Once upon a time, everyone had a newsletter. Companies, organizations, clubs, and even individuals clogged inboxes with anything and everything they could cobble together. This created a backlash as many people tried to clean their inboxes of all the clutter and avoid subscribing to anything that would make it return.

Today, creating a newsletter that performs is just a matter of quality. Newsletters can and do provide valuable information to audiences, and when done well, they are welcomed with open arms. (Side note: This also makes intuitive, customer-focused email newsletter templates a valuable commodity for your business. More on that in a moment.)

Some powerful reasons to think about a newsletter:

• Email newsletters are proven in driving sales
• Customers are introduced to new products and services
• People are willing to connect with quality information
• Valuable content can be shared and repurposed
• Newsletters can reinforce and improve overall branding
• Social following and site traffic can both be boosted
• Newsletter creation is simple with the tools available now

Getting customers to engage with each and every one of these newsletter benefits is just a matter of delivery. But let’s focus on that last bullet point for a moment.

There are so many great options for developing your own newsletter right now. The examples below provide a lot of inspiration for ways to approach your ongoing newsletter plan. You can also download our free email newsletter templates, including instructive copy for those just getting a start with their brand voice.

Popular Tools for Finding Free Email Newsletter Templates

When getting started, it often helps to know what is available and best-suited for making email newsletter strategies successful. These resources will provide you with design and content inspiration for when you review the free email newsletter templates provided at the download link.

Please keep these tools in mind as you find the templates that feel like the best fit. Each one brings a variety of strengths and features to the process.

Keap Email Builder

Within Keap’s powerful Sales & Marketing Automation features, you can search through a variety of pre-made templates for both emails and newsletters—or even design and save your own! Just sign up for a free 14-day free trial, go to Marketing>Email and Broadcasts, then dive into the gallery to start looking.

Canva

With hundreds of templates available, Canva allows you to create PDF newsletters that can be sent and converted into HTML with some limited capacity.

Adobe Spark

Another great option for finding a variety of email newsletter templates and customizable newsletter grids that convert into PDFs that you can send to audiences as an email attachment.

Venngage

With an emphasis on variety for visual options and branding emphasis, Venngage is another option for creating newsletters as an image file or exporting as HTML to make it clickable.

Unlayer

Built as a drag-and-drop design tool for responsive, mobile-first email and newsletter designs, Unlayer also integrates with a number of email service providers.

Which tool should you choose for your newsletter? Should you choose a monthly email newsletter template? Or go with a daily email newsletter template? It completely depends on your company, audience, strategy, and your ideal branded experience. Of course, we believe a newsletter strategy backed by a proven CRM and Sales & Marketing Automation provides the strongest base and opportunities for creative refinement and audience engagement, but make sure your choice FULLY aligns with your needs. Don’t settle, because you’ll likely regret it the moment your performance exceeds expectations and your goals expand.

Now, let’s dig into some common approaches that others have used to great effect.

Examples of Email Newsletter Templates

There are so many individuals, companies, and organizations making powerful use of email newsletter structures to build their branding and deepen the relationship with their audience. Some are completely product focused. Others center on thought leadership, creating the confidence that sells available services. Still others are focused on imparting important information and wisdom in hopes of furthering the newsletter’s defined intent.

As you dig into the following examples, look out for some clear best practices when sharing newsletter content:

• Use an intriguing subject line
• Design for mobile AND accessibility
• Always offer something of value (information, offer, or product)
• Make it a visual experience
• Keep it simple and skimmable
• Always be testing different elements

Mind you, this list isn’t meant to be exhaustive. We’re sure there are other approaches that work well for specific verticals or subjects. We’ve simply chosen a few examples that perform well in a variety of situations.

The “hey, I’ve got a newsletter” newsletter

Source: Really Good Emails

They say to always go out on a high note. But we think this newsletter execution hits one immediately.

What better way to introduce the newsletter you’re launching than with a beautiful, content-rich offering right out of the gate? It makes a statement in terms of intent, and a lasting expectation is set with your customers and clients with just one sending.

There are many positives to this newsletter approach. But let’s focus on the top themes that you can consider for your future newsletter:

• Visually stunning. The use of bright color, product, and the faces behind the brand are powerful draws.
• Inviting voice. The newsletter sounds like it’s coming from a fun, vibrant individual, rather than a faceless organization.
• Other offerings. The newsletter successfully integrated a podcast announcement, a product highlight, a social feed, and more.

On the flip side, this particular newsletter execution is quite verbose. It takes a while to get through the introductory section, and it isn’t the most skimmable because of that choice. Still, there is not only a lot to like about this example—there is a lot to love.

The weekly check-in newsletter

Source: Really Good Emails

You caught us. We’re pandering to the many “fur baby parents” out there. But after you marvel at all the cuteness, make sure you also take in some of the smart choices made here.

Here are some highlights that made us sit and stay engaged:

• Immediate credibility. The sender is clearly a dog lover speaking from an informed place.
• Follow-up deep dives. The reader has opportunities to dig into informative pieces that further explore pet food and health.
• Simple branding. The top banner leads with it and the newsletter is consistent with it visually from there.

With any newsletter sent on a regular interval of time, you’ll want to make sure you’re pushing it out at a time that matches well with your audience’s ability to dig in. Some experimentation may be required to find the ideal opportunity every week or month, but it is well worth it to see your open rates and engagement climb.

The “today’s theme is…” newsletter

Source: Really Good Emails

This is one of our favorite visual examples of a newsletter, so we’re not surprised to find that it comes from a boutique agency known for its design prowess. Make sure you jump into the link to scroll deep into the offering, as you’ll want to see how they made use of negative space and additional links.

Design isn’t the newsletter’s only strength. Take a look at the highlights we appreciate:

• Arresting theme visual. Beautiful, right? The headline also does a good job of drawing you in right away.
• Skimmable text. Not everyone has the time to hang on your every word, and the callouts help here.
• Curated links. They are not afraid to share some theme-appropriate links they have collected for your benefit.

Our only quibble (an important quibble, however) is that the beauty of the piece must also take a lot of time with each issue, as the theme changes. When choosing email newsletter templates for your business and designing to them, we suggest making visual choices that aren’t going to kill your productivity every time you want to send something.

The “yeehaw, it’s a roundup” newsletter

Source: Really Good Emails

You may have industry news from a variety of sources that you want to share. You may just want to highlight existing blog content that is relevant. Either way, we like how this newsletter approaches the collection of links that are worthy of a share.

Simplicity can go a long way in newsletter structure. You’ll find that come up more than once in what we see as highlights:

• Just the facts. No deep introduction section. No long copy anywhere, for that matter.
• Links that elaborate. Each additional link provides an opportunity to explore something tangential to the main hero link.
• Personal sign-off. The newsletter concludes with a brief writeup of the face behind the brand that brought you this information.

A quick note on this approach: If you choose to employ short, lead-in copy to the links shared in your newsletter, you will want to resist the urge to craft them like clickbait. Make sure your copy is intriguing, accurate, and always leads to strong content, or you will erode trust with your audience.

The social feed-like newsletter

Source: Really Good Emails

Thought we forgot about you, cat lovers? This example certainly brings feline cuteness as well, but it also shares a familiar structure that has the potential of engaging audiences right away. It presents itself as a social feed, which intuitively makes people want to scroll deeply into the content.

Heads up, copy cats. Here are some highlights worth considering with this newsletter structure:

• Social visuals. With an approach like this, you’ll want to employ imagery that feels like candid social images, rather than stock imagery.
• Tight copy. You’ll want to start here if you want to provide content in a feed format.
• Great title. The Mews Feed scores extra points for theme-appropriate creativity.

We’ll let the claws come out for just one point: If you employ a social feed newsletter design, always be cognizant of how much content you’re sharing. Having too many in any given issue will make the scrolling feel infinite.

Remember: It’s all about growing your audience

Tips, tools, and examples are great ways to up your newsletter game. They’re crucial to understanding what is possible with appropriately portraying your brand and providing content your audience will appreciate.

But when it comes to capturing more subscribers and growing your customer base, you should really consider a CRM tool that allows you to collect all customer data efficiently and see where every single one is within the sales journey. As an all-in-one sales and marketing solution, Keap is proven in its ability to do this and provide quick-turn options for newsletter creation as well.

Download ready-made welcome email templates for free

To get some common newsletter templates, content suggestions, and possible themes, please download our free guide, Newsletter Email Templates.

Then start your 14-day free trial of Keap to see how you can create beautiful newsletters your audience will love to see in their inbox AND effectively capture information about your subscribers—all in one place.