How to Write a Longform Newsletter from Top to Bottom
Hunting for Ideas & Writing with Impact
If you clicked on this article or are reading this in your inbox, you likely already know what a newsletter is…
Unless you’re one of my family members or coworkers who was nice enough to subscribe to my email list.
So, I’m not going to waste your time with the “A newsletter is a great way to connect with your audience and build your online personal brand… blah blah blah.”
You already know what a newsletter is and why you should have one. What you want to know is how to write one, so let’s get to it.
Before you start writing, you need something to write about.
Freestyle writing can be good for journaling or brain dumping but I don’t recommend that here.
First, you need to hunt for an idea.
Topic
To find your topic you need to ask yourself some questions.
- What do you care about?
- What are you interested in?
- What bothers you?
- What do you want to learn?
- What are your struggles?
- What are your fears?
- What are you afraid to write about?
If you can take the time to answer these questions, you will have a fountain of ideas at your disposal.
If there’s something you want to learn about, there is other people who want to learn about it to.
If there is something that bothers you, the statistical likelihood that it bothers someone else is 100%.
Your topic or idea can be niche or broad.
Niche = “Exploring the Golden Age of Hollywood”
Broad = “Entertainment”
The challenge is to frame your topic in a way that will be interesting and attention grabbing to others.
This is where the research process comes in…
Research
This is arguably the most enjoyable part of the process. It’s time to consume information on your topic. This can be in the form of YouTube videos, documentaries, articles, podcasts, books, etc.
Ingest what information is necessary to give you a healthy perspective on your topic. This doesn’t mean spend a year reading every book you can find on the subject, but enough to give you what you need.
For example, if you’re writing a newsletter about World War 2, you don’t have to become a historian, you just have to know enough to write something.
Even if you’re writing a book, the best strategy to retain information is to consume enough until your brain is full and then write about what you’re learning, piece by piece.
How do you research your topic?
Depending on your topic, you may want to give a broad overview or explore a piece of it in great detail.
“How meditation can change your life for the better” vs “Why developing a meditation habit is the secret to your success as an entrepreneur.”
Ask yourself “Do I want to zoom in or out?”
Based on that, you can decide what information you want to consume and from who.
How specific do you want to get? Is this for a niche audience or are you aiming for universal appeal?
Regardless, you want to make sure you retain the information that will be useful.
You need a note taking system and you need a database of information.
Taking Notes
Notetaking isn’t just copying down word-for-word what you’re reading.
It can be that, but you shouldn’t limit your notetaking to mere copying and memorization.
One of the best hacks to make use of your research process is to find important insights on your topic and rewrite them in your own words. Force yourself to understand the subject as much as possible.
I know this can be difficult, so another useful method is to copy down what you want to remember and try to expand on it. See what you can add or write about how it applies to your specific project.
The goal isn’t to just read or write important points one time and forget about them.
You want to remember and understand your topic as much as possible.
Information Hub
You need a place to take notes and keep them organized.
Whether it’s a notebook or the Notion app, you need to keep your ideas accessible. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent scouring through notebooks, searching for an idea I couldn’t remember.
Regardless of whether you prefer handwritten or digital notes, keep everything as organized and categorized as possible.
You will thank yourself in the future.
Structure
Now that you have your material and are ready to start writing, how do you structure it? How do you outline?
Here I have combined traditional story structure with a classic copywriting framework that can be applicable to your newsletter.
Keep in mind that regardless of what framework you use, your newsletter will exist within a structure of…
- Introduction
- Body
- Conclusion
Aka Beginning, Middle, End.
Let’s look at an example of how to apply an effective copywriting framework to a newsletter.
PAS — (P)roblem (A)mplify (S)olution
Highlight the problem, magnify the pain of not solving it, and provide the solution.
Your introduction can present the problem, your body can expand on the pain of not solving it, before you wrap it up with a solution and provide closure for the reader.
Headline
Pick a headline that grabs people’s attention.
Here is a good place to present the problem, aka pain point. Depending on your reader’s level of awareness, you can hint at the topic or dive right in.
Some of the most effective headlines give the reader confidence that they can achieve an outcome or solve a specific problem.
“How to do X and get Y.”
Or, if you’re writing an aspirational newsletter, whether you’re telling someone else’s story or your own, “How I did X and achieved Y” or “How (Notable person) did X and achieved Y”
You can ask the reader a question.
Or you can call them out, “You need to stop doing X or else Y.”
Intro/Hook
Once you’ve got your readers attention with the headline, you want to get people interested in your topic. Ask yourself, “why should they care?”
Use your intro to frame how the rest of your newsletter is going to go. This can be an opportunity to expand on the problem you presented in your headline, while giving a glimpse of what lies ahead.
Don’t give away too much, only enough to keep them curious.
Body
One of the best methods when writing the body is to structure it in three sections.
Think of it as making three points to prove your argument. This isn’t mandatory, but it is useful to give your body its own 3-act structure, not only for storytelling purposes but to give more weight to your topic.
Your body is a means to go in depth on the problem (aka Amplify.)
If this was a movie, your main character (aka your reader) is presented with a problem in the intro. The body is where your reader struggles with the problem and experiences the consequences of not being able to solve it.
Deliver all the pain that comes from failing to achieve the goal, before finally uncovering the solution.
Section 1: Think of this as the Rising Action, you and your reader are taking steps toward achieving your goal. You are failing and the stakes steadily increase.
Section 2: Here is the Climax. The consequences of failure have emerged in full force. What you were afraid was going to happen has happened. Or something completely unexpected has occurred.
Section 3: Here we have the Falling Action. The feeling of defeat breeds hopelessness. You think all hope is lost until… A solution to your problem begins to emerge.
Hope is reinvigorated. Now you begin to take steps toward your desired outcome with a clear mind and a vision for the future.
Conclusion
This is where you wrap everything up, and briefly summarize what you covered.
What do you want the reader to remember? Most people don’t remember most of what they read. But they do remember how you made them feel.
- If your intention is to educate the reader, express the key takeaways that will benefit them.
- If your goal is to inspire, paint a worthwhile vision for the future.
- If you want the reader to avoid a specific outcome, remind them of the negative experiences associated with it.
Your conclusion can be a paragraph or a sentence, it’s really up to you and what you’re writing about. Just keep in mind that the majority of people will read the first sentence and skim to the end.
Try to make the first and last sentence of every newsletter as attention grabbing and emotionally impactful as possible.
