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Your Newsletter Is Probably Not Working — Here's How to Fix It

Picture of Beth O'Malley

 

Let me tell you the most common newsletter story I hear.

A marketing team has a newsletter. It goes out monthly, sometimes less and it covers company news, product updates, the occasional blog roundup, maybe a promotion or two. It has been going for a few years.

Nobody is quite sure why it started. Nobody is quite sure what it is for. Engagement is low and nobody is surprised that engagement is low.

But nobody is doing much about it! 

And at the bottom of the website, there is a box. It says: "Sign up to our newsletter." Nothing else. No reason to sign up, no value proposition. Just the box. Because every other website has a box.

This is not a newsletter strategy, this is a newsletter habit. And habits are no strategies.

I have seen this across B2B, B2C, D2C, charities, membership organisations, professional services — every business type you can name. The newsletter exists because newsletters exist. Nobody stopped to ask why.

 

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My own newsletter journey and why I nearly called it something else

In April 2025 I launched RE:markable — my own weekly email about emails. 

By that point, I had been doing hands-on email work for over a decade, across agencies, in-house, fractional leadership roles, consultancy. I had been doing email for other people's businesses for years. And I had been relying on LinkedIn as my primary channel for building my own.

When I decided to build an email list, I knew one thing: I did not want to do what everyone else does. I did not want to send company news. I did not want to write a monthly roundup of my blog posts. I did not want to create something that people subscribe to and then file away.

What I wanted to build was something that people looked forward to receiving. Something with content they could not find elsewhere. Something that, if they were on my list, they would get more value from than if they just followed me on LinkedIn. Better content, earlier, exclusively in their inbox.

And I almost did not call it a newsletter. Because there is no news in it. It is pure value and education. The only reason I called it a newsletter is because that is the word people have for this category of email, and I could not think of a better one.

The point is: I started with a goal, not a format. I started with what I wanted to give my audience and why they would want it, and then I worked out how to deliver that. Most businesses do it the other way round. They decide to have a newsletter, then work out what to put in it. And that is why most newsletters are flat.

 

The question nobody asks and the one you should

When I work with businesses on their newsletters — whether I am consulting, training their team, or auditing their programme — I always start by asking the same question.

"Why does this newsletter exist?"

And no one can EVER answer it.

The answers I get most often: "we need to keep people in the loop," "it's just what you do," "we need something to send," "it's how we stay top of mind," "our old marketing manager set it up."

None of those are real answers, they are just habits and businesses to afraid to stop sending it because one time, one person that someone spoke to said they read and liked the newsletter (so everyone must feel the same right!?). 

"Keeping people in the loop" is not a goal.

A goal is: we want our newsletter to be the reason our subscribers think of us first when they have a specific problem.

Or: we want it to build enough trust that inbound enquiries increase over 12 months. Or: we want it to be the thing that keeps customers engaged between purchases and reduces churn.

Those are real goals1 They tell you what success looks like. They tell you what to put in the newsletter. They tell you who should receive it and how often and in what format.

"Keeping people in the loop" tells you none of that.

 

Stop and think:

If you cannot articulate why your newsletter exists in one clear sentence — what it is trying to do, for whom, and what success looks like — you do not have a newsletter strategy. You have a content habit. And content habits do not compound into commercial value the way a genuine newsletter strategy does.

 

Should you have a newsletter at all? Not always

This is the thing nobody in email marketing says enough: some newsletters should just be stopped.

Not refreshed, not redesigned, not given a new subject line format just stopped.

If a newsletter has been running for a year or more and cannot demonstrate any meaningful commercial contribution — not necessarily direct revenue, but influence on pipeline, engagement, retention, brand awareness, anything — and nobody on the team can articulate what it is for, the honest answer is often to stop it entirely and start again with a clear purpose.

Stopping a newsletter that is not working is not failure. Continuing a newsletter that is not working because stopping feels like giving up — that is the real failure. Every send of an underperforming, directionless newsletter is building negative associations with your brand in your subscribers' inboxes. That is worse than nothing.

So before you think about how to fix your newsletter, answer this question honestly: does this newsletter have a reason to exist?

If yes — what is the reason? Write it down, keep reading.

If no — this blog will help you build the reason, or help you recognise that a different kind of email programme serves you better than a newsletter at all.

 

Ask yourself:

What would happen to your business if you stopped sending your newsletter tomorrow? If the honest answer is "nothing we would notice" — that is your most important deliverable from this blog: figuring out why that is and what to do about it.

 

What a newsletter actually is and what it is not

I dislike the word "newsletter" because it implies there is news in it. Most of the time, there is not, and nor should there be.

A newsletter, in the useful sense, is a consistent, scheduled, value-led communication that builds a relationship with a defined audience around a specific subject matter. That is all it is. The format, the frequency, the length, the structure — all of that is secondary. The subject matter and the relationship are everything.

What a newsletter is not:

  • A company bulletin ("here is what we have been up to this month")

  • A promotional calendar disguised as communication ("20% off this week, 15% off next week")

  • A blog digest ("here are our latest posts" — just send people to the blog)

  • A product update email ("new features in version 3.2")

  • An everything email ("a bit of news, a promotion, a blog post, a case study, and our social links")

All of those have their place. None of them are newsletters in the useful sense. The useful newsletter is the one that your subscriber actively looks forward to because it consistently gives them something they value — a perspective, an education, an insight, a framework, a thing they would not have found themselves.

The test is simple: if your subscriber received this newsletter and nothing else from you, would they consider the subscription worthwhile? If the answer is no — the newsletter is not doing its job.

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How to build a newsletter strategy that actually works

Whether you are starting from scratch, inheriting something that needs to be rebuilt, or trying to understand why what you have is not performing, here is the framework.

 

Step 1: Start with subject matter association

What is your brand known for? Not what you want to sell — what subject matter do you own?

If you are a haircare brand built around curly hair, the subject matter is curly hair. Not products. Not promotions. The world of curly hair — the problems, the education, the community, the expertise. If you sell HubSpot implementations, the subject matter is CRM, sales and marketing alignment, and how technology enables growth. If you run a charity that rehomes dogs, the subject matter is dogs — rescue, welfare, responsible ownership, the science of animal behaviour.

Every business has a subject matter. The newsletter should be built around that subject matter — not around the business's need to communicate.

This matters more than anything else in this framework. Because the subject matter is what creates the association in your subscribers' minds. Every newsletter they receive from you, whether they open it or not, reinforces what they associate with your name. Make sure you are reinforcing the right thing.

 

Step 2: Define your goal — specifically

What do you actually want this newsletter to do?

  • Not "keep people engaged" — that is too vague.

  • Be specific: Build enough trust with leads that inbound enquiries increase within 12 months

  • Reduce customer churn by staying meaningfully present between purchases

  • Position the brand as the go-to authority in the category so when purchase intent rises, we are the obvious first choice

  • Drive consistent traffic to content that supports our SEO and conversion goals

Your goal determines your content, your frequency, your metrics, and your success criteria. Without a specific goal, you are writing into a void and measuring nothing that matters.

 

Step 3: Know your audience — actually know them

Not a vague demographic. The real people on your list, in their real context, with their real problems.

What are they trying to do? What keeps them awake? What questions do they ask in sales calls or customer service chats? What do they search for? What would make their professional or personal life meaningfully better in the context of your subject matter?

Your newsletter content comes entirely from the answers to these questions. Not from "what have we got to share this month." From what your audience genuinely needs to know, framed in a way that is immediately useful to them.

The businesses with the best newsletters I have ever seen are the ones with the deepest audience understanding. They sound like they are writing for one person. That specificity is what makes the content feel valuable rather than generic.

 

Step 4: Choose your format — and commit to it

The format is how you consistently deliver the value you have committed to. It is not about what looks impressive or what other newsletters do. It is about what works for your content and your audience.

Some formats that work well:

One big thing: Each issue goes deep on a single topic. No fluff, no padding — just one properly explored idea. Works brilliantly for thought leaders, educators, and anyone with genuine expertise to share.

The Q&A model: Every issue answers one question that comes from real sales calls, customer conversations, or subscriber submissions. Structured as: the question, the short answer, the long answer, what it means for you. Incredibly high engagement because it speaks directly to real problems.

The expert interview: Each issue features one person with relevant expertise interviewed on a specific topic. Works well for brands with access to interesting voices and communities who value that access.

The structured mix: A consistent format with defined sections — one core piece of content, one quick insight, one resource, one commercial mention. Mine works this way. The consistency is what creates the habit of reading.

What does not work: the everything email. A bit of news, a bit of promotion, a blog link, a product highlight, a social call-to-action. It serves no one and builds no association.

Choose a format. Explain it clearly in your welcome flow. Stick to it.

 

Step 5: Build a value proposition — not a sign-up box

The "sign up to our newsletter" box at the bottom of your website is invisible. Nobody reads it. Nobody signs up because of it. Because it gives them no reason to.

Your newsletter needs a standalone value proposition. A reason to sign up that is so clear and compelling that someone who has never heard of your brand would understand immediately what they are getting and why it is worth their email address.

It should answer:

- What will I receive?
- How often?
- What will it do for me?
- Why is this different from what I could find elsewhere?

Examples of strong value propositions:

- "Every Thursday: one email on email strategy and CRM that you will not find on Google. Written for marketers who want to think differently about their channel."
- "Weekly: the questions your customers are actually asking — answered properly, in plain English, with no sales agenda."
- "Monthly: what is actually happening in curly hair science, product development, and technique — without the influencer noise."

Make this the thing people sign up for. Not the newsletter. The promise inside the newsletter.

And call it something other than "newsletter" if you can. Give it a name. RE:markable is mine. The name itself communicates something. "Sign up to our newsletter" communicates nothing.

 

Step 6: Plan your opt-in strategy — intentional, not consequential

Who do you want on this list — and how do you want them to arrive?

The most valuable newsletter subscribers are intentional opt-ins: people who signed up specifically because they wanted the newsletter. They understood the value proposition, they made a deliberate choice, they are there on purpose.

Consequential opt-ins — people who ended up on your list because they downloaded something, bought something, or filled in a form — are a different audience. They may become engaged readers. But they did not sign up for the newsletter specifically, and they need a different orientation into the relationship.

Both are fine. But knowing which is which changes how you communicate with them and what you expect from them in terms of engagement.

Build active mechanisms for intentional opt-ins: a dedicated sign-up page with a strong value proposition, an inbox-first opt-in strategy where new subscribers confirm their interest by going to retrieve something in their inbox, and a welcome sequence that explicitly explains what they have signed up for and why it is worth staying.

 

How to measure whether your newsletter is actually working

Not opens. Not clicks. Those tell you almost nothing about whether the newsletter is doing its real job.

The metrics that actually tell you whether a newsletter is working:

  • List growth rate — is the newsletter attracting new subscribers consistently? Growth is a signal that the value proposition is resonating and people are recommending it.

  • Intentional opt-in rate — what proportion of new subscribers are coming through deliberate, value-led sign-ups versus consequential routes? Higher intentional rate means more genuinely engaged subscribers.

  • Reply rate — people who reply to your newsletter are telling you it resonated. Even a small number of replies per issue is a strong positive signal. It is one of the most meaningful engagement indicators available.

  • Meaningful actions from newsletter audience — are newsletter subscribers more likely to attend events, download content, enquire, purchase, or return than non-subscribers? That uplift is the newsletter's commercial contribution.

  • Longevity — how long do subscribers stay? High unsubscribe rate early in the lifecycle suggests the value proposition is not being delivered. Long subscriber lifetimes suggest genuine, sustained value.

  • Commercial correlation — over time, does newsletter engagement correlate with commercial outcomes? Not attribution — correlation. When newsletter audience is active, does pipeline move?

These are harder to measure than opens. They are also actually meaningful.

 

Key takeaway:

A newsletter that nobody opens but that drives meaningful actions, generates inbound enquiries, and keeps customers loyal is infinitely more valuable than a newsletter that gets 40% opens and converts nobody. Measure what matters.

 

If you already have a newsletter, how to refresh it without blowing it up

If you have an existing newsletter and it is not performing, you have two options: stop and start again with a clear strategy, or refresh what you have.

Refreshing works when the foundations are partially right — you have the right audience, you have a reasonable frequency, but the content is drifting or the purpose has become unclear. A refresh can reorient and sharpen without destroying what is already there.

A rebuild is better when the newsletter has no clear purpose, the audience is mixed and misaligned, engagement is very low, and there is no coherent subject matter being built.

For a refresh:

  • Go back to the subject matter first. Audit the last six to twelve issues. Is there a consistent subject matter? Is it the right one? If not, define it clearly and start all content decisions from there.

  • Introduce a consistent format. If each issue is a different structure, readers cannot build the habit of engaging. Define sections, name them, stick to them.

  • Rewrite the value proposition. Update the sign-up mechanism to reflect what the newsletter actually delivers. If people signed up for one thing and now receive another, that misalignment is the source of disengagement.

  • Send a re-orientation email to existing subscribers. Tell them what is changing and why. Explain what they will receive from now on. Give them an explicit opportunity to opt out if it is not for them. The people who stay after that email are genuinely interested.

  • Clean the list before the first issue of the new format. Validate addresses. Remove hard bounces. Separate intentional opt-ins from consequential ones and acknowledge the difference in how you communicate with each.

The goal of a refresh is to arrive at the same place as a new newsletter built properly from the start: a clear subject matter, a clear goal, a clear format, a clear value proposition, and an audience that chose it intentionally.

 

The summary

Most newsletters are not working because nobody asked why they existed before they started sending.

The fix is not a better template. It is not a catchier subject line. It is not sending more frequently, or less frequently, or on a different day of the week.

The fix is starting with purpose and building everything else from there.

What subject matter does your brand own? What does your audience genuinely need to know, regularly, that you are uniquely positioned to provide? What would make subscribing to your newsletter feel like a genuinely good decision six months from now?

Answer those questions. Build the format around the answers. Create a value proposition that communicates the answers. Build the opt-in mechanism around the value proposition.

And then keep your promise, consistently, every single time you send.

That is what a newsletter is supposed to be. That is what it can be for your business.

 

Further reading from The Vault:

 

Like this blog? You'll love RE:markable

 RE:markable is the weekly email about emails. Dropping the latest email marketing news, updates, insights, free resources, upcoming masterclasses, webinars, and of course, a little inbox mischief. 
Subscribe to RE:markable

Email, CRM and HubSpot Support

I help marketers and businesses globally improve, design and fix their email, CRM, and HubSpot ecosystems, from strategy through to execution.

My services include:

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