Email newsletters continue to be one of the most powerful ways to build relationships with your audience. While much has changed since the first email blast in 1978, the fundamental goal remains the same: deliver value to earn attention and trust.
In fact, email engagement is on the rise. Average open rates have increased by 3.5% compared to pre-pandemic levels, now hovering around 18%. Click-through rates are up too, reaching 2.6%.
To help you capitalize on this opportunity, we‘ve curated 25 brilliant email newsletter examples from a variety of industries. For each, we‘ll dive into the key elements that make it effective and share specific ways you can adapt these strategies for your own sends.
Whether you‘re starting an email program from scratch or looking to level up your current campaigns, this deep dive will give you a crash course in newsletter best practices. By the end, you‘ll be ready to craft high-performing sends that delight your subscribers and drive results. Let‘s get into it!
Content Curation Newsletters
In the battle for audience attention, curation has become an essential skill. 74% of online consumers get frustrated with websites when content appears that has nothing to do with their interests. The bar for relevance has never been higher.
These newsletters act as a trusted filter, saving subscribers time by surfacing only the most worthwhile reads on a given topic. Let‘s look at a few stellar examples:
1. The Marginalian
[Screenshot]Formerly known as Brain Pickings, The Marginalian is the ultimate antidote to clickbait culture. Every Sunday, writer Maria Popova delivers a lovingly crafted digest of ideas at the intersection of art, science, philosophy, creativity, and other thorny topics.
What makes it brilliant:
- Careful curation: Each edition features 4-5 long-form pieces, allowing the reader to go deep on a few ideas rather than skim the surface of many. Popova has a knack for unearthing hidden gems from both literary giants and unsung thinkers.
- Distinctive design: Colorful images, eye-catching pull-quotes, and generous white space make the dense content inviting. There‘s a print magazine-like quality to the composition.
- Intellectual yet accessible voice: Popova writes with the precision of an academic but the passion of an enthusiast. Scholarly concepts are made relatable through lyrical, easygoing language.
How to apply it:
- Focus on quality over quantity. Select only the most nutritious, thought-provoking pieces. It‘s better to cover a few things well than many things superficially.
- Invest in editorial craft. Put care into your writing, framing each piece with thoughtful commentary. Your perspective is what makes the curation valuable.
- Create a clean reading experience. Give content room to breathe with ample white space, subheads, and visual punctuation. Dense walls of text are a chore to get through.
2. Dense Discovery
[Screenshot]Curated by designer Kai Brach, Dense Discovery is a weekly roundup of surprising, offbeat reads at the intersection of tech, design, culture and sustainability. What you won‘t find: the same headlines everyone else is sharing.
What makes it brilliant:
- Themed sections: Each edition has recurring categories like "Sponsor", "Food for Thought", "Book of the Week", "Overheard", and a short intro essay from Kai. This consistent structure creates a cozy ritual for readers.
- Snappy excerpts: Kai keeps summaries super short, often just a sentence or two. This allows him to pack in a ton of content without the email feeling overwhelming. The brevity piques your curiosity.
- Personal point of view: From the hand-drawn header illustration to the informal tone, Dense Discovery feels like an email from a friend. Kai‘s voice and taste come through in every section.
How to apply it:
- Use a table of contents. Give readers a bird‘s eye view of what‘s in store, so they can quickly jump to what interests them most. Structured navigation is a courtesy.
- Describe, don‘t summarize. Craft excerpts that intrigue rather than inform. The goal is to get the click, so don‘t give away the whole story.
- Embrace your niche. Lean into the topics, tone, and quirks that are distinctly you. Specificity is what makes a newsletter memorable and irreplaceable.
3. The Journal
[Screenshot]Entrepreneur and investor Kevin Rose has spent decades exploring the cutting edge of technology and culture. The Journal is his attempt to make sense of it all, distilling learnings from his prolific podcast interviews, startup investments, and personal experiments.
What makes it brilliant:
- Behind the scenes access: Kevin frequently shares details of works in progress, like early mockups of his meditation app Oak and rough cuts of podcast episodes. Subscribers get an exclusive peek behind the curtain.
- Interactive excerpts: Instead of just linking to full podcast transcripts, Kevin pulls out key excerpts and reflections in the body of the email. Readers can grasp the core concepts even if they don‘t have time to listen to the whole thing.
- Multimedia elements: Embedded tweets, Medium posts, charts, and videos add variety to the standard link/photo formula. The mixed media approach makes for a richer reading experience.
How to apply it:
- Get personal. Share the unfiltered highs and lows of your professional journey. Failure stories are often as compelling as success stories.
- Tease your own content. Use the newsletter as a testing ground for ideas, designs, and drafts. Involving readers in the creation process builds anticipation for the finished product.
- Mix up the media. Experiment with different ways to deliver information: infographics, video, audio, slides, etc. Variety keeps subscribers on their toes.
Educational Newsletters
The email inbox is the ultimate classroom. 23% of all email opens happen between 9am-12pm, when people are primed to learn and take action. Newsletters that teach a concrete skill, simplify a complex topic, or offer a fresh perspective tend to command the most attention.
Let‘s examine a few newsletters that nail the educator role:
4. Reforge
[Screenshot]Reforge offers masterclasses for aspiring tech leaders on all things growth strategy. Their free newsletter serves up bitesized versions of their curriculum, tackling everything from user retention to monetization.
What makes it brilliant:
- Deep expertise: Reforge‘s content is well-researched and authoritative. Articles often feature input from notable tech leaders like the VP of Growth at Dropbox or the Head of Core Product at Spotify. You know you‘re getting insights from the best.
- Strong point of view: Reforge doesn‘t just report on industry trends; they offer bold, prescriptive recommendations. They stake out a stance on controversial topics and back it up with data and examples.
- Recurring series: Features like the "Patterns of Hypergrowth" series lend structure to the content and encourage binge reading. Once you‘re hooked on a particular theme, you‘re motivated to keep opening the emails.
How to apply it:
- Leverage guest experts. Bring in diverse, noteworthy voices to complement your brand‘s perspective. Associating with trusted authorities boosts your own credibility.
- Take a stand. Have conviction in your ideas, even if they go against the grain. Being provocative is better than being forgettable. Just be ready to support your arguments.
- Serialize your content. Build narratives and themes that unfold over time, so readers have a reason to keep coming back. Cliffhangers are your friend.
5. Lenny‘s Newsletter
[Screenshot]Investor and former Airbnb product lead Lenny Rachitsky‘s eponymous newsletter is a master class in product management. Every week, he shares in-depth articles, interviews, and curated reads on everything from effective decision making to scaling teams.
What makes it brilliant:
- Genuine curiosity: Lenny approaches each topic with a beginner‘s mindset, asking questions that get to the heart of the matter. His enthusiasm for learning is contagious.
- Step-by-step walkthroughs: Posts often break down complex processes into clear, sequential steps. This makes dense topics like prioritization or roadmapping much easier to grasp and apply.
- Community features: Lenny frequently polls his audience for their experiences and opinions. He then shares the crowdsourced data back in colorful charts and graphs. These interactive touches make subscribers feel invested.
How to apply it:
- Embrace beginner‘s mind. Don‘t assume baseline knowledge — meet your audience where they are. Explain concepts from first principles.
- Break it down. Turn amorphous topics into bite-sized takeaways. Give readers a path to follow with clear steps and examples.
- Make it a two-way conversation. Solicit ideas and feedback from your readers through polls, surveys, or discussion threads. Involving them in co-creation fosters loyalty.
6. Femstreet
[Screenshot]Sarah Nöckel‘s Femstreet is a weekly roundup of the best resources and opportunities for women in tech and venture capital. With a mix of curated links, original interviews, and personal essays, the newsletter aims to make these male-dominated fields more accessible and inclusive.
What makes it brilliant:
- Specific niche: By narrowing in on a specific audience and set of goals, Femstreet can tailor its content to be uniquely valuable. Every piece is laser focused on what will help women navigate and thrive in their careers.
- Actionable resources: Job postings, databases of female investors, application deadlines, event invites — Femstreet provides tons of concrete ways for subscribers to advance their ambitions. It‘s not just inspiration; it‘s empowerment.
- Authentic voice: Sarah isn‘t afraid to get vulnerable, sharing her own professional anxieties, impostor syndrome, and lessons learned. This honesty creates intimacy and trust with readers.
How to apply it:
- Define your niche. Zero in on a particular audience segment and outcome. The more specific, the more relevant your newsletter will be.
- Prioritize utility. Give subscribers tools, not just ideas. Surface opportunities and resources that will tangibly advance their goals.
- Open up. Share your own trials and triumphs. Letting your guard down gives others permission to do the same and establishes an emotional bond.
Wrap Up
As these examples illustrate, the key to a standout email newsletter is delivering on a specific need or desire. Whether you aim to inform, inspire, entertain, or all of the above, the more focused your value proposition, the easier it is to earn attention.
Some key takeaways to apply to your own sends:
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Ruthlessly curate for quality and relevance. Only include content that directly serves your audience‘s goals and interests.
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Develop a distinctive voice and visual style. Let your brand‘s personality and point of view shine through in both words and design.
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Make it a two-way conversation. Involve subscribers in the creation process through polls, discussions, and showcasing their contributions.
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Provide concrete utility. Give readers tools and resources they can act on, not just food for thought.
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Embrace vulnerability. Share your failures and doubts, not just polished success stories. Imperfection is relatable.
Remember, attention is earned by the edition. Every email is a chance to deepen trust and affinity with your audience. If you consistently deliver something they can‘t get anywhere else, you‘ll become an indispensable part of their routine.
The inbox has never been noisier, but the opportunity has never been greater for newsletters that rise above the clamor. By emulating what makes these examples so compelling, you‘ll be well on your way to creating the next must-read.
