How to Create Great Email Newsletters [With 7 Free Templates]

To achieve your marketing goals, you spend hours trying to craft the right syntax and limiting the links you embed. You work and work until you’ve created what you believe is the best email newsletter.

Then you send it out into the world, sitting back and waiting. After a few days, you review the open and click-through rates and they’re not what you expected.

You don’t get it. Why would they opt-in if they don’t want to read your email newsletter?

Don’t take it personally. It already sounds like you’re on the right track with your newsletter, but it could use some tweaks.

If you want to send email newsletters that your customers can’t wait to read, this is the article for you. In it, we’ll tell you how to make your newsletters absolutely irresistible.

We’ll also share some of the best newsletter template examples. All the email newsletter ideas and free newsletter templates we’re sharing are absolutely free.

You can use them, tweak them, and reuse them to your heart’s content. That’s why we think they’re the best newsletters around.

EngageBay offers a repository of built-in email marketing templates for great newsletters

Let’s get started!

What Is a Newsletter?

You’re ready to make a newsletter, we know, but before you get to that point, we want to start with a definition of an email newsletter. This way, you can get into the right frame of mind when you launch your newsletter series.

When writing a newsletter, you’re not sending out a physical version like people once did. Instead, it’s all digitized through the power of email.

You can send this newsletter to every member of your audience or a segmented group, which is more often recommended.

The point of writing these newsletters is two-pronged. For one, it contains updates to stories you may have issued before.

For instance, you may have introduced the makings of a new product in your last newsletter, and in this one, you share more information, such as specs, photos, or even a video.

Doing this whets the appetites of your readers, who may also become repeat buyers when this product comes out.

Your email newsletter also contains news about what’s going on in your company. From new company hires to highlights on employees who do an exemplary job and so much more, you fill in your interested readers on all the latest.

Most companies who send email content like this will do so monthly. You could even send quarterly newsletters, so four per year.

These newsletters would surely be lengthier than a monthly letter because you’d have a lot more to cover.

One major benefit of sending your newsletters digitally instead of physically is how you can embed different elements.

For example, if there’s a blog post or a prior newsletter you want to link to, you can insert some HTML to redirect readers.

You could even use your newsletters as a means of driving traffic by writing a few paragraphs of each story and then linking to the rest.

To read more, your audience would have to click the link. There, they’d get redirected to your website where they can see the content in full.

Besides just links, you can also embed videos, images, and even interactive content. There’s a whole wealth of possibilities to explore when starting a newsletter.

With EngageBay’s email and newsletter templates, you can create and share templates among your whole sales and marketing team!

Here are several very convincing reasons to create a newsletter for your business today.

Builds and Strengthens Relationships

Relationships are incredibly important to any business. After all, you need professional bonds to create customer loyalty and drive company success.

Not only are these the people who will buy from you, but they’ll also vouch for you and even refer you to others in their circle.

They’re the kinds of people you want on your side, but the relationship will die unless you nurture and engage it.

Although you might not think of your newsletter as a form of communication, that’s truly what it is. You’re showing a vulnerable side of your business that people generally cannot glimpse any other way.

Your customers learn about you and, in turn, you more about them.

Sending these kinds of newsletters develops a sense of transparency that strengthens that professional bond between you and your customers in a major way.

Improves Your Credibility

Every company wants to be viewed as an authority in their industry. Starting a newsletter will certainly lend your business more credibility.

Perhaps you reveal a process or a trends list through your newsletter. Not only do you inform your audience, but you also position yourself as a credible authority in your field.

That can help you drive more business.

Adds a Sense of Personalization

As we mentioned before, very rarely do you send a single newsletter to your whole audience. Instead, you’ll tweak and tailor the content to appeal to your various audience segments.

This personalization makes your customers feel more like individuals. The sense that you’re talking just to them boosts their appreciation of your business as well as their customer satisfaction.

It also helps strengthen the bond between your company and your customers.

Opportunities for Earning Revenue

When a new product comes down the pipeline, you might opt to introduce it first to your newsletter audience. In doing so, you could offer them an exclusive discount code if they buy early.

Even once the product comes out, you can again write about special deals to incentivize purchases. You may run a sale just for newsletter subscribers to get those on the fence to finally buy.

Builds Awareness of Your Company

Every business wishes they could become a household name like your Nike, Apple, or Amazon. It’s not easy to get to that point, especially if you lack brand awarness.

What is this? Brand awareness is the level of popularity your company has achieved in the eyes of consumers.

In promoting your brand, having a regular newsletter can certainly help. You’re spreading news of your brand again and again, which will hopefully get your readers talking.

Besides that, the links in your letter can redirect readers to your homepage, landing page, social page, or blog. There, they can learn more about you.

Now that you understand more on why newsletters matter so much in furthering your small business directives, you’re eager to review some templates so you can send your first newsletter.

As promised, here are 7 free email newsletter templates for your perusal

1. Business Newsletter

If you’re trying to write a professional business newsletter, did you know you can spruce it up with a template in a program you probably use? We’re talking about Microsoft Word, of course.

The next time you open the word-processing program, click the “more templates” option and you’ll see templates for resumes, brochures, and yes, newsletters.

One of the most winning business newsletter templates you can find in Word is the Arc design.

Here it is in action.

According to Microsoft, the Arc design can be used for a simple newsletter format of up to four pages. It’s got sweeping half-circles throughout in two hues that tie to a central theme.

With room for your own lead image (albeit not a huge one), this is a good template for a small business or a startup.

It looks super professional yet doesn’t cost you a cent to use. How about that!

2. Visual Newsletter

With more than 13,000 downloads as of this writing, the Classy theme from Cakemail is a winner if you want to send a visual newsletter.

As the above screencap shows you, you have the freedom to showcase a variety of images in your newsletter. If you’re rolling out a new product and you want to display it from all angles, the Classy newsletter template would be a fantastic choice.

Not only that, but again, this is a very professional-looking theme. The stark, single-color background lets your product images shine, which is what you want if you’re debuting something new.

3. Newspaper Newsletter

Extra, extra, read all about it! While you certainly don’t have to format your email newsletters like a newspaper front page anymore, there’s something old-timey and charming about doing so.

A format like this goes back to the old-school days of email newsletters when it really was like taking a print newsletter and sending it via email.

If you’re looking for a free news bulletin email template, we like Canva’s.

It’s colorful, it’s bold, and it’s a touch grungy (as Canva itself says). In short, it’s tough to miss the glaring headline with its yellow base. The background of the newsletter has speckles of black so it’s not pure black on white.

If you do format your emails like a true newsletter, you can still do that here by typing the name of your newsletter, the issue, and the volume.

You can then add images to your articles as you see fit. Make sure the image you choose for your main story really grabs attention.

Today, it’s always important to stand out from the pack, and sometimes going back to the way things were done in the old days is one such way to be unique.

Sending an email newsletter like this would definitely pique the interest of your leads and customers. Why not give it a try yourself?

4. App Launch Newsletter

Your company just created its first app. Congratulations! You don’t want to use any ol’ email newsletter template to inform people of the good news, right?

Of course not. You want to ensure your email will shine.

With the Launch.It template, again from Cakemail, you’ll create all the hype you want to surround your upcoming app.

This template is chock-full of handy features. There’s a CTA button at the top. You can redirect the customer to read more about the app or even give them a download link right off the bat.

The computer screen image, also at the top, can be reconfigured to show a screenshot of your app. It’ll capture people’s attention right away.

You also get a download tracker, which is sure to incentivize those who are on the fence about downloading.

Another way to incentivize reluctant customers is with your list of features. This template lets you showcase three of your best ones. You can even add little icon images that illustrate each feature.

You get all this for free. If you put a lot of time and money into the development of your app, you’ll appreciate a crisp, clean-looking email template like this one. It only looks expensive.

5. The Welcome Newsletter

If you recently got a lot of subscribers to your email list or just opened the doors to your startup, then sending out a welcome email is a great idea.

In this newsletter, you want to introduce yourself. Explain what your company is, who works there, and what your goals are. What you will see next is a great business newsletter example.

For such a newsletter, the Cakemail template Introductions is an aptly-named, suitable choice.

It’s a simple yet colorful template. With a plain white background, the company logo of yours that you can add will really stand out. You can then adjust the copy underneath so it’s more fitted to your company and its voice.

There’s a colorful CTA button that you can also customize. Perhaps you keep it as a link to your website or you make it a link to a pricing page if you’re feeling bold.

After that, there’s room for all the relevant information you’d want to include in a welcome email, such as background about your company, your core values, and your staff (with pictures).

This an incredibly good-looking and highly functional template, especially considering it doesn’t cost anything to use.

6. New Products Newsletter

As your company progresses and you continue rolling out products, you’ll need to showcase them.

Whether this is a big sale or a debut of a slew of products at once, Mailify’s Newvog template will make your products look fantastic.

Mailify has free trials, so not all the templates are free forever, but Newvog is one you can enjoy with your free membership.

This template has everything you need to put your products in the best light. If you have new arrivals, you can use the first part of the template as is. Otherwise, you can tweak it to reflect the tone of your sale.

You can also showcase images and the price points for your biggest sellers or most steeply-discounted items.

Our favorite part of this template is that each product in the email newsletter content has its own CTA button. Your customers can shop right from the email, making it much easier for them to check out.

If you want to boost your sales, send out an email with a template like this. We think your customers will be in the mood to buy.

7. Seasonal Newsletter

From Labor Day to Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, you have plenty of opportunities to reach out to your core audience with some holiday greetings (and maybe deals).

This holiday-centric free template from Benchmark is perfect for the Easter holiday.

Not only can you wish your readers some Easter greetings, but they’ll be sure to enjoy the delicate pastel colors and cute illustrations of bunnies, chicks, and painted eggs.

With several headlines to choose from, you can highlight the biggest stories related to your company in April or even the prior month.

While this template isn’t as much about sales and deals, it’ll certainly put a smile on any recipient’s face.

We couldn’t help but include this Christmas template from Cakemail as well.

The only downside to seasonal emails is that they tend to be a lot less customizable than the other templates, but that’s because customization isn’t really necessary.

If you changed the red and green color scheme of the Christmas email, it wouldn’t be very Christmassy anymore. Using a darker background for the Easter template would be too harsh.

Changing the images or illustrations is a good way to make these templates more your own. This way, you’re not sending out the same holiday greetings as your competition.

How to Measure Newsletter Metrics

To track the metrics of your newsletter, we recommend using A/B or split testing. You can then compare two versions of your newsletter to see which appeals to your audience most.

Make sure you test almost any and every newsletter element you can think of. That includes whether your name displays as an email address or your full name, your subject line, and your body content.

Play around with how you arrange the elements of your newsletter, such as videos or photos. Use media-rich content like a giant image as a background versus plain text.

We’ve talked about it on this blog before, but plain text emails can work incredibly well, especially if you want an intimate feel to your newsletter.

Here’s an awesome updated guide on A/B testing if you missed it. We even shared some tips on split testing using email marketing alternatives such as Campaign Monitor, AWeber, and MailChimp, which you may use already.

You also to have comprehensive analytics software for tracking and measuring your newsletter success. Each week or each month, you can view metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and even website traffic as it relates to your newsletter.

Watch as these metrics change over the days and weeks before making a judgment call on whether it’s worth it to continue with a newsletter. Sometimes it takes weeks to see results and other times months, so have some patience!

Conclusion

If you’re feeling deterred by low open and click rates, fret not. Instead of investing more money into your marketing, you can make simple, free changes to your email newsletter.

The above 7 high-quality newsletter templates all look professional and are designed to serve different purposes.

Whether you want to introduce yourself, roll out new products, offer some holiday greetings, or keep your readers up-to-date on the progress of your company, you can with any of these templates.

You can even drive up newsletter engagement.

What are you waiting for? It’s time to start creating your dream email newsletters!

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