Email Newsletter Examples for Online Stores: 5 Formats

An email newsletter is a regular email that gives subscribers something useful or interesting, with selling kept in the background. For an online store, the formats that work best are the product drop, the how-to, the founder note, the roundup and the customer story. Pick one you can keep up every time.

A newsletter gives customers a reason to stay on your list between sales. The best ones have a clear format, so writing them doesn't start from zero, and readers learn what to expect.

• A consistent start: A name, a repeating section or a recognizable opening, so readers know what they're getting.
• One main piece: Pick the most interesting thing and put it first.
• A light product tie-in: Show a product where it belongs: the bag in the packing guide.
• A way to reply: Ask a question sometimes. Replies tell you what people care about.
• Your footer: Your address, and easy ways to unsubscribe or change preferences.

As often as you can keep it good. Monthly suits most small stores, and weekly suits brands with plenty to say. Regularity matters more than frequency: a surprise newsletter after six months of silence is more likely to be reported as spam. Watch unsubscribes and clicks when you change the rhythm.

• How your best seller is made
• A care guide for what they bought
• Staff picks, with honest reasons
• Your most-asked support question
• A customer photo of the month, with permission
• A mistake you made, and what you changed
• A look at your next product
• A seasonal buying guide
• A comparison of two similar products
• A recipe, trail, playlist or tip your customers would enjoy
• An interview with someone on your team
• A supplier or maker you admire
• What your team is reading or using
• The story behind your name
• Results of a customer survey
• New reviews, quoted with permission
• Your year in review
• A poll with a one-click answer
• An early look for subscribers only
• Common myths in your category

• Subject: How to pack for three days in one bag
• Preview text: The list we use, and the one thing everyone forgets.
• Opening: One or two lines from a real person about why this came up.
• Main piece: The packing list, in short steps, with a photo.
• Product tie-in: "The bag in this photo is the Trail Pack," with a link.
• Sign-off: "What's on your packing list that we missed? Hit reply."

Make the useful part stand on its own, then make buying a natural next step. A packing guide that happens to feature your bag doesn't feel like an ad, and neither does a recipe using your coffee. Add a small "shop the story" area at the end, and use tracked links so you can see what it brought in. Then judge it on the long game: orders over time, not one email's revenue. Sales emails can run on their own schedule.

• Choose one format from the table above.
• Pick a schedule you know you can keep, even if it's monthly.
• Write down six topics, so you never start blank.
• Save a template with your header, sections and footer.
• Send the first issue to your engaged customers, and see what they do.

Save your layout as a SmartyTap email template with your brand styles, then schedule each issue on the campaign calendar. Send to a segment of engaged readers, use a send time your workspace sets, in each recipient's local time, and offer translated versions where you have them. Launched campaign emails stay editable too: what's been delivered stays delivered, and "Update scheduled sends" moves anything still waiting to your new version. Related: how to write marketing emails.

One main story or useful idea, a light connection to your products, a way to reply and a clear footer. Keep the format consistent from issue to issue.

Monthly is a realistic start for most small stores. Send weekly only if you can keep the quality up. A steady rhythm matters more than the exact frequency.

A newsletter's main job is to inform or entertain, with products in the background. A promotional email's main job is to sell a specific offer. Both count as marketing and need an unsubscribe link.

Start from your support questions, how your product is made and what your customers do with it. Keep a running list, so you never begin from a blank page.