petitions to grow their list. Look at how large newsrooms leverage expert voices in their newsletter. Look at how independent operators create multiple revenue streams.

You can even sign up for emails from politicians to monitor their tactics. (You’ll learn a lot about what not to do if you want to build a loyal audience — but that’s still valuable!)

Email is used by so many businesses and people, and if you look outside your field, you’ll find a few ideas you might be able to implement or avoid.

15.) Be willing to sunset what’s not working.

The only mistake you can make is failing to learn from your failures.

One of the best examples is from Dan Runcie, the creator behind Trapital, which covers the business of art and entertainment. He launched a paid membership in 2019, but it wasn’t working the way he wanted. So, about a year after launch, he pivoted. Even though he already had several hundred readers paying him $100 per year, he switched his focus to advertising, growing other channels, like his podcast, and building out a consulting business and events. Today, as a result of Dan’s pivot, Trapital is bigger than ever — and continuing to grow.

Be like Dan — don’t double down on a strategy that isn’t working. Move on to the next thing.

16.) If you see an idea elsewhere, test it yourself.

Earlier this year, I talked with a group of publishers. They’d just come back from a conference where a speaker told them that the right number of links to include in an email was 15. They wanted to know: Did I agree?

I told them what I know to be true: Don’t assume that what worked for another newsletter will automatically work for you. If you hear an interesting idea, use that as the starting place for a test.

Could the right number of links in your newsletter be 15? Maybe. But I work with teams who have as few as one link in an email and as many as 40, and both approaches can work. Your audience is unique, and the amazing results that some other operator saw may not be what you see with your newsletter. Don’t copy — test, and see if you can replicate the results with your list. If you’re new to A/B testing, I’ve got suggestions here to help you run that first test.

If you can replicate the results you heard elsewhere, that’s great. If not, you’ll be glad you didn’t go all-in on a strategy that didn’t work for your audience.

17.) Find an accountability partner.

Even if you operate a newsletter alone, you need someone in your corner. Find a partner who you can regularly check in with to:

• Brainstorm ideas.
• Celebrate wins.
• Support you through the ups and downs.
• Remind you when you’re not doing the things you said you’d do.

Find someone — a friend, a colleague, another newsletter operator — who can help you and support you through the ups and downs of building your newsletter.

18.) If you act like a spammer, your emails will be treated like spam.

I got an email the other day from a Fortune 500 company. But their name didn’t show up in the sent-from line of the email. Instead, the email came from this name: “Ready?”

I clicked out of curiosity. I had no idea who’d sent me the email or why. When I saw which brand had sent me the email, I was furious — they’d tricked me into opening a marketing email by hiding their name. Their email was a sales pitch for their new product.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a legitimate sender. If you…

• Try to trick readers into opening or clicking
• Use rented email lists
• Regularly switch ESPs to try to improve deliverability
• Send content readers didn’t sign up for
• Hide the unsubscribe link in your newsletter

…then your readers’ inboxes are going to treat you like a spammer. Expect your emails to end up in the spam folder, and if readers do open those emails, expect them to unsubscribe. (Just like I did.)

19.) No one knows your audience better than you.

I get a lot of pitches in my inbox for new newsletter ideas. Some seem like home runs; others sound like adventures in futility.

And yet, I can’t tell you how often I hear a crazy idea and then hear back from that reader a year or two later with news that their crazy idea has blossomed into a successful newsletter.

Don’t assume that any expert — myself included — knows your audience better than you do. If you believe in the idea, go for it. 

20.) Accessibility is not optional.

Your newsletter needs to be accessible to all readers — period. That means making sure you do the basics: Use a large enough font, add alt-text to images, and produce a Dark Mode-friendly template. It means avoiding contrasting colors that might be tough for readers with vision impairment. It means keeping your email jargon-free so all readers can understand what you’re talking about.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an independent operator or you send email on behalf of a giant corporation — your emails need to be accessible to all.

21.) Your perfect strategy sits at the intersection of these three things.

When I work with clients to figure out the next steps for their strategy, I always tell them:

• Let’s figure out what you, as a team, believe is the right step.
• Let’s run a survey to figure out what your audience thinks.
• Let’s look at the data — opens, clicks, pageviews, time on site — to see what your audience actually does.

The right strategy probably sits somewhere at the intersection of those three pieces of information.

22.) Direction is more important than speed.

Not everything has to be a big leap. I once worked with a newsroom that needed to overhaul its newsletter landing page. The page wasn’t working — literally, it wasn’t allowing readers to sign up for their newsletter. So, the first step was to build a functioning page, even if it wasn’t the prettiest version of the page. Once that was live, we got to work on building a page that looked the way we wanted. That took longer — but at least we had a functioning page to act as the bridge until we launched the final version.

Not everything has to be a big leap. Be willing to take small steps in the right direction.

23.) Don’t rely on a silver bullet metric.

There are so many different ways to measure success with a newsletter. You’ll find metrics that fall under these four buckets, including:

• Engagement — Opens, clicks, time on site, unsubscribe rate
• Growth — Active list size, conversion rate, customer acquisition cost
• Revenue — Subscribe lifetime value, conversions from newsletter, ad clicks
• Audience feedback — Net promoter score, direct replies

Don’t pick just one metric and make it your “silver bullet.” Try a few metrics and monitor each to get a true sense of the health of your newsletter.

24.) Focus on content and relationships — everything else is just noise.

It’s so easy to get wrapped up in all the commotion around newsletters. It’s easy to get jealous of the success others are having or to chase industry trends.

Focus on what you can control: creating great content for every newsletter and building strong relationships with readers. Those are the only things that truly matter in the long run.

25.) There is no path but yours.

There is no playbook every newsletter needs to follow. There is no one tool every newsletter needs to use. There is no right way to build a great newsletter.

Learn from others — but to build your best newsletter, you have to find your own path forward.